Split some dead oak that a friend brought me a few days ago (Thanks Rory). Used some left over unfinished red oak scraps that I had left over from doing wood floors recently as kindling and the stuff light up like it was doused in gasoline. Red oak burns HOT and steady. Thanks Rory stuff is great. All 4 tubes are going on the NC-30 and that has been hard for me to accomplish with the wood i have been using.
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I had been using some spruce with the warmer weather recently. Started a fire last night with some oak, and the difference is astounding.
Now that I have about 3 cords that should be ready for next winter, my goal is to go after oak and locusts for the later years. Its so nice to be able to burn good wood and not the junk i have been buying the past few years.
Its great stuff, last year I burned 4 cords, Im kicking myself for not using birch and maple I had for the shoulder months.
I noticed the same thing with denser woods. I was burning a lot of maple and then started burning more ash and oak. It was amazing to see how much better the overnight burns lasted with the oak and ash. My only reservation with oak is that it takes longer (2 yrs) to season and I only have storage for about 4 cord. which could be used in 1 winter. What others woods would be comparable to oak and season faster? I was thinking ash might be the answer for the wood types available around here in the northeast, but i am still pretty new at this!
Iv'e been burning white ash for the last 3 years. Im ready to try some oak, but won't have any ready for a couple of years. Oh well I have more ash that needs used up before it rots in the woods.
Yep White Ash or Black Locust, both lower moisture content on the stump than Oak, Black Locust has a higher rating than Oak.
I have close to a cord of locust that i split and stacked about a month ago, when I first split it it was at around 35 as of this morning its down to 23 so if things keep up it may be in the low teens by next winter or even lower. I have it in a sunny hill that gets lots of wind.
I have read here that some folks season Locust for 2 years. I usually go by moisture content not necessarily how long it has been seasoning for. I aim for burning wood that is between 8 and 15 percent moisture. So however long it take for it to get to that percentage is what I go for, for the most part.
8% is flooring dry. I have never seen that in cord wood. It would be tinder or kiln dried to reach that. I actually prefer the 15-20% range.
Seems a shame to be burning oak at this time of the year unless you have an overabundance. We'll save our oak for January and February night fires.
Chris, you are correct about the ash.
Chris, you are correct about the ash.
I agree with you Denis. When SHE is cold, I light up. I do not intend to use anymore until its real cold out. Its a waste.
[drawing self up in indignation...]
You can't be talking about rock maple. Big, big difference between maple species. Rock maple (sugar maple) burns both longer and hotter than white ash, red maple (and I hear silver, though I've never burned it) much less, in my experience.
Hard Rock (Sugar) Maple is one of the best - dries fast (1 year in the sun and wind) and burns hot and long. Last night at 10pm (overnight low about 18 deg F), I put in three 4" sugar maple rounds N-S in my stove, and a piece of bitternut hickory and two other pieces of sugar maple E-W on top. At 9:30am, there were still coals and stove top was still 150 deg F (FYI - I have a Lopi Answer, a pretty small stove). Hickory is great - but it takes longer to dry. Cherry is great - seasons quicker and lights faster but doesn't burn nearly as long. I have some ash drying now, so we'll see how that works for me next year. Oak is more rare in this area (generally too cold, overall), but I have a little (still seasoning...) from a tree cut down on my property approximately 4 years ago.
fox9988
Minister of Fire
I burn 95% red oak
. Burned some bois d"arc this year and wow-talk about BTU's.Ran myself out of the house until I go used to judging proper load size.
. Burned some bois d"arc this year and wow-talk about BTU's.Ran myself out of the house until I go used to judging proper load size.
I agree on the Red Oak. yesterday I decided to preview some of next year's Red Oak by burning some of the odd shaped stuff I put on top of the pile 2 years ago. I added 4 4"-5" square by 10" or 12" long splits NS on a nice bed of White Ask coals in the Fireview at about 10 am. The Red Oak was completely engulfed in flames in minutes. I engaged the cat and set the air at about .75 after 10 minutes or so. The stove top was at about 400
. It went up to nearly 600 in about 40 minutes and stayed over 500 for a couple hours. At 7pm, it was still at about 250. All from 4 small splits! Gonna be nice and warm next winter.
