Best Oak tree diameter to fell

[n1st]

Is there an optimum oak tree size to fell at? I have several oaks I can choose from and am wondering which I should let grow larger?

 

[BrotherBart]

Since some studies have shown oaks to grow 0.15 inches per season in diameter (dominant ones with lots of sun exposure) and at best two feet in height I would say that if you are going to wait to cut until they reach a certain diameter that you should leave written instructions for your great-great grandchildren. :cheese:

I have an oak that sprouted 21 years ago after our driveway was cut in. It is now a little over 2 inches thick at the base.

 

[wahoowad]

optimum size = f(back strength + splitter size + chainsaw size + # of helpers)

for me, it comes out to 14"

 

[nshif]

Many times older Oaks hollow out (rot ) up the middle and really become unsafe, as BB said your not gonna see much change in your life time so If you plan on cutting them all eventually you might as well do it all now or take the biggest one and get the most work over with now.

 

[n1st]

I see your point - my diameter grows a lot faster than the oak's. :+)
Thanks for the information.

 

[Corey]

One other thing to consider is looking for trees with storm damage, disease, crowding, or other factors that are limiting a 'healthy' stand of timber. In other words, given the option, cut out trees that are less than desirable and leave the healthy, strongest, fastest growing trees with good spacing. With all else being equal, I'd probably shoot for the medium diameter. If the diameter is too large, you waste a lot of time wrestling with the logs. If the diameter is too small, you wind up with a lot of time spent limbing and making brush, but not much burnable wood.

 

[Bill]

Oak is great fire wood. But when I have a choice, I always take the ones that are easy to fell, I let the difficult ones stand. I dropped one this year, that probably was 150 years old, maybe older. Sure enough it was hollow from the base up about four feet. It also was hit by lightening, so it had to go. But when you see a majestic beauty, I couldn't cut it down. I am lucky and have lots of wind damaged wood to burn. But when you run short of fire wood, you have to thin sometimes.

 

[ChrisN]

As a safety reminder, the first thing you should do in taking down those large Oaks ( other trees too of course) is carefully check for dead branches overhead. A home wood cutter in my neighboring town was killed last year when he was cutting an oak in his back yard, a dead branch worked its way loose as he was cutting and landed on his head. Also as someone mentioned, those oaks can develop large hollow / rot spots in the interior causing them to fall in unexpected directions.

 

[wg_bent]

My take is that the optimum size is when you can season it in a reasonable time. I like to split a log into quarters and still have a good size split for overnight burns. My optimal then in my opinion is about a 12" diameter. It will split pretty easily and have nice size splits.

I'll split wood down to about 2.5" in diameter, but it's a pain when that small.

Get the rounds into the 30+ diameter range and you find all the knotts where branches were 40 years ago. A tree I had cut down in my yard was about 100 years old, and it's pretty nasty to split.

 

[DiscoInferno]

As a safety reminder, the first thing you should do in taking down those large Oaks ( other trees too of course) is carefully check for dead branches overhead. A home wood cutter in my neighboring town was killed last year when he was cutting an oak in his back yard, a dead branch worked its way loose as he was cutting and landed on his head. Also as someone mentioned, those oaks can develop large hollow / rot spots in the interior causing them to fall in unexpected directions.

Hear hear! I left two standing-dead maples be on my property this summer; both had sizable (head-and-helmet-crushing) branches either lying at the base or dangling in the crown, not to mention the still-attached branches that might break off. Those trees will blow down when they're good and ready, and I won't have to be under them when they do.

 

[nshif]

The other thing to think of when felling a large oak that may be hallow is that you cannot make an effective hinge, so it may fall where ever it wants or it may shatter at the base when it does fall sending lumber every which way. make sure you have a clear escape path and get the hell away when it starts to go. Ive seen hallow oak butts eplode pieces 20' away.

 

[Bill]

That Oak I took down had a very large branch break and lean on a 90 degree angle on another tree, 45 feet up. Not only was that branch an extreme danger to me, but as the tree fell it knocked branches off other trees. A bump cap isn't going to protect you from these large branches. Probably the most dangerous tree I ever cut down. I thought about for a few weeks before I got the Kahunas to drop her.