Freshly felled logs can be half water by weight, and burning them wet wastes heat, blackens your glass and lines the flue with tar. This tool estimates how long your wood needs to season down to a burnable 20% moisture, based on species, split size and storage. The honest takeaway: most logs take longer than the year people assume, and a cheap moisture meter is the only way to be sure.

How long until your logs are ready to burn?

Dense, wet-felled species like oak take much longer.
Splitting is the single biggest thing you control.
Air movement matters more than sunshine.
Wood cut for spring gets a full warm drying season.

These are realistic estimates, not guarantees, because real drying depends on your weather and exposure. The only sure test is a moisture meter reading taken on a freshly split face: split a log, press the pins into the new inner surface, and look for 20% or under before you burn it. Stack with the cut ends exposed to the wind, keep the wood off the ground, and roof the top while leaving the sides open.