Cutting dead standing trees?

[Reckless]

Whats a good rule of thumb for cutting up trees that have been down for a while or dead trees still standing? I just bought my house and there are down oak all over the place and some solid dead ones still standing that you can tell have been there a while. I cut one up today and the inside still seems hard and it split nice but the bark is all slimey under and has a little white substance (mold?) Still safe to burn right? I will be peeling the bark before burning of coarse since its basically falling off when I split it. Thanks guys and girls!! Im guessing as long as the wood isnt mush inside its good.......

 

[arngnick]

If the wood is hard...BURN IT

 

[firefighterjake]

Once you get the wood bucked up, split, stacked and under cover the slime and mold will go away . . . cut away.

 

[Woody Stover]

The sap wood on Oaks goes bad pretty fast, especially on down wood, but the heart will last a long time. I've got a cat stove and I don't like to burn a lot of punky wood through it. I don't know for sure if burning those micro-organisms diminishes the functioning of the cat much, if at all; At worst I would just have to simmer the cat in the vinegar/water solution to remove any chemical masking that might occur. I plan to do that at the end of every season anyway, so no biggie. That said, I sawed a bunch of punk off of some Cherry rounds that I split and stacked over the last couple days. It took a lot of time, but I couldn't help myself.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Whats a good rule of thumb for cutting up trees that have been down for a while or dead trees still standing? I just bought my house and there are down oak all over the place and some solid dead ones still standing that you can tell have been there a while. I cut one up today and the inside still seems hard and it split nice but the bark is all slimey under and has a little white substance (mold?) Still safe to burn right? I will be peeling the bark before burning of coarse since its basically falling off when I split it. Thanks guys and girls!! Im guessing as long as the wood isnt mush inside its good.......

Hey Reckless, we have some white oak that had been down at least 10 years and it all was touching ground. In fact, all of it had sunk into the ground some. Just a little bit of punk but lots of good hard wood there yet.

Rule of thumb says run a saw at least half way through it. You'll know if there is any good wood in there or not because if it punk that saw will cut like a knife through soft butter.

Rule of thumb for those standing dead. BEWARE Sure, it can be great firewood but those trees can also be killers. You have to know what you are doing before sawing one down or be very, very lucky. Nobody on this forum can tell you what to do on cutting those down without being right there to see it up close and live. Any other recommendations on cutting the standing trees down is just generalities and you need specifics.

Good luck.

 

[Reckless]

Hey Reckless, we have some white oak that had been down at least 10 years and it all was touching ground. In fact, all of it had sunk into the ground some. Just a little bit of punk but lots of good hard wood there yet.

Rule of thumb says run a saw at least half way through it. You'll know if there is any good wood in there or not because if it punk that saw will cut like a knife through soft butter.

Rule of thumb for those standing dead. BEWARE Sure, it can be great firewood but those trees can also be killers. You have to know what you are doing before sawing one down or be very, very lucky. Nobody on this forum can tell you what to do on cutting those down without being right there to see it up close and live. Any other recommendations on cutting the standing trees down is just generalities and you need specifics.

Good luck.

Thanks for all the great feed back guys!! Yea I have about 3 standing dead trees (well two now) they are completely limbed by nature, no more than 10-15 ft tall and dont seem to pose an immediate threat, but always super cautious when cutting down any tree. As for punkyness, all the rott seems to be in the top half leaving me with 8 ft of solid oak to split up and burn. Hopefully taking these down wont make the wood peckers turn towards my house looking for food man Ive never see such big woodpeckers till I moved here (mid-eastern NY).

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sounds like you might have the pileated woodpeckers then. They can get really big. Not sure if they are a protected bird or not but think they are at least in some areas. We enjoy seeing them and was happy when they finally moved into our area.

 

[bogydave]

Down or standing dead trees seem to be drier wood.
Will still need to be CSS & dry out more but they seem to dry a lot faster than green wood.

 

[Reckless]

Sounds like you might have the pileated woodpeckers then. They can get really big. Not sure if they are a protected bird or not but think they are at least in some areas. We enjoy seeing them and was happy when they finally moved into our area.

I believe you are correct, black with red heads and a hint of white. Man these things are monsters!! Nature is a beautiful thing, now lets go fire up the chainsaws!! j/k

 

[BobUrban]

Big old oaks - dead or alive - often are hollow in the center and pose a great deal of threat when felling. As mentioned, just be careful.

Regarding the downed stuff I will repeat the formentioned that there is often a lot of good wood in there although oak punks out fast on the outside(sap wood) the heart of the tree is good heat. I cut a cord like that this winter that had been down at least 6 years.

 

[rideau]

Can't mistake a pileated for anything else. Very distinctive call that it almost always makes when flying. Looks like a small flying dinosaur. Swoops a bit..maybe I should say undulates. Anyway, doesn't fly level. Sounds like a jack hammer when pecking. And makes absolutely monster holes in the trees. They will come back to the same tree for months/years so are easy to observe. Stay far enough away so they can be hard to get good photos of. Years ago had a baby on the ground in front of my kitchen. Last year had the oldest one I've ever seen in my garden. We have a number living on out property. Sometimes see three on the same tree.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

 

[rideau]

He's really light gray. Mine are very black. Looks little, too. Is that a juvenile? Nice picture. I bet all the dead ash has attracted them, if you haven't had them previously.

 

[Woody Stover]

Can't mistake a pileated for anything else...Sounds like a jack hammer when pecking.

They are the Monster Maul of woodpeckers.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

He's really light gray. Mine are very black. Looks little, too. Is that a juvenile? Nice picture. I bet all the dead ash has attracted them, if you haven't had them previously.

That picture is was not at our place. I agree that ours is more black too. And I too have wondered if it is all the dead ash that brought them here as we've only had them since the ash started dieing.

 

[osagebow]

Thanks for all the great feed back guys!! Yea I have about 3 standing dead trees (well two now) they are completely limbed by nature, no more than 10-15 ft tall and dont seem to pose an immediate threat, but always super cautious when cutting down any tree. As for punkyness, all the rott seems to be in the top half leaving me with 8 ft of solid oak to split up and burn. Hopefully taking these down wont make the wood peckers turn towards my house looking for food man Ive never see such big woodpeckers till I moved here (mid-eastern NY).

See if they nest in one and try to leave it if you can. Love seeing those guys - they have a cool flap / drop like a stone/ fighter jet turn at last second flying style. Had one tearing up some locust borer larvae in my stacks recently.