Whats going on here?

[Eightball1313]

We cut a beautiful red oak down for some grade A lumber at our sawmill, i hacked the limbs up for fire wood, everything was 100% green, fresh cut split and stacked about 2 months ago. Honestly, everything i ever have stacked was usually dead standing hardwoods so im just curious what is going on here with the black ring around the ends? Cant be molding that quick, think its just from being green and moisture seeping out? you can see in the pics its only the green red oak, theres also some green aspen and green maple mixed in but only the red oak has the black rings on the outsides, the black stains also run along the grain on the inside of the split but didnt get a pic of that. let me know what you all think!

 

[Simonkenton]

I have cut up a lot of red oak. I have never had that happen. Some kind of weird oak fungus.
I bet it will burn fine.

 

[Eightball1313]

I have cut up a lot of red oak. I have never had that happen. Some kind of weird oak fungus.
I bet it will burn fine.

Yeah im sure itll dry out in time, the lumber we cut out of that tree got some dark spots really quick too from not being spaced out when stacked right away, which surprised me cuz usually we have a few days at least. good thing it was being used to build a work table in a mechanics garage lol

 

[Sawset]

My take is, if it were cut green, there would be a lot of moisture in the sap wood (outside dark ring area). The stack appears to be on the north side? Lack of drying sun and heat, high moisture/humidity, mold started when first cut, probably stopped now that the wood has dried some (can see end checking starting), won't hurt a thing as long as it continues to dry down.

 

[Eightball1313]

My take is, if it were cut green, there would be a lot of moisture in the sap wood (outside dark ring area). The stack appears to be on the north side? Lack of drying sun and heat, high moisture/humidity, mold started when first cut, probably stopped now that the wood has dried some (can see end checking starting), won't hurt a thing as long as it continues to dry down.

i think youre spot on, the stump had so much moisture running out the next day after we timbered it.

 

[nrford]

Log stain. Initial signs of fungal decay. it will stop when moisture content drops...

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I've never seen that. No answers here.

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

Happens to me almost 100% of the time I cut red oak. I have no problems burning it.

My thought is mold or fungus. Oxygen plus water plus sugars plus sunlight is a great environment for it to grow on.

 

[TheAardvark]

Its normal. Every time I cut live red oak, it happens. When I cut dead red oak, it does not happen.

 

[Eightball1313]

I've never seen that. No answers here.

yeah ive never seen it either with firewood, only on fresh cut lumber

 

[Eightball1313]

Happens to me almost 100% of the time I cut red oak. I have no problems burning it.

My thought is mold or fungus. Oxygen plus water plus sugars plus sunlight is a great environment for it to grow on.

ah ok good to know! yeah its definitely some kind of mold, same thing happens with the lumber we cut if we dont space it out good, i just didnt expect it with firewood i guess haha

 

[Eightball1313]

Its normal. Every time I cut live red oak, it happens. When I cut dead red oak, it does not happen.

yeah just never into much live stuff because theres so much dead standing timber here, but it kinda looks cool in the stack to say the least haha