My new favorite wood

[TradEddie]

When we looked to buy our house 16 years ago, there was a HUGE sickly oak leaning over the road, close to the property line and no way did I want that liability, so ensuring that it was on the other side of the property line was key to our offer on the house. Well, that tree lasted much longer than I expected, but one night it finally did drop a "limb" on the power line. That limb was at least 24" diameter and there were bigger ones still left up there. The utility company dropped most of the remaining tree and just dumped the wood behind. I offered to clean up, and share the wood, since my neighbor was just out of surgery. That wood was a mixture of punky wood and ant-infested wood, and very little was solid oak. I took about a cord of the irregular shaped stuff. Fast forward two and a half years, I just broke into that stash and what a delight! The wood still measured 19-20%mc, but it may be the best wood I've ever burned. I think the slight rottenness helps the burning, I can turn the air all the way down and the wood stays burning as slowly as I wanted. A few night ago, I put a 6" log onto a large bed of coals at 11pm, and came down at 6:15am to flames still buring, clear glass and a warm kitchen. That wasn't a huge anomaly, this has been teh best "turn-down" wood I;ev ever had, and having an oversized insert, that's a bonus.

Anybody else see great performance from slightly rotten wood?

TE

 

[Sawset]

When we looked to buy our house 16 years ago, there was a HUGE sickly oak leaning over the road, close to the property line and no way did I want that liability, so ensuring that it was on the other side of the property line was key to our offer on the house. Well, that tree lasted much longer than I expected, but one night it finally did drop a "limb" on the power line. That limb was at least 24" diameter and there were bigger ones still left up there. The utility company dropped most of the remaining tree and just dumped the wood behind. I offered to clean up, and share the wood, since my neighbor was just out of surgery. That wood was a mixture of punky wood and ant-infested wood, and very little was solid oak. I took about a cord of the irregular shaped stuff. Fast forward two and a half years, I just broke into that stash and what a delight! The wood still measured 19-20%mc, but it may be the best wood I've ever burned. I think the slight rottenness helps the burning, I can turn the air all the way down and the wood stays burning as slowly as I wanted. A few night ago, I put a 6" log onto a large bed of coals at 11pm, and came down at 6:15am to flames still buring, clear glass and a warm kitchen. That wasn't a huge anomaly, this has been teh best "turn-down" wood I;ev ever had, and having an oversized insert, that's a bonus.

Anybody else see great performance from slightly rotten wood?

TE

Lot's of oak wilt here. It means anything dead and going over is fair game for firewood. Unfortunatly, what shows up as dead here, has really been dieing for possibly a decade. Branches with sapwood decayed, trunks with fungal decay throughout. But its sacrilege to leave them alone. So in they come, punk or not. Mass is mass, 40lb of punk burns good, maybe better than 40lb solid white oak. Not sure. If it's dry, nice and dry, it's golden, heats very well regardless.

 

[Simonkenton]

I don't use rotten wood.

 

[TradEddie]

I don't use rotten wood.

Me neither, I'm not talking about anything punky or soft in any way, but wood that is solid, yet somehow in places looks just a little less structurally sound than fresh oak. Wood that splits just a little easier than "solid" oak should. I've burned enough well seasoned oak to know how well that burns and I love it, but this recent batch was noticeably easier to keep burning at low air settings, and with no blackened glass from a low overnight burn.
It could of course just be the age of the wood, I'm guessing that this tree was about 200 years old, I counted 110 rings on my nearby oaks, and those were just babies compared to this one. This road has been here since the late 1700's, I know the Continental Army marched less than a mile away, and I like to think that some of these trees witnessed that.

TE

 

[FIDLER]

Me neither, I'm not talking about anything punky or soft in any way, but wood that is solid, yet somehow in places looks just a little less structurally sound than fresh oak. Wood that splits just a little easier than "solid" oak should. I've burned enough well seasoned oak to know how well that burns and I love it, but this recent batch was noticeably easier to keep burning at low air settings, and with no blackened glass from a low overnight burn.
It could of course just be the age of the wood, I'm guessing that this tree was about 200 years old, I counted 110 rings on my nearby oaks, and those were just babies compared to this one. This road has been here since the late 1700's, I know the Continental Army marched less than a mile away, and I like to think that some of these trees witnessed that.

TE

Sounds familiar. Where in SE Pa are you?

 

[Woody Stover]

I don't use rotten wood.

So what do you do, saw down live trees?

