Why I prefer red oak over white oak

[weee123]

I personally MUCH prefer red oak over white oak. It splits way easier (isn’t a stringy mess like white) and seasons much faster (2 vs 3 years). White oak just doesn’t seem to want to properly season for me and I always seem to have trouble getting it going unless it’s dropped on a screaming hot bed of coals.

I also hate cutting white oaks because they’re beautiful trees to me and I don’t have many big ones near me.

End rant

 

[mpaul]

I had to take down a white oak that was in my front yard three years ago. The base of the tree was rotting out. I’m burning that this season and have no issues lighting it. Small bed of coals and it lights right up.
I do have some red oak that was brought over by my tree guy this summer. It did split very smoothly. The splitter barely touched the end and the whole round split. I’m anxious to burn that in another three years.
Doesn’t red oak put out more BTUs than white oak too?

 

[ABMax24]

I think this requires unbiased third party testing.

Ship me a cord of each and I'll get it sorted out. 😜

 

[fvhowler]

No need to rant...just send that white oak to me and I'll deal with it somehow, some way.

Seriously, I generally love oak for firewood and will burn it no matter the type. White oak most definitely needs more time to season.

 

[weee123]

White oak puts out more btus than red since it’s much more dense and takes longer to grow. I definitely love seasoned white oak but when I figure it sitting in a stack for a couple years would be seasoned but nope, still needs another year to season up. Just a little frustrated having to put it back into another stack to get burned next year.
Hate having to move stuff twice.

 

[Sawset]

Red oak you can blow air through like a straw. White oak is closed grained - makes good water proof whiskey barrels and planking for boats, cord wood that takes forever to dry and a joy to split. Have a hatchet nearby to chop all the strings.

 

[weee123]

Oh it’s definitely a joy to split thats for sure. I love it when the strings hold it together even after it’s split

 

[spuldup]

We live by a veneer plant from which I obtain de-barked slabwood. It burns great but it was milled from massive white oak and needs split. The stuff I have not has been processed 3 years ago and still reads 15% moisture. But at $100/cd I'm not complaining.

 

[aansorge]

Honey locust is bad for seasoning too (at least in my limited experience). It needed 4 years. Most dense wood has the downside of long dry times. Ash is a nice middle ground wood that suits me just right.

 

[Simonkenton]

I like them both. I'm burning red oak tonight.

 

[Eman85]

Sold white oaks for whiskey barrels, they make them near here. I'm particular about my wood, it has to fit all of the way in the stove.

 

[weee123]

Just swapped my wood around earlier today and tossed the semi seasoned stuff into the stacks for next year. moved onto the next stack with actually seasoned white and red oak. Just in time for the coldest temps so far this year in my area on Xmas eve and day

 

[ABMax24]

Red oak you can blow air through like a straw. White oak is closed grained - makes good water proof whiskey barrels and planking for boats, cord wood that takes forever to dry and a joy to split. Have a hatchet nearby to chop all the strings.

View attachment 305612

Serious question (coming from a person whose definition of hardwood is white birch). Is Red Oak the only species of wood to be open grained like that? I've done some woodworking with red oak and definitely noticed that it was "like a straw".

 

[therealdbeau]

Yeah well white oak smells better 😝

 

[weee123]

Yeah well white oak smells better 😝

I actually like the smell of red oak

 

[Sawset]

Serious question (coming from a person whose definition of hardwood is white birch). Is Red Oak the only species of wood to be open grained like that? I've done some woodworking with red oak and definitely noticed that it was "like a straw".

That's interesting. I've worked with a lot of the native types for the midwest, most of it being red oak, hard maple, yellow birch. The rest are more expensive, end up looking to artsy for me, are difficult to work with, or end up looking dull. Looking up grain patterns in woods, the comment that stood out is "there is a dazzling array of pore patterns throughout the world". I came up with a nice database with a good set of filters for finding those patterns.

Wood Filter | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com

 

[Woody Stover]

I prefer the White. A round that has sat a couple years has a heavenly vanilla fragrance when you split it...no wonder they use it for whiskey barrels! 😏 Not too hard to start, and burns long.
Reds die more often than Whites around here, so that's mostly what I get. But now that the borer is here, the White Ash death rate is rising. 😢
I don't cut live trees if I can avoid it, and there's more than enough dead wood to supply everyone's stove that I have to feed.
If the trunk of a Red is off the ground, I sometimes let all the sapwood fall off before I get it. I'm going to try to accelerate that by running a small saw down the top side of a few fallen trunks, and see if that works..

 

[weee123]

The reds are dying all over the place by me and the sap wood rots out super quick. I have access to so much dead wood it’d be wrong to cut the healthy trees

 

[JamesGuido]

actually, red oak is better in the smoker.... ideal for tri tip.
white oak in the woodstove is fine with me.

 

[Jonathan2001]

I agree 100% for all the reasons stated.

Now if you ever manage to get white oak down to 15-18% moisture content, it burns amazingly well in every way -- like white ash but even better. But that takes 5-6 years around here. I am not exaggerating. I can only burn white oak after 3 years if I split it small. I like big splits for my big stove, and it's 4-5 years minimum to get big white oak splits down to around 20% MC. I start to loose track of how long white oak has been in my piles, so now I just wait until the sapwood starts getting a little punky and by that time the heartwood is usually good to burn.

Red oak, on the other hand, seasons like most good hardwoods -- 2 years minimum, 3 years even better.

With all that said... if I get white oak down to sub-20% mc outside and move it into my hot garage for a summer, then by that winter.... watch out. I can close the air control on my stove down all the way and flames will just pour out of the white oak for hours and hours.

 

[Woody Stover]

The reds are dying all over the place by me and the sap wood rots out super quick. I have access to so much dead wood it’d be wrong to cut the healthy trees

Hmmm, interesting that the Reds are dying out east, same as they are here. I'd like to find out what it is that's taking 'em out.
I like Oak but that sapwood is a nuiscance. If you get a live tree that blows down, you just go ahead and split and stack. But if you let 'em die and fall over the sapwood is already half punked. I let 'em lie there until the sapwood gets soft enough that I can just skim it off with a hatchet.
Last year I took down a dead one that was close to the house...solid heart, almost all the sapwood gone! 🤗
Rounds are about 24", and a nice long trunk as well.

 

[Sawset]

Hmmm, interesting that the Reds are dying out east, same as they are here. I'd like to find out what it is that's taking 'em out.

Oak wilt. We had very little here until 6yrs ago or so. A look at the maps said that western WI had a lot of it, but not here. Then I saw a few red oaks die here, then more, then 15 in one year, then white oaks started to die, then 15. Every year, 10-15 more. The oldest was 210yrs old. Wondering what the next succession will be. Oak, elm, butternut, made up most of the large trees here. The last butternut died 2yrs ago.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I like all oak. I really like white oak ill take as much as I can fined. I got a couple trees coming.my way. I like pin oak also. I burned alot of rhat a couple years ago.. I like all oak in general

 

[Woody Stover]

Oak wilt. We had very little here until 6yrs ago or so. A look at the maps said that western WI had a lot of it, but not here. Then I saw a few red oaks die here, then more, then 15 in one year, then white oaks started to die, then 15. Every year, 10-15 more. The oldest was 210yrs old. Wondering what the next succession will be. Oak, elm, butternut, made up most of the large trees here. The last butternut died 2yrs ago.

The White, too? 😫 I haven't noticed that yet, but will keep an eye on them.

 

[weee123]

The White, too? 😫 I haven't noticed that yet, but will keep an eye on them.

Yup. It just takes longer for it to kill them as opposed to red