Looking for some BTU info

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Woodsplitter67

Minister of Fire
Jan 19, 2017
3,617
Woolwich nj
My neighbor has 11 acres that is letting me pull some trees from. There are a number of willow oaks some 100 ft high and 4ft+ trunks on them. My son want to take them feels it would be a challenge.. Im not sure of the BTUs for willow oak and if its not a high end wood I dont want to spend the effort. There are alot of other oaks on the property, so I can take them. The willow oaks are monsters and will produce alot of wood.. so anyone know what the BTUs are per cord
 
Don't know the BTU rating but from what I have read it is similar to Red Oak
 
My research says higher moisture content than red oak and tough to split. I'd avoid big ones if I were you and I had other choices. You could try one and see.
 
29 million BTU per cord. Good God what great firewood. I never heard of willow oak, I don't think it grows around here.
 
I like the big ones! You get more bang for your buck
More Wood out of less trees
 
Water oak is one of the most common trees here. In town, it is THE most common. Outside the city, it's common but there are more red oak. My understanding is that water oak is a red oak. We also have lots of willow oak and I have heard it is also in the red oak family. They burn about the same, the wood is very similar, which means pretty good. Most of it is not hard to split at all but knots are another story, as always. Away from knots, it can split like red oak, meaning really nice, uniform splits. The ones in town are now dying, it's really common; I attribute it to the fact they all are 80-120 years old and we have had drought and also super cold and super hot periods, meaning stress. The ones I get calls on are like yours, big. They are a bear to process. I noodle the big rounds into quarters if we can't roll them onto my trailer. Plus, need to noodle them anyway to split them. A 16" round of water oak at 3ft - 4ft diameter is incredibly heavy. A big tree could have 2-4 cords in it. Be careful limbing a huge oak like that, the limbs can kill. Anticipate movement and get out the way! If you are ever undecided about which way a limb (or the trunk) is going, don't cut that.
 
Bigger trees are actually more wood for the effort because you tend to get a lot of clear wood that splits easily as long as you can handle the size. For sure, you might have issues with crotches and so on, but when I get a big oak or ask, it is awesome as the clear pieces split like butter and you can make then square or whatever shape you want. Taking them down can be an issue if they are in a congested area.
 
heres a picture of the tree. my son is standing in front of it. Its atleas 100ft.. most likely more then 120 ots a monster oak. there alot of wood here. the branches themselves are like tree.. the trunk is at least 4ft.. Ill be using the T590 with grapple bucket and the kubuta tractor to move this sucker.. normally no the scrounge I only bring 1 machine.. Ill use 2 for this as its near my home and I won't be saing the truck to hall log lenth

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Careful there, Woodsplitter67. When you have the luxury of debating out loud which particular subspecies of oak you're willing to accept for free, you're going to make all those folks burning nothing but western softwoods really dislike you. ;lol
 
i.e.
Southern Idaho Mountain Desert
me: I'll remove that cottonwood limb for the wood. (the 18" diameter limb is perched 6' off ground, hanging onto trunk, so it's kind of a dangerous scene).
older neighbor: $50.
me: No need to pay me. I'll do it for free.
neighbor: It will cost you $50.
me: I'll pass. It is cottonwood, and it is kind of a dangerous cut - damn!
 
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PA (and a few parts of NJ) are quite different. I literally have local tree guys asking to dump their dumptruck loads of mixed cherry and ash in my yard a few times each year, and another neighbor just begging me to please take down more ash trees in his yard (EAB is hitting hard). But other than trying to be a good and helpful neighbor, I don't want to waste time on ash, when there's more hickory blown down at church than I can ever work through, and even more red oak at a friend's property 7 miles from home.

Excepting guys just getting into this, who haven't established any good contacts yet, most of us in the northeast seem to always have more good hardwoods than we can find time to process.
 
PA (and a few parts of NJ) are quite different. I literally have local tree guys asking to dump their dumptruck loads of mixed cherry and ash in my yard a few times each year, and another neighbor just begging me to please take down more ash trees in his yard (EAB is hitting hard). But other than trying to be a good and helpful neighbor, I don't want to waste time on ash, when there's more hickory blown down at church than I can ever work through, and even more red oak at a friend's property 7 miles from home.

Excepting guys just getting into this, who haven't established any good contacts yet, most of us in the northeast seem to always have more good hardwoods than we can find time to process.

I have a friend that has 26 acers and can go over there any time its like a 15 minute hall.. My son prefers to work near the house and keep the equipment there instead of hauling it around. Her feels better about working on it more at his leisure. Your right that it seems we have more access to wood then others. I get some free deliveries of wood here and there from a friend that has a tree service. I don't ask him to much for wood. He mostly asks when he needs to dump something locally. I really had no idea the the willow oak had this many BYUs in it and bot me and my son were hard predded to fined a chart with any information on it for willow oak. Iv never burned it and no-one I know has had it.
 
If they are that big, and if they are straight, sell the logs, or do something with them other than firewood.

They are that big and from the pictures they are straight. I can wait to start cutting and processing. My sons now 14 and he is eager to tackle such a big tree. I might even treat myself to a new saw for this one.. Im not sure how may cords are in this im guessing over 2 its alot of wood.
 
They are that big and from the pictures they are straight. I can wait to start cutting and processing. My sons now 14 and he is eager to tackle such a big tree. I might even treat myself to a new saw for this one.. Im not sure how may cords are in this im guessing over 2 its alot of wood.
Easy. (Dia/24)^2/*L/85, with Dia in inches and L in feet. 85 is roughly how many cubic feet of solid wood you'll find in a stacked cord.