The drought has taken a toll on trees, but particularly the water elms and pin oaks. I won't mess with the elms, but how good are pin oaks for splitting and burning in Jotul stoves? They seem to be a softer oak than Live Oaks or Post Oaks.
Pin Oak to burn
- Thread starter G6 at Snook TX
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Pin oak can be a bear to split, especially on the upper trunk where all the branches start coming off. The straight sections split pretty easily. Pin oak burns great. Just takes a long time to dry.
Pin oak burns good so long as you can give it the extra time to dry. Splitting is about like any red oak. I would find it hard to believe they are softer than the other oaks unless they have been dead for quite some time.
Around here they slough off their limbs faster when dead than Post Oaks or Live Oaks. They are also found in creek bottoms and gullys I guess they love water and need longer to dry out than the other oaks.
G6 at Snook said:
Bottom limbs on them are junk, normally dead and just hanging. Now once in the trunk its begging for more cc's quick!
None on my property but many to be found in valleys nearby. Pin is in the Red Oak family, so needs similar drying time. I'm not sure that a green Pin would have any more moisture than green Red...G6 at Snook said:
I've got a couple of storm-downed Pin Oaks to get, but now I'm working to split and stack stuff that I'll be needing sooner. I've got the Pins slated for 2014.
Backwoods Savage said:
Yep. We have one in the front yard. It has the characteristic downward hanging dead branches- but heck, cut 'em off and they make dandy kindling.
I agree they can be very hard to split. Full of knots and curved grain. The heartwood of large trees can be very stringy, like elm. Not like most other oaks. Burns hot though.
I have a bit of pin oak here and I do tend to use several size wedges and sometimes an axe or splitting maul as a pry bar on those damned branches that hold things together like pins.
Cuts nice when it is green, but if you have to trim any pieces after it has seasoned for being too long to fit in the stove you better have a damned sharp chain .
Cuts nice when it is green, but if you have to trim any pieces after it has seasoned for being too long to fit in the stove you better have a damned sharp chain .
I've had some Pin Oak rounds that I didn't split with the rest of the tree.
About three years later my Ten pound maul and my Fiskers SS didn't make a dent in them. Just bounced right off
Those three year old rounds made the best overnight burns I've ever had.
About three years later my Ten pound maul and my Fiskers SS didn't make a dent in them. Just bounced right off
Those three year old rounds made the best overnight burns I've ever had.
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