I give up on Oak.

[RAY_PA]

funny, I pass up oak all the time cause its too much to fool with. Just like the hot prom queen, way to hi-maintenance for me!!

 

[Constrictor]

funny, I pass up oak all the time cause its too much to fool with. Just like the hot prom queen, way to hi-maintenance for me!!

i guess i dont understand this statement. whatever the species you cut once, you split once you stack once you move to the house once. oak you leave in the stack longer, but how is this one spec more work or trouble?

 

[daveswoodhauler]

funny, I pass up oak all the time cause its too much to fool with. Just like the hot prom queen, way to hi-maintenance for me!!

i guess i dont understand this statement. whatever the species you cut once, you split once you stack once you move to the house once. oak you leave in the stack longer, but how is this one spec more work or trouble?

I think its an issue with a lot of variables, with the biggest being the climate of the OP and the area where the wood can be stacked. Also, some us us cannot keep 15 cord on hand....I get what you are saying, but there are just a lot of variables. (Some folks here live on 1/4 acre lots.....don't have room for 15 cords)
Burn on

 

[Kenster]

Split it as soon as you can, stack it covered on top and off the ground, if you can put a vapor barrier on the ground under your shed or drying rows, all the better.

I can cut green oak in the summer, split and stack in the shed the following spring, and burn it starting in November.

Are you saying you cut and split in the summer, then stack in the shed the following spring?

OR

Are you saying that you cut in the summer, then split and stack the following spring?

If it's the latter, you're cheating yourself out of several months of drying time. Splitting in the summer is no fun but I'd rather do it right after I cut and get that extra six months in the stacks.

 

[Kenster]

funny, I pass up oak all the time cause its too much to fool with. Just like the hot prom queen, way to hi-maintenance for me!!

Lots of guys have made that mistake, or think they're not worthy. But it's amazing how many prom queens and cheerleaders sit home on Saturday night because guys are afraid to ask them out. Then you see them out with the biggest nerd in school because he had the cajones to keep asking her until she said yes.

Same with high maintenance wood. Just takes a little more time and patience but it can be so rewarding.

 

[Kenster]

I think its an issue with a lot of variables, with the biggest being the climate of the OP and the area where the wood can be stacked. Also, some us us cannot keep 15 cord on hand....I get what you are saying, but there are just a lot of variables. (Some folks here live on 1/4 acre lots.....don't have room for 15 cords)
Burn on

+1. This is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Your recipe for success may not (most probably won't) work in another part of the country.

If you think that a top cover is the only way you can get your wood dry, then do it. I don't need it. With several months of temps above 90 degrees and 100 days or more above 100 AND very little rain my fresh oak cut up around Thanksgiving last year was showing about 17% in August- about a year and half ahead of schedule. Next year could be different. (Lord, I hope so! We can't take another year of severe drought down here!)

I never top cover and certainly would never tarp my stacks. Keeping a few days worth on the front porch will make sure that any surface moisture from a recent rain will be long gone by the time I bring it in to burn. Unless you're living in a rain forest I just can't see how top covering can possibly speed up the drying process. But I do understand how you might want to cover it come wintertime to keep the snow off-something I don't have to worry much about.

But.... we all have to do what works for us. If it works, it's right.

 

[Battenkiller]

Wow, lots of posts on this one.

lol all over the place too. Love it/hate it. Top cover as soon as its split/don't top cover it at all. 18 months good to go/never dries. Oak seems to have a lot in common with recent politics.

It's merely an attempt by the wood heating industry to polarize the burning community so they can move forward with their hidden corporate agenda while we sit here and argue. %-P


Personally, I've never had much success with drying oak. Even in the dark, hot, and dry recesses of the Battenkiln, it takes twice as long to dry as just about any other wood, even with fans on it 24/7. So it's not just a climate thing, it's just a slow-drying wood.

I pay extra to get a load that has no oak at all. Most wood guys think I'm nuts because it's great firewood, but getting it there is tough when you're buying it. Am I supposed to keep buying it and storing it for two to three years? That would get kinda expensive, and what do I do in the meantime?

White ash has been my go-to wood for over 20 years because it's burnable right off the stump and keeps getting better by the day. That and black cherry - another super fast-drying wood - have saved the day for me for so long that, well.... you guys can keep all the oak to boil in your stoves and leave me with all the "inferior" stuff to make do with. ;-)

 

[kettensäge]

Split it as soon as you can, stack it covered on top and off the ground, if you can put a vapor barrier on the ground under your shed or drying rows, all the better.

I can cut green oak in the summer, split and stack in the shed the following spring, and burn it starting in November.

