wood id

[chris]

Hi all been lurking for a while, just posting now. This is our first year in a new house with a nice woodstock soapstone stove. Bieng my first year burning, i am a novice at identifying wood. I came across a buddy with a lot of this wood for me free for the taking, but i want to make sure its worth my efforts to cut haul and split as its been on the ground for 2 years or so, and in 8-12 foot lengths, about 2 feet in diameter if i had to guess. A buddy of mine said he thinks its cedar, but i want to know for sure. I brought a small load home already to try, and it splits wicked easy, and burns good and long, but im not getting the 500-550 degree burns that i was with the oak i had before. I've only been able to get up to around 4-450. Thanks in advance.

 

[ScotO]

Its pretty hard to tell from the picture what it is. It looks alot like wet red oak to me. Does it have a vinegary-like smell to it? A close-up picture would really help.

 

[smokinj]

Its pretty hard to tell from the picture what it is. It looks alot like wet red oak to me. Does it have a vinegary-like smell to it? A close-up picture would really help.

Looks like oak to me to!

 

[chris]

Ok, i'll give it a sniff tonight, and try to get a closer picture. Thanks! But at any rate do you guys think its a good find and worth my time? Theres a TON of it.

 

[smokinj]

Ok, i'll give it a sniff tonight, and try to get a closer picture. Thanks! But at any rate do you guys think its a good find and worth my time? Theres a TON of it.

Get all you can handle!

 

[jeff_t]

Ok, i'll give it a sniff tonight, and try to get a closer picture. Thanks! But at any rate do you guys think its a good find and worth my time? Theres a TON of it.

If it's solid, free, and easy, I don't think you could ask for anything better. I'm sure it will burn hotter when it dries. Red oak would be my guess from that pic, but it could be cedar. Your nose will tell you.

 

[cptoneleg]

Looks like Oak to me, its not cedar,

 

[Woody Stover]

Looks like oak to me to!

Yep, even rots like Red Oak that's been lying on the ground.
As long as you have plenty of it, just cull out the marginal stuff and you should be left with a lot of fine firewood. It's one of the slowest-drying woods, so probably won't be totally dry in just one Summer unless you live in the desert. If you split it smaller, it will dry a bit faster. See if you can find some other types of wood for this year, like White Ash, Cherry or soft Maple. Whatever you can get, split and stack it single-row in the sun and wind ASAP. Anything will dry faster than Oak!

 

[jackatc1]

Looks like red oak to me.



PS
Red oak splits wicked easy.

 

[mywaynow]

Based on how it seems to be splitting, Red Oak.

 

[gzecc]

If you just split it, its not ready to burn. Depending on the species it could take two years to be ripe! How long you going to split with that axe? It must be a challenge!

 

[ScotO]

Ok, i'll give it a sniff tonight, and try to get a closer picture. Thanks! But at any rate do you guys think its a good find and worth my time? Theres a TON of it.

If that's oak, get all you can. It will take a while to season, but it will be worth the wait. Split it in 4" x 4" splits and it will season a lot quicker. Stack it in double rows up off the ground in a windy, sunny location and let mother nature do the rest.

 

[midwestcoast]

Easy splitting wood like that straight grained Red Oak is a pleasure to split with an axe. Go get some more!
Stack this up for the 13-14 season and it'll do great for you. Burning it this year will probably be disappointing if not frustrating.

 

[chris]

Thanks to all of you for your advice. Yes its easy to split, but my shoulders are killing me. I burned a little just to try it out, but now i'm back to burning some seasoned oak i already had. I think what i will do is get it all cut into managable rounds and haul it to my house then borrow my buddies wood splitter and spend a weekend splitting and stacking. I want to get it stacked as soon as i can so i can get the drying started. Here's a few more pics.

 

[ScotO]

Yep that oak right there may be good to go by fall, looks like it's been dead quite a while. Good stuff!

 

[chris]

My buddy said he had it taken down 2 or three years ago. I'm really new to this, but tonight i mixed about half of that freshly split with some other oak, and its burning great. Stoves at 450 and the house is 70 and its 33 outside here in mass, so i couldn't be happier. It feels really dry to me, and it lights right up when i lay it on a nice bed of coals. I'm definitely gonna spend my weekend taking advantage of this great score!!

 

[midwestcoast]

Okay, those pics changed my mind. Looks like it's on it's way to being ready for next winter. Also looks on its way to being punky. You might want to top-cover that stuff.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Looks like a white oak. Get all you can.

On the stove temperature, unless the wood is not dry enough you should be able to get 600 degrees with that stove even without a full load.