Oak is a joke

Another red oak fell here in the wind last night.
Weakened by carpenter ant condos. (they just don't know when to stop building)
Probably another half cord to 3/4. Hard to tell just how many stories tall those ambitious little buggers got to until you starting rounding.

Between the death blight and carpenter ants and dearth of time , I'm having a hard time keeping up.
My weeding out cherry project is now 3 years behind.
I'm never gonna get to that pine.
At least the wood peckers shouldn't be eyeing the trim wood on my house.

Don't know about you all. Oak is where it's at. I burn whatever comes along except willow, but it is oak that gets us through the long winter nights.

A coworker mentioned he had a red oak fall down from a recent storm and told me to come get it.. He said it is ready to burn.. Hope he is right.. Personally I think is great firewood.. Burns hot and long and when free even better!

Ray

myzamboni said:

rathmir said:

I've got two yr old oak that still sizzles sometimes in the stove...

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I have 8 month sesasoned oak in the stove tonight and not a sizzle or steam. Gotta love no rain for 5 months out of the year.

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I have been using 1yr old red oak tops this season,so far, I have 7 more cords of tops to haul, split and stack for next couple of yrs. We are getting some kind of blight that is killing them off at an alarming rate, so we had the 16" chest-high ones timbered and hope the others survive. It is truly a shame to see 100 yr old tree that was beautiful the prior year and the next season dead.

just about all my wood is oak... i know the pain, i split in the fall and either stack it in the fall or the spring (this year it got stacked... i have some stuff going on 2 yrs and it will sizzle for a couple of minutes but then after that it does burn well... when it doesnt sizzle and is completely dry.... there isnt a better wood that can be easily had around these parts... (not saying its the best...) outta locust, hedge, white oak, ash ... it seems around my way oak and maple are the easiest to get ...... oh well it heats the house....
and, if time is an issue make real small splits.... they will dry quick and pack in your stove, you wont notice the difference!

oak burns hot ,long and coals excellent ,its well worth the trouble compared to alot of other species ,its top notch firewood IMHO
on a frigid tundra- like january evening its what i would grab up first to keep my family toasty through the night

Ive never felt like waisting my time dealing with oak either. I can heat my home just fine with spruce and pine. I need some reason to add wood to my stove once in a while when it gets a little chilly outside.

raybonz said:

A coworker mentioned he had a red oak fall down from a recent storm and told me to come get it.. He said it is ready to burn.. Hope he is right.. Personally I think is great firewood.. Burns hot and long and when free even better!

Ray

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Not a chance it's "ready to burn" I have a number of oaks and have seen a few standing dead for several years that are not ready to burn. From my trees it seems to run about 12 - 18 months for the dead trees to be seasoned.
I love burning oak and have space to let it season but I also have alot of other types of wood and mix in oak as needed to get the burn times based on the current temp expected.

Tony H said:

raybonz said:

A coworker mentioned he had a red oak fall down from a recent storm and told me to come get it.. He said it is ready to burn.. Hope he is right..

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Not a chance it's "ready to burn" I have a number of oaks and have seen a few standing dead for several years that are not ready to burn.

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I agree, not a chance. You might be able to burn it and produce some creosote, but there is no way that it's ready to burn.

Tony H said:

raybonz said:

A coworker mentioned he had a red oak fall down from a recent storm and told me to come get it.. He said it is ready to burn.. Hope he is right.. Personally I think is great firewood.. Burns hot and long and when free even better!

Ray

Click to expand...

Not a chance it's "ready to burn" I have a number of oaks and have seen a few standing dead for several years that are not ready to burn. From my trees it seems to run about 12 - 18 months for the dead trees to be seasoned.
I love burning oak and have space to let it season but I also have alot of other types of wood and mix in oak as needed to get the burn times based on the current temp expected.

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Tony I have dropped white oaks about 8" dia. at the trunk in the wooded part of my property that were so seasoned the bark fell off and the tree was checked top to bottom and tossed it right in the stove and it burned without a sizzle.. They were so dry the saw chain needed extra oil to cut them lol .. It may not happen often but it does happen...

Ray

raybonz said:

Tony H said:

raybonz said:

A coworker mentioned he had a red oak fall down from a recent storm and told me to come get it.. He said it is ready to burn.. Hope he is right.. Personally I think is great firewood.. Burns hot and long and when free even better!

Ray

Click to expand...

Not a chance it's "ready to burn" I have a number of oaks and have seen a few standing dead for several years that are not ready to burn. From my trees it seems to run about 12 - 18 months for the dead trees to be seasoned.
I love burning oak and have space to let it season but I also have alot of other types of wood and mix in oak as needed to get the burn times based on the current temp expected.

Click to expand...

Tony I have dropped white oaks about 8" dia. at the trunk in the wooded part of my property that were so seasoned the bark fell off and the tree was checked top to bottom and tossed it right in the stove and it burned without a sizzle.. They were so dry the saw chain needed extra oil to cut them lol .. It may not happen often but it does happen...

