What kind of Oak? Any practical difference between species for burning purposes?

[Slow1]

Ok, I have this pile of logs that I know are oak. Hey! I'm learning something here - I can identify oak and don't even need the leaves anymore, ha. Anyway, now I'm beginning to wonder what kind of oak it is - red, white, black (blue?). Then the followup question is does it really matter? I see on the BTU table that red and white are both pretty close on the BTU/cord (white being slightly higher, but not a whole lot).

Will they split, season, or burn any differently? I expect the answer is not really.

I plan to do my splitting by hand. All of this is slated for 2011/12 so it should get a solid 2 years to dry out if I at least get it all bucked in the next couple weeks. Won't all be split that soon, but at least it can start drying a bit faster in 16" rounds than it will in log length.

Oh - and another thing, is it easier to split green or after it has had some time to season?

 

[Bubbavh]

Red seems to split a little easier. they season and burn about the same.
Splitting... Do it now cause it ain't gonna get any easier!

 

[drdoct]

A lot of our red oak down here rots on the inside. To me it seems wetter and of course punky/spongy around the center where it's hollow. White oak seems to be much straighter and denser wood. I think oaks get much easier once you cut them to length and let them sit a month or so. A lot of times a huge crack will form to get a target to hit for. After a few years I can't tell the difference in burning.

 

[JustWood]

I think WO coals up better.

 

[Hogwildz]

The white for me if real fresh, is much stringier than the red. Red for me practically pops apart.

 

[BrotherBart]

Same as Hog for me. I have dense woods so they both grow tall and straight. The straight grain red oak is the easiest stuff around for me to split. The tight grain of white oak is a lot harder.

 

[Tony H]

i Have more Burr oak and Pin oak than red or white but they a bit different with the Burr having a thicker bark and drying a bit more slowly the burr also cracks a bit more after being bucked so splitting by hand is a little better after a month or two. The pin oak is a bit straighter grain and splits a little easier but not much.
After seasoning both are great burning woods

 

[quads]

They are all pretty close. Bur oak is my favorite firewood of the oaks here (black, white, and bur). Usually it splits easy and has the best qualities in the stove. Black oak splits easier than white oak, but white oak is slightly better in the stove. White oak also takes longer to season, I give it three years minimum. Black oak two years at least.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

As for the splitting, I like to cut wood in winter and split in spring. I also would much rather split the wood when green rather than letting it dry some first. Besides, splitting when green allows the drying to happen much faster. Especially with oak, it has a tendency to punk some and you won't like splitting anything that has punk.

 

[Todd]

I have a 6 cord assortment of RED, Pin, White, and Burr Oak rounds I'm beginning to split. So far I'm finding the Red and Pin Oaks are esaiest to split, they almost split in half just from the sight of the axe. The White and Burr are more difficult at times and seem to have a more stringy appearance. Also found that some of the dead barkless rounds are a little harder to split than full bark rounds that have more moisture inside.

My favorite Oak to burn is White, it seems to last longer than the Red's but they all seem to take 2+ years to dry out enough to get good burns.

 

[Bspring]

Red oak wins! It is one of my favorite woods to split. Wet or dry didn't seem to make much difference. White is more trouble and I think a bit easier when it has some time to dry. It is a really dense hard wood. If it is twisted you might as well pound on a block of concrete. We have a lot of Water Oak and Willow Oak around here. I have not had much experience with them yet but have a large Willow Oak that didn't make it do to construction too close to it. I will be dropping it in the next few months.

 

[Slow1]

So I'm still wondering how to tell the difference between red and white. I googled it and found the very helpful "red oak is red" gee... thanks. And a number of references to flooring and how to compare two boards and tell the difference, but given that I don't have two to compare next to each other that won't work very well.

Now what I do have are some leaves. And I did find a couple sites that show leaves for Red and White oak - but there apparently are different varieties. From looking at the pictures it seems to me the main difference is that red oak has more pointed ends to the leaves where white oak has very rounded tips on them. Anyone know if this is pretty much universal? If so I'm looking at red oak in this load as all the leaves have pointy tips.

