On Jul 8, 2:46*pm, arkland wrote:
I was going to prune the top of a 30-foot oak, but on advice of this
forum, I simply chain sawed it down.

I cut up the logs into 20 inch lengths of from 1.5 feet in diameter down
to about six to ten inches in diameter.

I stacked the logs up, unsplit, and then began to wonder how long it
takes to 'dry' out for campfire use.

What's the rule of thumb (if any) for how long unsplit wood takes to dry
outside before being usable in a campfire setting? (The California
climate is such that it won't rain from now until December.)

I'm guessing the bigger oak logs might take all summer to dry out?

You live in SoCal.

Did you consider that maybe that tree had value as timber / lumber
rather than fire wood?

Additionally, burning wood logs in a conventional fireplace in the
South Coast Air Basin is just creating more air pollution.

The process you described is more or less the classical hand split
method.
Forget those silly cone wedges, they don't work.

If you have a gut & you're really able to swing a 20lb
sledge.......don't worry, that gut will be gone soon.
It's been more than a few years since I've hand split any appreciable
quantity of wood and I only used a 12lb.
A maul is a better tool but you still need at least 3, preferably 4,
wedges.

Your log lengths are too long, 16" or shorter would have been about
ideal, even 12" would have been better than 20".
At this point, if you're serious about the hand splitting, cut them
down to 10" and get busy splitting.

Shorter pieces will split easier.
Shorter pieces will dry quicker.
Shorter pieces will burn more efficiently....... the smaller the
piece of wood you add to a fire, the closer you come to wood pellet
behavior.
Dumping a huge log (20" long, 1/4 split?) on a fire will nearly kill
it.

If you can't split all of the wood completely in a reasonable amount
of time,
at least split ALL of the logs in half.

If you wait until the wood dries you will be amazingly unhappy.
As others have said, green wood splits WAY easier than dry wood.

Of course you can always do your own experiment and report back.


essay on hand splitting

http://writing.gather.com/viewArticl...81474976719724

Split the logs in 6ths.
Split in half & then each 1/2 into three pieces.

If stack the wood with stickers & space it "might" be burnable in 6
months.
If you stack it & air flow is inhibited....... you'll be burning it
Jan 2013.

Air drying wood is a function of air temperature, relative humidity &
air flow and the size / shape of the piece of wood.
Unsplit, the wood will take at least twice as long to dry....... its a
volume to surface thing, as well as length & width.

You can speed up the process with a properly designed stacking
arrangement supplemented with 20" box fans.
Estimated your Dec 2011 thru March 2012 usage and only force dry that
amount.

I used to dry full units of 2x4's by re-stacking the unit stickered &
placing two 20" box fans at the end of the unit.
Running the fans 24/7 I could get a unit of 2x4's down into the 12%
moisture content range (from 30%+) in a couple weeks.

The two fans cost about $1/day to run.
As they say....you can have it fast, cheap or right..... pick two.

cheers
Bob