Ray

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+1

Dune said:

raybonz said:

Tony H said:

raybonz said:

A coworker mentioned he had a red oak fall down from a recent storm and told me to come get it.. He said it is ready to burn.. Hope he is right.. Personally I think is great firewood.. Burns hot and long and when free even better!

Ray

Click to expand...

Not a chance it's "ready to burn" I have a number of oaks and have seen a few standing dead for several years that are not ready to burn. From my trees it seems to run about 12 - 18 months for the dead trees to be seasoned.
I love burning oak and have space to let it season but I also have alot of other types of wood and mix in oak as needed to get the burn times based on the current temp expected.

Click to expand...

Tony I have dropped white oaks about 8" dia. at the trunk in the wooded part of my property that were so seasoned the bark fell off and the tree was checked top to bottom and tossed it right in the stove and it burned without a sizzle.. They were so dry the saw chain needed extra oil to cut them lol .. It may not happen often but it does happen...

Ray

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+1

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I have too, but a red oak that fell from a recent storm doesn't sound like a good candidate for ready to burn. Now, on the other hand if it's like every tree I cut, it tipped over because the roots rotted off and had been standing dead with the bark off for many years, then maybe. At least the limb wood anyway.

99% of the wood i burn is red oak it does take a long time to season but once it is man does it put off some heat. I have two more dead red oaks that i need to take down. This should put my wood stock into 2013. Been burning all morning here and my house is a nice 72 degrees thanks to red oak!

I was splitting oak yesterday that was recently felled and on some splits the water was literally squirting out. Especially in the center of the thicker/trunk parts...alot of moisture there. Came with a bunch of locust so that will be ready sooner.

About 3-4 years ago here (south coast Massachussets) the caterpillars came bad 2 years in a row. 2 out of every 3 oaks are now dead. I cut two trees, 16" dia. and 24"dia on my property(red oak) that have been standing dead 2 years. The wood is just as green as if it had been cut from a live tree. These are trees that the bark was falling off and all the small twigs were long gone.

Pretty much all the wood for sale as: "seasoned firewood ready to burn" around here is these trees just cut and split a few months ago.

The white oak burns great but the red oak which is the dominant species around here needs a solid two years of seasoning (cut, split, stacked under cover) before it is great firewood.

After seasoning properly its great, but if not perfectly seasoned you'll be sizzling and fizzling.

I have about 6-7 cords of red,white,black,chesnut,and pin oak stacked out back. At least i think that covers em all haha. It's pretty much all we burn round here and it seasons just fine in the southjersey sun and wind. We've been hit so hard by gypsy moths and blight the past few yrs that just about anywhere you look, there's dead oaks standin. There's about 20 more on our property to come down and at least another 30-40 on another lot we've been clearing. I'll take all i can get!

Oak is a Joke? I've got a sense of humor ;-) It is my favorite wood. I love the smell of it. In the fall my beagles come in at the end of the day smelling like oak from being in the leaves in the woods. Pretty to look at, splits reasonably, burns n burns n burns, great coals, so much heat I only use it in the coldest weather, even the smoke smells great. Black Locust gives great heat too but doesn't have the smell and oak starts burning readily, even dry black locust is like trying to set concrete on fire. My neighbor who's burned for decades uncharacteristically bought some wood last winter. Supplier told him he was "into a stand of oak" at the time. My neighbor doubled his order. Yeah a couple of years at least to season well, but I'll do that any time. Great things are worth working and waiting for.

Stopped at my co-workers house and chopped up that red oak and he had me drop another but this one was white oak about 10" at the trunk... I ended up with about 1/4 cord total and most of it is bone dry.. Hell all the oaks in his area are dead as a doorknob! This was dead standing with NO bark and checked one end to the other.. I am here to tell you if it didn't have 2" of snow on it it could be burned rt. away.. Brought it home and split it up and that lil splitter worked great and split it all easily.. Well worth the 15 mile trip and with more to come in the future and all oak too!

Ray

quads said:

I have too, but a red oak that fell from a recent storm doesn't sound like a good candidate for ready to burn. Now, on the other hand if it's like every tree I cut, it tipped over because the roots rotted off and had been standing dead with the bark off for many years, then maybe. At least the limb wood anyway.

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Yup. I just bucked up a good few loads of tops from a logging operation that went down 2 years ago. Still had the rich salmon color as though it'd been dropped yesterday.

Not to mention the "oak whiff." Just as pungent as if fresh felled. (Since I like the aroma, this was a positive. Smelled like free heat to me

CrawfordCentury said:

quads said:

I have too, but a red oak that fell from a recent storm doesn't sound like a good candidate for ready to burn. Now, on the other hand if it's like every tree I cut, it tipped over because the roots rotted off and had been standing dead with the bark off for many years, then maybe. At least the limb wood anyway.