Are you saying you cut and split in the summer, then stack in the shed the following spring?

OR

Are you saying that you cut in the summer, then split and stack the following spring?

If it's the latter, you're cheating yourself out of several months of drying time. Splitting in the summer is no fun but I'd rather do it right after I cut and get that extra six months in the stacks.

I split in the spring and fill the shed. I then build a "holding bin" out of rounds right at the end of the shed and continue splitting until I fill it (not stacked- random pile). It holds about 1/3 the capacity of the shed, so to answer your question some is split and some isn't.
The following year I'll stack those splits that are in the "bin" in the far end of the shed to be used first for the following season. This makes a place to put the splitter so the work flow is right from the remaining pile of rounds, through the splitter and into the shed, Kinda right to left as you look at the pic I posted. This method works well, The wood dries all summer long and is ready to burn when the season starts. The "wettest" wood in the shed is on the end next to the pile of rounds but by the time I get there the season is over and those get moved to the end of the shed closest to the house to dry and be burnt first the following season as well.

This system works well for me and I don't have to split/stack in 90° heat 95% humidity.


The solid, water-vapor proof shed floor made a big difference.

 

[cptoneleg]

[quote author="stejus" date="1320381994"]I age my oak (red and white) as little as 18 months. I don't have a moisture meter and I just go by how it burns. Lites up fast, no smoke in the stack after the secondaries kick in. I get plenty of sun and wind where I have the stacks.[/quo



I do the same, 2 summers and its good to go, even when 1 of the summers was extremely wet.

 

[wkpoor]

Wow, lots of posts on this one.

lol all over the place too. Love it/hate it. Top cover as soon as its split/don't top cover it at all. 18 months good to go/never dries. Oak seems to have a lot in common with recent politics.

It's merely an attempt by the wood heating industry to polarize the burning community so they can move forward with their hidden corporate agenda while we sit here and argue. %-P


Personally, I've never had much success with drying oak. Even in the dark, hot, and dry recesses of the Battenkiln, it takes twice as long to dry as just about any other wood, even with fans on it 24/7. So it's not just a climate thing, it's just a slow-drying wood.

I pay extra to get a load that has no oak at all. Most wood guys think I'm nuts because it's great firewood, but getting it there is tough when you're buying it. Am I supposed to keep buying it and storing it for two to three years? That would get kinda expensive, and what do I do in the meantime?

White ash has been my go-to wood for over 20 years because it's burnable right off the stump and keeps getting better by the day. That and black cherry - another super fast-drying wood - have saved the day for me for so long that, well.... you guys can keep all the oak to boil in your stoves and leave me with all the "inferior" stuff to make do with. ;-)

Thanks BattenKiller, finally a respected member that understands why I would pass on Oak too. I've been saying ash is #1 go to wood and sounds like you agree.

 

[Gasifier]

Wow, lots of posts on this one.

lol all over the place too. Love it/hate it. Top cover as soon as its split/don't top cover it at all. 18 months good to go/never dries. Oak seems to have a lot in common with recent politics.

It's merely an attempt by the wood heating industry to polarize the burning community so they can move forward with their hidden corporate agenda while we sit here and argue. %-P


Personally, I've never had much success with drying oak. Even in the dark, hot, and dry recesses of the Battenkiln, it takes twice as long to dry as just about any other wood, even with fans on it 24/7. So it's not just a climate thing, it's just a slow-drying wood.

I pay extra to get a load that has no oak at all. Most wood guys think I'm nuts because it's great firewood, but getting it there is tough when you're buying it. Am I supposed to keep buying it and storing it for two to three years? That would get kinda expensive, and what do I do in the meantime?

White ash has been my go-to wood for over 20 years because it's burnable right off the stump and keeps getting better by the day. That and black cherry - another super fast-drying wood - have saved the day for me for so long that, well.... you guys can keep all the oak to boil in your stoves and leave me with all the "inferior" stuff to make do with. ;-)

I agree with you Batten. Ash is the wood for me too. But your signature quote says otherwise. "Build you a fire with hickory. Hickory, ash and oak ....." :lol:

 

[Battenkiller]

I agree with you Batten. Ash is the wood for me too. But your signature quote says otherwise. "Build you a fire with hickory. Hickory, ash and oak ....." :lol:

Dang hillbilly moonshiners... they'll burn anything. :roll:

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Proud of you Batten. I was really thinking that you were going to tell me my 34% MC was really 21% using some of that wood science of yours, lol...just kiddin.
Hope the house huntin is going ok for you.....hijakin my own thread.....you guys any closer on numbers for the house you were lookin at?

