If you buy your logs from Bertie’s you will know that your firewood is guaranteed to be nice and dry and ready to burn, but are there are a few simple checks that can help you decided if a log is dry or still damp.
1. Dry wood is lighter than damp wood, the more it dries out the lighter it will get.
2. Dry wood tends to shed it’s bark and the end grain has cracks or splits.
3. When stuck against each other dry logs ‘ring’ and wet logs tend to ‘thud’.
4. Dry wood when split feels warm and dry, wet wood feels cool and damp.
5. Dry wood lights easily, burns brightly and gives off lots of heat.
6. Damp wood is difficult to light, hisses, spits and smokes, giving out little heat.
If in doubt you can always check how dry firewood is by buying a moisture meter. Ideally your firewood should have a moisture content of around 20% to make sure you are getting as much heat for your money as possible.