 

[fossil]

What's Oak? :roll: Rick

 

[rdust]

From looking at the pictures it seems to me the main difference is that red oak has more pointed ends to the leaves where white oak has very rounded tips on them. Anyone know if this is pretty much universal? If so I'm looking at red oak in this load as all the leaves have pointy tips.

Someone posted a picture of all the different oak leaves a while back that was real helpful. I thought I had it on the computer but maybe it's the other one. Red oak are kind of pointy but it's a thick point, pin oak comes to more of a sharp point and white oaks have more of a rounded leaf.

 

[branchburner]

That load you got looks like red oak. The bark of white oak is generally much lighter in color and more finely scaly/papery. Red oak bark is smoother on the branch wood and then coarser on the trunk, more like alligator skin. Sometimes you can really see the reddish tones in it.

As mentioned, white oak is stringier and tougher splitting. Red is a dream to split. I had a red oak come down in the ice storm last winter, split a bunch when it was frozen. Didn't even need an axe. Just whispered "Fiskers" and it fell apart (I took a few in the shin, but then, I am a six-footer).

 

[gzecc]

Oak needs a solid two years to dry. Split it in the small side also.

 

[ksting]

Red smells like pee!

 

[quads]

Oak needs a solid two years to dry. Split it in the small side also.

If it's white oak, I'd give it three years if possible.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

So I'm still wondering how to tell the difference between red and white. I googled it and found the very helpful "red oak is red" gee... thanks. And a number of references to flooring and how to compare two boards and tell the difference, but given that I don't have two to compare next to each other that won't work very well.

Now what I do have are some leaves. And I did find a couple sites that show leaves for Red and White oak - but there apparently are different varieties. From looking at the pictures it seems to me the main difference is that red oak has more pointed ends to the leaves where white oak has very rounded tips on them. Anyone know if this is pretty much universal? If so I'm looking at red oak in this load as all the leaves have pointy tips.

You are exactly correct. Any oak leaves that are sharp pointed are in the red oak family. The white oak leaf is always rounded. Of the acorns, the white oak acorn is the preferred amongst the animal kingdom because of less tannin; they don't tastes as sour.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

So I'm still wondering how to tell the difference between red and white. I googled it and found the very helpful "red oak is red" gee... thanks. And a number of references to flooring and how to compare two boards and tell the difference, but given that I don't have two to compare next to each other that won't work very well.

Now what I do have are some leaves. And I did find a couple sites that show leaves for Red and White oak - but there apparently are different varieties. From looking at the pictures it seems to me the main difference is that red oak has more pointed ends to the leaves where white oak has very rounded tips on them. Anyone know if this is pretty much universal? If so I'm looking at red oak in this load as all the leaves have pointy tips.

Here is Red vs White, you might have Pin Oak.
Post some pic's........Pin Oak's bark is easy to ID.

WoodButcher

 

[Wood Duck]

There are lots of different species of oak, but they're divided into two groups, the red oak group and the white oak group. Each group is named after its most widespread member (or most common in the location where the first person to divide the groups lived). Red Oaks have pointy leaves, generally have bristles or hairs at each pointy tip of each leaf. White oaks have rounded leaves without bristles. There are lots of other ways to tell the two species apart, including the bark, wood, acorns, etc. but telling oak species apart by bark is more an art than a science. There are also a few wierd oaks with non oaklike leaves, such as willow oak, certain water oaks, chestnut oak, etc.

 

[Slow1]

Looking at the pictures of bark posted here as well as the pointed leaves check I'm confident now that this is red oak of some type. Once I get splitting I'll post some close up pictures (perhaps before...). Don't generally have the camera out there - not exactly the safest place to keep it in working condition.

I'm hoping that the splitting goes well... there is metal in there though. Didn't need to look for stains to suggest it - the cable sticking out of the log gave it away! Will have to cut well clear of that one (guess I'll center the point where the cable enters the tree in the round) and hope for the best at splitting time.