Me neither, I'm not talking about anything punky or soft in any way, but wood that is solid, yet somehow in places looks just a little less structurally sound than fresh oak. Wood that splits just a little easier than "solid" oak should. I've burned enough well seasoned oak to know how well that burns and I love it, but this recent batch was noticeably easier to keep burning at low air settings, and with no blackened glass from a low overnight burn.
It could of course just be the age of the wood, I'm guessing that this tree was about 200 years old, I counted 110 rings on my nearby oaks, and those were just babies compared to this one. This road has been here since the late 1700's, I know the Continental Army marched less than a mile away, and I like to think that some of these trees witnessed that.

Great story. I think I counted a little over 100 on this one. Fool across the street badgered the County to cut it down...coulda been a state record in another 10-15 years. Tree would never have fallen toward his house. That tree had a weighty presence to it, every time I went by it, like you feel when you are next to big mountains. 70" on the trunk cut-off.

Yeah, I see old tops here that must be 20 y.o. and when you chop into 'em, look like you could still burn them. Yeah, some small amount of decomposition may have set in on the stuff you got, but all that heartwood stays really solid for a long, long time. I kinda like finding Oak where I can peel off all the punky sapwood easily with a hatchet, leaving nothing but heartwood cores. Solid meat!

 

[turn_n_burn]

I would've loved to have that wood. In the desert west we only have softwoods generally available, but every so often I get the opportunity to take down a couple mountain mahogany trees on private ground (cercocarpus ledifolius) out in the Owyhees. If you EVER get a chance to get some of this (not many do), it is the best wood on God's Green Earth. It's so dense it will not float in water, and it is correspondingly impossible to cut with less than 3 sharp chains, and *absolutely* impossible to split without a powerful splitter. You'll never find a straight section of it anyway, it's a gnarly b*stard. Around here some people call it quebracho, or axe-breaker.

It is a spectacular wood for BBQ use (deep, almost rosewood-like smell), and seasons surprisingly fast, as it is very dry wood that only grows in arid climates. There was a guy years ago on Arboristsite.com that did a trial run in his Blaze King catalytyic with some of it, and he was able to get 48 hours of heat out of a couple medium sized rounds (it's a small tree) and a chunk of Lodgepole to get it going. The stuff burns like anthracite. Twice the density of red oak.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

i dont take anything rotting or punky.... theres just to much premium wood out there to be putting my hours in. Anything subpar gets left for mother nature to take care of and recycle...

 

[Sawset]

This was a 30" standing white oak taken down this fall. It cut like oak, was heavy, but when I got to splitting, the heartwood seemed maybe 25% porous. You can see the dark discolored area on the round cross section. I couldn't leave something like this, or take it all to the burn pile and throw it out. Got me thinking - what would my tolerance be.
If it makes it to the yard, it means its been selected first in the woods. If it seems hard and heavy, it usually comes in. Once on the splitter, if it splits into usable intact splits, and it's still heavy, then its kept and stacked. On these, from this white oak, maybe 15% was scrapped and ended up on the brush pile. When split it would crumble. Disapointing. But the remainder will be good wood to burn. Maybe somewhat "subpar", but by the time it makes it to the stove, porous or not, if it's dry it will heat nicely.

 

[Kevin Weis]

I've found with slightly plunked wood on its way out that it will just ash out instead of coaling which isn't desirable in a at stove. But it will burn.

 

[Woody Stover]

from this white oak, maybe 15% was scrapped

That looks like it was on the hoof a long time before you finally got it. Sapwood on White lasts longer than it does on Red, and a lot of that sapwood is gone, or would crumble off in your hand.

 

[Sawset]

That looks like it was on the hoof a long time before you finally got it. Sapwood on White lasts longer than it does on Red, and a lot of that sapwood is gone, or would crumble off in your hand.

4 years dead standing. There are 4 more similar. This was the only soft one. Most of the branches have fallen away by this time (these are open grown - lot of low and spreading branches). I'm hesitant working under branches, especially dead ones, so once they are leaning, fallen over, or otherwise clear overhead, then I feel comfortable working underneath. Usually the trunks stay solid a very long time. Branches not long at all. What I see also though is that the oak wilt is affecting growth a decade before them dieing. If this one was 180yrs old, had been in a state of decline for 10 yrs, then add 4 more - the inside apparently was on its way out, and collapse was swift. The other three also have few branches left, but the stems are very solid.
As far as sapwood lasting a long time on white oak, this is what I'm seeing : year 1 mushrooms on the trunk - look up, and see dead branch tips, 2 bark falling off, 3 decay starting in, lot of branches falling, trunk sluffing off, 4 branches mostly gone, cut it next fall. Wish there was a better way - not brave enough to crawl around under the things hacking at it's base with baseball bats waiting to drop.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Glad it worked well. I've had the opposite experience. Dead wood is of course good, but punky wood is kind of worthless. Except to throw on a hot fire of good wood.