petrified oak score

[shoot-straight]

sorry, i have to gloat. i stopped at a random house because he had some standing dead pines that i thought he would like taken away. well, turns out he has the treasure trove of standing dead red oak behind the house. gotta have at least 4 cords of it. standing dead for 3+ years, hard and dry inside. other than a little punk on the outside (that makes the wood messy) its the perfect wood in my opinion.

i will be a member of the 5 year club in another week or two.....

 

[splitoak]

Nice.....sharpen those chains..lol

 

[Woody Stover]

A lot of the limbs may be dry but the trunk wood will probably still be in the mid to upper 20s, if the dead Oaks I cut are any indication. Yeah, you're going to have a bit of sapwood punk with Oak but it's not too big a deal IMO. A couple years drying should do it on the trunk wood if it's split medium-size...

 

[Charlie2]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, saw it off if you can, but standing red oak doesn't dry while standing, the last big tree I just cut was so wet when the splitter cutter entered the split the water would squish out the sides, it had 1" plus punk. Red oak trees do not dry while standing, they rot and fall down.---But the upside is if you split it, it dries fast. I've got numbers on some splits I've recorded, like the yellow pine.

 

[shoot-straight]

Oh I wasn't saying it was ready to burn right now.... I guess dry is relative in this case. No MM but mid twenties is likely about right. Bottom areas of trunk had noticeably more moisture. And yes, once split, it finishes drying fast! Most wood even after 2 days has already begun that process and full of splits and checks. Lots of BTUs on the way!

 

[Paulywalnut]

I agree with Charlie, that punky outside keeps that great wood inside pretty moist. Still a great find though. Never pass up oak

 

[Charlie2]

Here's the results of weighing just one piece of standing dead red oak. The last photo was today a year later, maybe two. It's stabilized and will gain or loose weight according to humidity.

Well, the second photo didn't upload, but it's the same finished weight as posted.

This wood squished water out when I was splitting it.