What did I bring home?

The leaves on the ground were a mixture of some maple and some oak. When I cut into this tree it had the familiar smell if pin oak. The rounds were fairly heavy, have not split anything yet. So, is it some kind of oak?

Definately looks like oak but not sure what species, til I joined this board I thought there was only red and white, now I know there are quite a bit more, anyway, looks like you got some nice wood there.

Bark looks like White Oak.

Some of the ends appeared to have a red color to them, but I agree that the bark looks like white. Neighbor had his drive paved this summer and these have been laying there since. Finally got his permission to take them, probably another truck load to bring home yet. Nice to only go about 1/2 mile to find some good wood for a change!

Nice haul,white oak.

Bob, you just came into a great deal! Prime white oak.

Another vote for white oak.

White oak is only called white because the bark looks white from a distance. The wood is usually red to brown. This is a good score of white oak.

Looks just like the white oak I split today which I picked it up last sunday after the utility compmay left in by the side of the road. I ended up with about a half cord. Love the smell of white oak.

Yeah, White Oak.

Lookin white here too.

I vote white oak. Primo wood.
Dries a bit faster than red oak.
A bit stringier & tougher to split than red oak too.

I am getting better at the guess the spices game . When I saw the picture my guess was white oak and it seems a lot of others are thinking the same.

It dries faster Dave? I can attest to the tougher to split and stringier part, I was just using a Fiskars when I got a bunch of white oak and it was a pain, its the reason I bought a splitter.

FYI:

White oak is one of the toughest flexible woods in the world by weight. Was used to make wooden ships.
White oak resists rot & moisture, good outdoor wood. Dries faster than red oak & won't absorb water like read oak does.
White oak for whiskey barrels & boats

Red oak barrels would leak.
Red oak has open capillaries (hundreds of miniature straws) , left in rain & snow, it never dries, capillaries fill with water & take a long long time to dry out.
Easy to see when put in a fire, steam comes out the ends of the capillaries. You can blow air thru a red oak board.
Thus tougher & longer to get it dry & keep it dry.
Good wood for indoor furniture but hard to finish, soaks in allot of finish. Tough to get a mirror finish, but has the nice unique "red oak" texture.

Thanks for the wood lesson, maybe I should keep an eye out for white oak in the future when theres both red and white available.Seems to get my stove hotter, not sure if I just had a good load or it always will burn a bit hotter.

White oak without a doubt......nice haul Bob!

Plus White Oaks either green or dry have that great vanilla-ish scent,think of inside a whisky barrel,with caramel notes. Red Oak,when green,even 'damp' when dead & not dried - smells sour & really stinks on a hot summer day.

If it doesn't rain today I'll get to see how it splits. If I recall correctly, white is slightly higher in btu than red?

Yup.Normally about 10% higher density & weight.Generally tougher splitting,can be stubborn & stringy at times.Even knot free straight grained logs.Worth the effort though.

make sure you take a sniff of that stuff. Should have a sort of 'vanilla-ish' scent to it. I love the smell of white oak, both when splitting AND when it's burning in the stove!

sorry Thistle, I pretty much repeated what you said almost word for word! Didn't see your post above til AFTER I wrote mine! You know how we're related and all, this just goes to prove it.

haha no problem.Speaking of smells,its 34 outside,75 in here & I just added a couple small chunks of 2 yr old Silver Maple to the ol' beast & shut the doors..

Smells like maple syrup!!

Agree on all accounts about white oak. Scored a cord of mostly white but some red too. The white had been dead on the ground for almost a year and still had virtually no rot. The red standing dead was ok, but the stuff on the ground was too far gone after a year.

I agree Thistle except that I never thought the red oak was a stink. Just one more wood odor. Strong, but I don't mind it at all.