Willow Oak

[becasunshine]

We are having a willow oak felled on our property this week. It was previously damaged by lightning and is dying.

We have the option of having it cut into wood stove lengths and left as is by the company that is dropping it, or they can haul it off, both for the same price.

If they drop it, cut it into wood stove lengths and leave it, or if alternately they haul it off, all the same price. If they drop it, cut it and leave it, it's up to us to split it and stack it. Fair enough. We have done this before. We can rent a splitter and Husband knows how to use it. We are also in a place that we can let this willow oak age and dry for this entire burn season. We can split it, stack it, and leave it sit until Burn Season 2021/2022.
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It is a sizeable tree.

Is it worth salvaging the wood from a willow oak for the wood stove?

We burn in a Blaze King Princess CAT stove.
What say you, Wise Ones?

 

[MissMac]

absolutely keep it and burn it! that's easy wood!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Willow oak should be excellent firewood. I think it's a species of red oak but tends to be more dense than the standard Quercus rubra or even the excellent quercus alba. I've never personally split any willow oak, but the red, white, and chestnut I've done have been fairly good to work with. Really large diameter wet rounds will be heavy, though. Renting a splitter with vertical capacity might be wise (though I've never personally worked with one of those either.)

One thing to inquire about is whether the tree service will buck to the actual length of your stove. Bucking for firewood can often mean in pieces up to 24" since a lot of people think of firewood for open fireplaces. I think 17" might be best for your Princess, so if they're willing to cut to that length, you might think of providing them with a painted measuring log or two and some chalk to help the process (and maybe a plate of cookies, too).

Edited to add: Because it is such good, dense firewood, you'd need to make sure you have great drying conditions to be ready to use it by 2021. Oak can easily take longer than one year to dry, depending on conditions. We used to manage red oak in Virginia, but it was sheltered from rain and baking against the south wall of our brick house, and two years was better than one. Do you have a moisture meter to make sure it's ready before you burn it? Do you have room to store it more than one year if necessary?

 

[becasunshine]

Willow oak should be excellent firewood. I think it's a species of red oak but tends to be more dense than the standard Quercus rubra or even the excellent quercus alba. I've never personally split any willow oak, but the red, white, and chestnut I've done have been fairly good to work with. Really large diameter wet rounds will be heavy, though. Renting a splitter with vertical capacity might be wise (though I've never personally worked with one of those either.)

One thing to inquire about is whether the tree service will buck to the actual length of your stove. Bucking for firewood can often mean in pieces up to 24" since a lot of people think of firewood for open fireplaces. I think 17" might be best for your Princess, so if they're willing to cut to that length, you might think of providing them with a painted measuring log or two and some chalk to help the process (and maybe a plate of cookies, too).

Edited to add: Because it is such good, dense firewood, you'd need to make sure you have great drying conditions to be ready to use it by 2021. Oak can easily take longer than one year to dry, depending on conditions. We used to manage red oak in Virginia, but it was sheltered from rain and baking against the south wall of our brick house, and two years was better than one. Do you have a moisture meter to make sure it's ready before you burn it? Do you have room to store it more than one year if necessary?

Thank you both for your replies!

Hubs did some research online about willow oak and wood stove reviews were mixed. Your observation about willow oak being moisture laden is spot on. Reviews said it takes some generous time to dry and that, if those drying conditions are not right, it may rot.

Interesting, we are in coastal Virginia.

Our wood sits under a carport and is exposed to nearly constant breezes to wind. This is something of a mixed bag: the wind is ubiquitous, but it is off of the water, a 2.5 mile across salt water river. Beyond that, there is water all around us, including Big Water, the Chesapeake Bay. We are on a peninsula. On one hand, the wind is coming off the water from almost any direction. On the other hand, per above, the wind is off of salt water, and it is a constant presence. We just never have an inversion/thermal layer out here.

We buy/procure/acquire our fire wood at least a season ahead: we burn about 2 cords of wood per season, we try to keep 4 cords of split, stacked wood on our lot under cover. We buy wood in the early spring, and we let it season over the next burn season, and then burn it the season after that.

We stack cross hatch for air flow, also to allow our resident black snakes a healthy and accessible place to shed their skins in the summer.

We're stacked up right now, so this tree will, by default, sit outside without cover until we clear a bit of space under the carport. That's OK enough, we won't even try to burn it this year. We will get pallets on which to stack it, regardless.

Husband will check with our local rental business to see if a vertical splitter is even an option.

It's a big tree. Diameter at base is ~ 2'.

So, we'll see how much we can manage.

Thank you again to both of you for your thoughtful responses! <3

We do have a moisture meter. Our average moisture on splits we are currently burning is IIRC around 11%?

