How to Know if Your Firewood is Dry

 

Purchasing firewood to burn in the fireplace has various terms based on moisture content. Seasoned wood, semi-seasoned wood, dried wood, and kiln dried all refer to the moisture content in the wood. When buying firewood, people want to know how to tell if firewood is dry. Firewood suppliers here in Boston are divided into three groups: those that sell green wood, seasoned or semi-seasoned firewood wood, or kiln-dried firewood. All terms relate to how well and soon you can burn the wood. Naturally occurring water in the firewood is one of the biggest controlling factors in the quality of the wood other than the species selected. Firewood, before burning, can have a moisture content of 60 to 100% because it is such a factor in the quality of the firewood. Having a way to check the wood when you get a delivery of firewood to get an idea if it will burn well. A dull thud is not what you want to hear. So here is a way to hear if your firewood is dry by knocking two pieces together. 

How to Know if Your Firewood is dry - A quick test 


A way to check if your firewood is dry
In this video, we want to let you hear what it sounds like when you test to see if firewood is dry.

We have two groups of wood: some collected is wet wood, and some is from our kiln-dried firewood supply.

Video Transcript

Testing firewood by sound to see if it is dry

Hi I'm Paul from boston firewood I'm going to show you what a cord of firewood should look like when you purchase it whether it be from us or anybody else

Here's a quick test on how to know if your firewood is dry. One of the

questions we get or a lot are from people are wondering when they buy firewood is how

do I know if it's dry? Basically you have to trust the dealer whoever you're

buying it from they tell you what it is and how long it's been seasoned or if

it's kiln dried. Then the ultimate test is how it burns in the fireplace

take two pieces of wood and clap them together basically what that does is

with more moisture in the wood it deadens the sound with less moisture in

the wood it'll have more of a cracking sound sort of like a bat Fenway Park

when there's a good hit you'll get that snapping sound to it

more so than if the wood is wet. Here's two pieces of wet wood the wood we

sell which is kiln dried it has more of a baseball bat kind of sound like a wooden

baseball bat sound so it's got more of a snaping pining sound. I will give you another sampler here so

you know it's sort of like playing sticks in school. You know when you toss a piece

of wood on a pile you get an idea of what's going on and I've got two piles

one to my right is kill dried wood and basically drop it it on the pile that

one sort of loud so it's got a different tone to it this is a piece of wood being

dropped on the on this side I've got a pile on the floor which is the green

wood so it's just got a duller sound to it Boston firewood calm 50 Eastern

Avenue Hyde Park Massachusetts

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We have a video to look at for information on what a face cord of firewood is.

Boston Firewood, we sell bundled firewood picked up at our yard in Dedham, MA. We also sell kiln-dried firewood half cords and other quantities delivered and stacked on the first floor in the following sizes. You can click on the links below for more information on each;

For picking up bundles or truckloads, please call before stopping so that we can make sure someone is available to load your car or truck. We are happy to help, but sometimes extra people are needed for a delivery. Call 781-254-2773