Accelerated Seasoning of Smoking Wood?

[JGrana]

I have a KBQ smoker and various trees on my property - great combination.
When I trim/remove branches or cut down a tree to thin the woods, I quickly cut up to KBQ size (~8" long) and split them.
Most of the trees I have are cherry, shag bark hickory and a few apple.

I have been trying an experiment to accelerate the drying/seasoning of the splits. This time of the year, we have warm, sunny days and I have a large black asphalt drive way. Sooo, I have been putting the wood out in the sun on the hot blacktop and see that many of these splits seem to get fairly dry in a matter of weeks!!! I have a wood moisture meter - when I measure as soon as I split it's in the 40%+ range. After a week in the sun/warmth I measure often less than 20%

My questions----
1) Is this method of drying a bit misleading? I see the wood with all kinds of splits at the end. But, my meter only goes in 1/8" at best. Could it still be pretty green deeper?
2) For use with a smoker like the KBQ, how seasoned should the wood be?
3) Seasoned versus not. I have read a number of threads - most say seasoned, a few say - for smoking, go for it.

???
Any other ideas on how to accelerate the seasoning/drying?

Here are some examples - hickory on the left (1 day old!!!) apple on the right (a few weeks), cherry (4 weeks) on the far right in a tupperware crate




Close up of the hickory. Early morning. Note no cracks at the end. By noon, they will have lots of cracks - but they seem to close up overnight (at least for the first week or so)

[j_keegan]

I haven't done a ton of seasoning acceleration, but I would say the checking at the ends and the moisture meter reading below 20% should be a pretty good indication of being seasoned. I work with firewood a lot and those are the two things I do to check for moisture in firewood. You can also pick up a couple of pieces and bang them together. If they sound hollowish/resonant, they are seasoned. If they sound dense/dull still, they are not seasoned. This should help you figure out if the middle of the pieces are seasoned.

One other thing I did when I needed to accelerate some wood chunks along was put them in a plastic walmart-style bag and hang them in the sun for a couple of weeks. I was trying to make like a mini solar kiln. My theory was that leaving them in the bag all day/night for a few weeks, the bag would magnify the heat during the day, the moisture in the wood would condense in the bag overnight, and then when it heated up again the next day, the moisture would evaporate out the top during the heat of the day. I don't know if that worked any better than just leaving it in the driveway, but I got a good result either way.

[ComfortablyNumb]

The OM of the KBQ says that a "couple of months" is all that is needed to be dry enough. I also have a moisture metre, the instructions that came with it is to penetrate on the side, not the ends, and to make a fresh split before doing it. That way you get the moisture content of the centre.

[Jerod Broussard]

Huskee puts his in the ole offset and dries away.

[Bruce54]

Something to try, in the name science:

• Put some distinguishing marks on a few well selected bits, record their weights before you set them out to dry (you've got a kitchen scale, right?).
• Re-check the weights every few days.
• Post results here.

No KBQ here, but plenty of apple, cherry, and big leaf maple to "trim" for smoke chunks in the kettle. Might have to try this myself!

For extra credit, correlate with readings from your moisture meter.

[JGrana]

Thanks for all the great advice guys! j_keegan I just might try the solar oven trick, couldn't hurt plus I could see the moisture.
ComfortablyNumb - good idea - I will split on of the cherry on Friday - I am hopeing to smoke some chicken and brisket this weekend.
Jerod Broussard - I don't have an offset. Wonder if my gasser on low for a day would be quicker than sun. Plus, it's supposed to be cloudy the next few days.
Last, Bruce54 - I do indeed have a good kitchen scale - great idea. I am going to take a measurement of one of the fairly fresh hickory today.

[Jerod Broussard]

I'm sure any heat source would speed up the process.

[smokinfatties]

another idea is to split the ones that are 20% after drying and see what they are in the center- if it's still 20% i'd say youve found a winning method!

[tbob4]

What I have found over the years is that there is a difference between seasoned wood and wet wood. Green wood can be sappy and produces more creosote. I do not have a meter to tell me what the moisture content is. Wet aged wood produces a lot of smoke and water actually comes out of the ends as it heats up. It is unpredictable (temp wise) and thus has to be managed. I used Huskee 's trick this winter with dry wood that got wet and it worked like a charm. I can burn my oak wood with much less seasoning than my almond, peach or cherry wood. Your KBQ smoker however, does not work like a traditional wood burner. I believe you get cleaner smoke even if the wood is slightly green.

[bbqncigars]

My two cooks with the KBQ have taught me that a log that's good in my Klose may not do well in my KBQ. The KBQ eats dry apple wood logs like candy whilst the Klose has about 1/4 the consumption with the same wood. Results are still better with the KBQ.

[EdF]

I'd guess it's the fan draw on the fire. You could try just the upper poppet open to see whether that makes a difference. But I'm guessing it won't be much.

[KBQ]

With dry wood, run the Firebox at a lower level. You will need to tend more frequently, but will use a lot less fuel. As long as you keep an inch of coals, you're good.

[Steve R.]

I have found that cherry dries very quickly once it's split. 3-4 months in a nice sunny place and it's usually good to go. Hickory isn't quite that fast, but it will burn nicely well before it looks seasoned.