 

[wooddope]

Maybe consider having them leave half, if working with the large stuff is daunting to you have them take that away and cherry pick the sections you want to keep.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I've had trees cut and left for me before -- same deal as yours, the price is the same for removal or cutting them into lengths.

I'd make sure you get the length cuts you want -- I favor 16" or shorter. And at least one end of each log has to be square/flat, if you're splitting with a maul. I would consider splitting with a maul, if you're up for it. Easier if you wait a year. And then in the cooler months you can do the amount you want. It doesn't have to be done all in one week, or even one month.

I have no idea what willow oak is, other than what the name suggests, an oak with narrow leaves. If it's actually oak, genus quercus, I would think it's good firewood. Red, white, and chestnut oak are all good -- I've had them all.

 

[moresnow]

We do have a moisture meter. Our average moisture on splits we are currently burning is IIRC around 11%?

Are you re-splitting a seasoned split at room temp (70f roughly) and checking the freshly exposed interior surface? 11% is really impressive if you are! Curious.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

willow oak is a great wood. I would not worry about rot, if your splitting right away and stacking. I would take advantage of this opportunity. I'd make.sure the tree is cut in rounds to the proper lengths for your stove. With the money your saving by not purchasing the wood see if you can buy the splitter.

 

[bunfoolio]

Definently keep the wood. Those electrical 5 ton splitters are great. Cost about 250 to 300. Split on your own time and you will always have it. I have a home depot homelite version and its cut about 20 cords through the years.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Definently keep the wood. Those electrical 5 ton splitters are great. Cost about 250 to 300. Split on your own time and you will always have it. I have a home depot homelite version and its cut about 20 cords through the years.

We, too, have the Home Depot Homelite version and have splits lots of oak with it over the years. It has been a great splitter for us, and it worked well in our small suburban yard. It didn't disturb the neighbors, and we could work in one spot and still keep an eye on children playing in another spot. We never rented a heavy-duty splitter because with small children we split little bits here and there, and it was nice not to have to push ourselves to make the most of a rental. The work takes longer without heavier machinery, but it worked for our needs.

Even though I own one and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it for the right circumstances, I will say that it would have trouble splitting massive willow oak rounds. They would probably need to be quartered with a sledge and wedge first, if not split down further just to make them manageable to move and for the splitter to handle. For really large oak and beech, we used to use a system where my husband would divide the rounds, and I would split them. If you need a splitter to tackle the biggest rounds, a rental with a vertical option would be better in this situation, I think.

 

[becasunshine]

Are you re-splitting a seasoned split at room temp (70f roughly) and checking the freshly exposed interior surface? 11% is really impressive if you are! Curious.

No, as a rule, we do not.

We buy the wood cut into wood stove lengths, split, delivered in a dump truck, dumped in our yard, in the early spring.

Our area is a substantial timber/lumber production area, with small and large concerns in all types of lumber and wood applications. Many people own land and 'tree farms,' and felled trees that are deemed not suitable to be milled more or less go on the 'open market.' That's a broad catch term for all of the situations out here where non-mill worthy timber that is suitable for wood stove burning does not get wasted/brings some entity or person some well earned return or profit. It's all good.

So our cut and split wood comes to us after sitting a wood pile somewhere for some time until it is requested, sold, and delivered. This time may vary. It could be months or it could even be a year or two. Occasionally it is weeks. Our experience has been that if it's weeks, we are told that directly. We are told NOT to plan to burn this wood within the next season that includes this calendar year. And, after enough years of handling splits, we are pretty good at discerning fresh splits from seasoned splits, by the feel, the weight, and the appearance.

Regardless- whatever splits we buy in the early spring, those splits are cross stacked, (mostly) under cover (we use a carport, sometimes one or the other or both ends of the stack are exposed) and they sit, through the remainder of that calendar year, and then through the spring, summer and early fall of the next calendar year.

In other words, once the splits arrive at our house, they are cross stacked (not tight stacked, copious air gaps are created) under cover, and those splits sit for at least a year and a half with constant air movement. We try to keep at least two years of split wood on hand so that every delivery or acquired portion of wood receives this curing period.

We live on the water, so there is a humidity factor, especially in the summer. But in the late fall and throughout the winter, the humidity reduces significantly. We have constant winter winds, sometimes remarkable winter winds, there is *never* a thermal layer, so air movement is consistent and in the winter, dry. All year long it is salt air- so think about it in terms of driftwood. Also, our soil is sandy, so even the moisture in the earth under the wood drains quickly, and the wood is stacked on pallets.

By the time that wood meets our stove, it is gray in color and lighter weight than it was when we initially received it.

I do get your point, and it's valid: the interior of the wood is likely above 11% moisture. If I had to guess, I'd say it probably averages around 15% moisture. IIRC, we have tested some splits that we further split into kindling, and those additional splits were between 15% and 17%.