It takes between 1 and 3 years to dry the wood. The shorter the pieces (10 to 20 inches / 25 to 50 cm), the faster the drying. Soft hardwoods (chestnut, poplar, willow, linden, or birch) dry faster than hardwoods (beech, elm, or ash). The hornbeam is the fastest (less than a year) and the longest oak (36 months at least), due to its tannins. Robert Marichy recognizes dry wood by the sound it makes when you strike two logs together: the more they sound, the drier they are.