I'll be buying firewood from the marketplace & I don't know much about how wood looks split open, no leaves, branches etc to help identify. I'll be posting some different woods to request your expert opinions. Here's the first one, Thanks!
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What Species?
- Thread starter fantastic
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Looks to me like red oak. The punky 1-2” on the outside of the splits is from oak wilt.
NickW
Minister of Fire
Thanks, They say it's "Mostly Hickory". Funny thing is we have so much oak around here in MO that I know that most of the wood pictured above is a darker reddish/brown than red oak is. I think there may very well be some small amount of Oak mixed in this stack though so you're probably right there.
Shockingly, they are selling cords for $125 so I really plan on buying a bunch of this stuff & wanted to check in with you folks. From what I read online is that Hickory has a higher BTU than Oak. Only burn it on the coldest days?
They're claiming it's seasoned 1-2 years. I'll need to ask them if that includes any standing dead time. To me "seasoned" is split wood stacked for at least 1 year. Is that what you say?
NickW
Minister of Fire
Nice! A full cord of oak or hickory runs around $400 here.
Yes, seasoning begins when split and stacked. Logs in a pile are absolutely NOT seasoning. Google firewood BTU charts with seasoning times to get an idea of approximate seasoning times for different woods. Sometimes dead standing the branch wood will be pretty well seasoned, but trunks virtually never are. I took down a dead white ash trunk a few years ago that was standing in a wide-open area delimbed for at least 5 years that still measured 42% mc.
High BTU good coaling woods like oak and hickory are great for overnight burns or daytime when it's not super cold or you're not around to reload. Daytime super cold if you're home or evenings when you need a heat burst but not a pile of coals lower quality wood is better to not be fighting coal mountain.
Yes, seasoning begins when split and stacked. Logs in a pile are absolutely NOT seasoning. Google firewood BTU charts with seasoning times to get an idea of approximate seasoning times for different woods. Sometimes dead standing the branch wood will be pretty well seasoned, but trunks virtually never are. I took down a dead white ash trunk a few years ago that was standing in a wide-open area delimbed for at least 5 years that still measured 42% mc.
High BTU good coaling woods like oak and hickory are great for overnight burns or daytime when it's not super cold or you're not around to reload. Daytime super cold if you're home or evenings when you need a heat burst but not a pile of coals lower quality wood is better to not be fighting coal mountain.
“They” may not know what they’re selling either. Firewood sellers are notoriously inaccurate and incompetent with their jobs and tend to be uneducated on proper seasoning times etc.
