# Seasoned Wood for smoking ?????



## boykjo (Jun 9, 2015)

I just built my 250 reverse flow and it works great. 













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__ boykjo
__ May 6, 2015






I have some good dry pecan in the building for over a year and I bought a truck load of hickory a few weeks ago that was out in a pile and the man said it was seasoned. I have been using my smaller braunfel using charcoal and pecan chunks and my results are awesome but I use a lot of fuel to run the smaller smoker. The big smoker works superb and needs little supervision but I am not getting the perfect smoke. Sometimes the food is a little too smokey but still good... This changes from smoke to smoke. I do notice when I add the hickory it will have water/bubbles oozing out of the wood and the smoke will billow a little when a fresh piece of wood is added. It does burn but it does take a while...

Is seasoned wood supposed to be dried or is seasoned wood just cut and stacked for a year and the moisture content is lowered by resting. Before I buy more so called (seasoned) wood I would actually want to buy dried wood to eliminate this short spurt of white smoke when adding a piece of wood. I am also considering removing the bark. I just pm'd a guy on CL and asked if his hickory wood was dry not seasoned

Will I have to buy seasoned wood that is wet and store it for a year or more so it will become dry and be able to burn immediately without the white smoke. Is seasoned wood supposed to be dry or be just able to burn....

Joe


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## pc farmer (Jun 9, 2015)

I don't have your answer, but I cut some oak bout a year n a half ago. Put it inside a shed that has all almost all the windows out of it.

I still get that liquid coming out of the ends of the wood and it has been split the whole time.


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## boykjo (Jun 9, 2015)

Yeah..... I read you did that on on other post. My dried pecan doesnt have any liquids.. Maybe cause its split smaller.... My neighbor gave me some oak planks to season my smoker and I didnt see any liquids....nothing but TBS


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## smokerjim (Jun 9, 2015)

i'm not positive but i would think if it is supposed to seasoned there shouldn't be liquid coming from it,was it left out in the rain with no cover that might cause it,other than that i would say it wasn't seasoned all the way,just a guess,


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## boykjo (Jun 9, 2015)

According to this video Seasoned wood is wood with a moisture content of less than 25% so I assume the best wood for smoking is wood that has a moisture content of lees than 10 percent so even if wood is seasoned it can still be wet. My neighbor is a master carpenter and he has a moisture meter and he has measured dried wood and I think the lowest he has measured was around 4%. I dont think wood would ever reach zero % moisture....


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## buttburner (Jun 10, 2015)

boykjo said:


> According to this video Seasoned wood is wood with a moisture content of less than 25% so I assume the best wood for smoking is wood that has a moisture content of lees than 10 percent so even if wood is seasoned it can still be wet. My neighbor is a master carpenter and he has a moisture meter and he has measured dried wood and I think the lowest he has measured was around 4%. I dont think wood would ever reach zero % moisture....



this is true. The wood I am using is about 18% there is always moisture in it

you can get a moisture meter for about $15 on Amazon, I have one but don't really use it much. I can tell if its dry enough or not


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## gary s (Jun 10, 2015)

Hey Joe,  Around here what they call seasoned wood is wood that has been cut, split and stacked for whatever time. I am using year old pecan.  Ideally if I had a place, I would like to stack it in a covered area with good air circulation so it would really dry.

Gary


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## boykjo (Jun 10, 2015)

Well.. it looks like I'm going to buy a truck load of hickory from this guy for 80 bucks and stack it in the shed for next year. I will have to find some dry wood to get me through the year....I do have the pecan but not near enough..... There is a wood mill close by that has a kiln and they sell kiln dried wood.. maybe ai'll stop buy to see if the will dry a load for me and what will it cost...


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## gary s (Jun 10, 2015)

Good Luck, They Might

Gary


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## vaquero01 (Jun 20, 2015)

one way I've been able to reduce the moisture content is with heavy, clear plastic sheeting. I stack my loosely on pallets, and cover the wood with the heaviest clear plastic I can, it acts as a hothouse and draws the extra water from the wood. As a side note to something else you mentioned. Always debark your splits. One, it helps the wood dry quicker and two, bark contains tanins that can impart a bitter taste.


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## Bearcarver (Jun 20, 2015)

boykjo said:


> Well.. it looks like I'm going to buy a truck load of hickory from this guy for 80 bucks and stack it in the shed for next year. I will have to find some dry wood to get me through the year....I do have the pecan but not near enough..... There is a wood mill close by that has a kiln and they sell kiln dried wood.. maybe ai'll stop buy to see if the will dry a load for me and what will it cost...


Joe,

Is there any Cabinet Shops around your area.

We used to give scraps away free by the 50 gallon drum!!

The stuff we gave away included mostly kiln dried Red Oak, Cherry, Maple, and Birch.

Ours was kiln dried down to 6% moisture content. Then steamed back up to 8% to close the pores.

We gave it away for kindling, because there wasn't too many smokers around. That would have been great stuff !!!

Bear


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