 

[madrone]

Much, much wetter here than where most of you are.

You might get more rainy days (although not this year) but we get more annual rainfall I think. You guys get alot of mist on the west coast am I right. We get soakers.

We get long periods of light rain, followed by constant overcast skies. Maybe fewer inches of rain per year than some places, but bad for drying wood.

 

[bpirger]

Have you tried burning any of your oak? I've never had wood dry for more than two years, and a good deal of oak, and it without a doubt throws out more heat than most of the other stuff I'd have....and that after a year of sitting. No crud in the chimney, no smoke, no sizzle. So before you get all bummed, I'd try burning some and see what happens. Sometimes we turn things into rocket science when we shouldn't.....

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Have you tried burning any of your oak? I've never had wood dry for more than two years, and a good deal of oak, and it without a doubt throws out more heat than most of the other stuff I'd have....and that after a year of sitting. No crud in the chimney, no smoke, no sizzle. So before you get all bummed, I'd try burning some and see what happens. Sometimes we turn things into rocket science when we shouldn't.....

Lol, its in the stove right now hissing away....some nice bubbling going on at the end of the splits.....not the greatest, but it will burn

 

[cptoneleg]

Thats really funny all these educated Woodburners swearing off Oak. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[bpirger]

Well, there you go, the experimental method in action. I've been burning some red oak I brought down this Spring in my Garn....no foam, no sizzle.... It isn't in the Lopi woodstove, so not as easy to hear, but also burns smoke and water vapor free out of the Garn....

Good luck!

 

[cptoneleg]

Have you tried burning any of your oak? I've never had wood dry for more than two years, and a good deal of oak, and it without a doubt throws out more heat than most of the other stuff I'd have....and that after a year of sitting. No crud in the chimney, no smoke, no sizzle. So before you get all bummed, I'd try burning some and see what happens. Sometimes we turn things into rocket science when we shouldn't.....

Lol, its in the stove right now hissing away....some nice bubbling going on at the end of the splits.....not the greatest, but it will burn

Go Oak Go

 

[lukem]

I had some 9 month seasoned oak kindling (basically splitter trash) bubble and hiss when I burned some not too long ago. I was surprised...but probably shouldn't have been.

I'm sitting on about 13 or so cord of oak right now. I will burn the first of it in '14/15 that was c/s/s in November 2010. I'm hoping for the best, but mentally prepared for the worst.

 

[Gasifier]

Thats really funny all these educated Woodburners swearing off Oak. :lol: :lol: :lol:

What was REALLY funny was watching the Texas Rangers loose to the Cardinals. :cheese: :lol: :coolcheese: :ahhh: :coolsmile: :coolsmirk: :coolgrin: :cheese: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[madrone]

They must stick their heads in the stove, oh well thats what you get with a bunch of cityfolks, storing wood on their little patios. Sticking it with MMs before burning. They don't want more heat they want their MMs to tell them it's OK.

I live on a 1/4 acre in a damp climate. I can't store wood for 3 years. I've never owned a moisture meter, but I can't get oak to burn well under my conditions. No need to be jerk.

 

[madrone]

Thats really funny all these educated Woodburners swearing off Oak. :lol: :lol: :lol:

What was REALLY funny was watching the Texas Rangers loose to the Cardinals. :cheese: :lol: :coolcheese: :ahhh: :coolsmile: :coolsmirk: :coolgrin: :cheese: :lol: :lol: :lol:

+ 1 million

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Have you tried burning any of your oak? I've never had wood dry for more than two years, and a good deal of oak, and it without a doubt throws out more heat than most of the other stuff I'd have....and that after a year of sitting. No crud in the chimney, no smoke, no sizzle. So before you get all bummed, I'd try burning some and see what happens. Sometimes we turn things into rocket science when we shouldn't.....

Lol, its in the stove right now hissing away....some nice bubbling going on at the end of the splits.....not the greatest, but it will burn

They must stick their heads in the stove, oh well thats what you get with a bunch of cityfolks, storing wood on their little patios. Sticking it with MMs before burning. They don't want more heat they want their MMs to tell them it's OK.

Who are you referring to here Capt? Maybe I am reading your post incorrectly, but it reads like you woke up with a stick in our arse this morning. I was merely mentioning that I had oak what has been split/stacked for 2 1/2 years and is still very high on the moisture content. (Really don't need a mm since its bubbling, but since I got one I might as well use it)

 

[fossil]

OK folks, get the thread back to talking about wood...and not about thinly veiled insults and rejoinders...or I'm just gonna shut it down. Rick