For those who don't have the room to store Red Oak for 2 or 3 seasons, I recommend Black Locust. It burns about as hot and long as Red Oak and should season in one summer. I also recommend splitting Black Locust a little smaller than other woods as it can be hard to get started if you aren't adding it to a well established bed of coals.
. It went up to nearly 600 in about 40 minutes and stayed over 500 for a couple hours. At 7pm, it was still at about 250. All from 4 small splits! Gonna be nice and warm next winter.For those who don't have the room to store Red Oak for 2 or 3 seasons, I recommend Black Locust. It burns about as hot and long as Red Oak and should season in one summer. I also recommend splitting Black Locust a little smaller than other woods as it can be hard to get started if you aren't adding it to a well established bed of coals.
.I agree on the Red Oak. yesterday I decided to preview some of next year's Red Oak by burning some of the odd shaped stuff I put on top of the pile 2 years ago. I added 4 4"-5" square by 10" or 12" long splits NS on a nice bed of White Ask coals in the Fireview at about 10 am. The Red Oak was completely engulfed in flames in minutes. I engaged the cat and set the air at about .75 after 10 minutes or so. The stove top was at about 400
For those who don't have the room to store Red Oak for 2 or 3 seasons, I recommend Black Locust. It burns about as hot and long as Red Oak and should season in one summer. I also recommend splitting Black Locust a little smaller than other woods as it can be hard to get started if you aren't adding it to a well established bed of coals.
I agree with you on locust being hard to get going. I am resplitting some really large splits that I have. I am really set with the Locust for next winter. About 4 pickup full of it most of which is already split. There was a locust tree in my neighbors yard that he cut last summer and I cut most of it up earlier this year. Still have about 20 feet left to cut up and split.
Oak is my best wood for dead of winter. Out of the 20 cord or so on the property, at least 1/2, and likely more is red oak. Sometimes I do end up with 'dry' periods of not getting a lot of oak to cut, so I've been separating red maple, white birch, etc. and plan to bring 3 cord oak and 2 cord of less quality fuel to the barn each year. Will stretch out the dry oak supply. Cheers!
Oak is about 90% of what I burn and I agree with the others that it takes a good 2 years to dry out most of the time but it's worth the wait to me. This next year I have a scrounged mix of 2 year old Black Locust, Hackberry, Ash, Silver Maple and Oak that will be feeding the stoves and I'll leave my 6 cords of Oak in my shed for the following year.
Megunticook
Burning Hunk
We have a lot of red oak on our land, it's about 50-75% of what I burn. I also burn some ash and red maple. The red oak is definitely the prime stuff, especially for the super cold nights and overnight coals. Normally I season it for 2 years, this year I had some stuff that was 3 years old. It's almost TOO dry, if I loaded up the firebox (VC Encore) fully with this stuff it would overfire the stove severely. Even with the air inlet shut all the way down, damper closed, 3-4 small-mid splits will have the griddle temp. at 600-700.
I love the smell of red oak when you cut and split it--almost a sweet spicy smell, makes me feel good.
I love the smell of red oak when you cut and split it--almost a sweet spicy smell, makes me feel good.
Huntindog1
Minister of Fire
I used some good dry white oak split it in like 1 inch size for kindling, boy does that get the stove a going quick. There is some hot stuff burning out of that oak. It truely does make really good kindling or maybe call it super kindling.
Huntindog1 - I also had some short (~ 8 inch rounds of splits) of dry red oak this year - I decided to make a bunch into ~ 1" square kindling. Man, what a fast, hot, and long lasting kindling fire - really gets the stove and flue hot, with enough heat and time to catch bigger pieces on fire. I'll likely do the same next year. Cheers!
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