Click to expand...

Yup. I just bucked up a good few loads of tops from a logging operation that went down 2 years ago. Still had the rich salmon color as though it'd been dropped yesterday.

Not to mention the "oak whiff." Just as pungent as if fresh felled. (Since I like the aroma, this was a positive. Smelled like free heat to me

Click to expand...

I love oak... great firewood.. Can't believe people don't like it here.. Excellent firewood with loads of btu's.. There is loads of dead oaks here I think due to the gypsy moths a few years back... Most of mine survived...

Ray

raybonz said:

CrawfordCentury said:

quads said:

I have too, but a red oak that fell from a recent storm doesn't sound like a good candidate for ready to burn. Now, on the other hand if it's like every tree I cut, it tipped over because the roots rotted off and had been standing dead with the bark off for many years, then maybe. At least the limb wood anyway.

Click to expand...

Yup. I just bucked up a good few loads of tops from a logging operation that went down 2 years ago. Still had the rich salmon color as though it'd been dropped yesterday.

Not to mention the "oak whiff." Just as pungent as if fresh felled. (Since I like the aroma, this was a positive. Smelled like free heat to me

Click to expand...

I love oak... great firewood.. Can't believe people don't like it here.. Excellent firewood with loads of btu's.. There is loads of dead oaks here I think due to the gypsy moths a few years back... Most of mine survived...

Ray

Click to expand...

Also too - it rots real slow. I'm cutting mostly these says in a huge woodlot. I like dropping trees, but there's so much dead and down oak - 10+ years. The kind with the bark and sapwood gone but with the heartwood as solid as when the tree was alive and standing.

CrawfordCentury said:

raybonz said:

CrawfordCentury said:

quads said:

I have too, but a red oak that fell from a recent storm doesn't sound like a good candidate for ready to burn. Now, on the other hand if it's like every tree I cut, it tipped over because the roots rotted off and had been standing dead with the bark off for many years, then maybe. At least the limb wood anyway.

Click to expand...

Yup. I just bucked up a good few loads of tops from a logging operation that went down 2 years ago. Still had the rich salmon color as though it'd been dropped yesterday.

Not to mention the "oak whiff." Just as pungent as if fresh felled. (Since I like the aroma, this was a positive. Smelled like free heat to me

Click to expand...

I love oak... great firewood.. Can't believe people don't like it here.. Excellent firewood with loads of btu's.. There is loads of dead oaks here I think due to the gypsy moths a few years back... Most of mine survived...

Ray

Click to expand...

Also too - it rots real slow. I'm cutting mostly these says in a huge woodlot. I like dropping trees, but there's so much dead and down oak - 10+ years. The kind with the bark and sapwood gone but with the heartwood as solid as when the tree was alive and standing.

Click to expand...

I love oak too. It's almost exclusively what I have burned my whole life. Cherry is my favorite wood, but I don't have a lot of big stuff to choose from. I've never burned pine, even though we have a lot of it, but Dad used jackpine for kindling. I don't even use that for kindling, I use oak for that too.

quads said:

CrawfordCentury said:

raybonz said:

CrawfordCentury said:

quads said:

I have too, but a red oak that fell from a recent storm doesn't sound like a good candidate for ready to burn. Now, on the other hand if it's like every tree I cut, it tipped over because the roots rotted off and had been standing dead with the bark off for many years, then maybe. At least the limb wood anyway.

Click to expand...

Yup. I just bucked up a good few loads of tops from a logging operation that went down 2 years ago. Still had the rich salmon color as though it'd been dropped yesterday.

Not to mention the "oak whiff." Just as pungent as if fresh felled. (Since I like the aroma, this was a positive. Smelled like free heat to me

Click to expand...

I love oak... great firewood.. Can't believe people don't like it here.. Excellent firewood with loads of btu's.. There is loads of dead oaks here I think due to the gypsy moths a few years back... Most of mine survived...

Ray

Click to expand...

Also too - it rots real slow. I'm cutting mostly these says in a huge woodlot. I like dropping trees, but there's so much dead and down oak - 10+ years. The kind with the bark and sapwood gone but with the heartwood as solid as when the tree was alive and standing.

Click to expand...

I love oak too. It's almost exclusively what I have burned my whole life. Cherry is my favorite wood, but I don't have a lot of big stuff to choose from. I've never burned pine, even though we have a lot of it, but Dad used jackpine for kindling. I don't even use that for kindling, I use oak for that too.

Click to expand...

We're like that with oak here too and I like Cherry and maple too.. Never burned any pine until this year as everyone here say it is safe to burn as long as it is dry but I only use it to start fires and find it works fine for that.. You can't give pine away here and it just rots on the ground...

Ray

damn good cookin' wood too; hot, long burnin' coals. That's a 3+ foot one behind the tractor that I use for shade and whitetail lure.