Dead white oak

My wood to burn late this winter is dead white oak that I cut busted and seacked in singke ricks early spring. Do yall think thes will be seasoned enough ? I have it in a good sun and wind spot. I also will bring this wood in my basement as soon as I start burning in the fall and it will be not far from stove heat until mid december. I hate to burn wood when its not the best it can be but for this year thats the best I can do. I have 3 year old oak and locus in my small building to burn the first half of the winter.

 

I'd save the real good stuff for the cold part of winter.
Fight with the not so good stuff when you don't need it as bad. Nothing worse than crappy wood in the dead of winter.
Burn what ya' got, but be selective if possible. I've got some stuff (red Oak) I cut last fall that was dead and I plan to put the meter on it in a month or 2 to check it.
Your white Oak could be gooder to go, but it's hard to tell from here.
And, welcome to the FHC.
Where 'bout are you?

 

It depends on several things - how big are the pieces & how long the wood was dead before cutting.In a good spot with plenty of sun/wind that can speed things up a lot,especially during the hot drier summer months.

Roughly 60% of the wood I cut every year is dead mostly Red/Black Oak,with a smaller amount of White Oak & a little Hickory.Pretty much everything up to 4"-5" diameter can be ready to burn immediately if the tree was standing for a while.Larger rounds that need split and/or anything on the ground for years can be fairly wet,especially after recent rain or snowfall.So that is stacked for 12-18 months depending on its size/how wet it was when found.

 

If that wood started reasonably dry and you are keeping every drop of rain off it now you will have a very good chance of that wood being in its prime, especially with the time you plan to give it inside your stove room before you burn it.

 

Weather is the key factor.
top covered, in the sun & wind, warm with low humidity helps.

Dead standing or on the ground?
Dead standing the bottom few rounds might be a little wet, but above that is usually is pretty dry
Should be pretty good , do a test burn to see how it burns .

But
"you burn what you got, seasoned or not."

pictures help it dry faster,

 

Ive been lucky with some dead standing in the past, it had been there long enough that it was ready to go once it was dropped, bucked and split. No matter how dry it looks I would thrown the MM at it just to be sure.

 

Thanks yall It appeared to me that it was ready when I busted it, The trees was up rooted and was about 3feet of the ground. The dead brown leaves was still on the tree from what ever year it fell. I put about 4 loads in my bar in the basement when burning season starts. I have had small round oak crack a half inch in two months that was cut a year. I am stocked on what will be a year old oak for years to come. Its this year that I am going to haft to play with it a little.

 

Paul You say ever drop of rain. A small part of these ricks get a little wet if a real hard rain comes. Lucky we ant had many this year. What do you think about that. Good sun and wind and top covered. Do I need to change this ? I thought the hot days sun and wind would over ride a dozen hard rains. I really want this stuff to be the best I can make it. All help welcome. I was going to clear plastic cover it after a 2 week no rain at all spell in late sept ???

 

Sounds like you are keeping the rain off them which in my opinion is good. No matter what you do some moisture will blow or find a way to leak in. The most sun and least contact with rain will get you the best results. Clear plastic is a good choice. It lets the sun through. That sunlight will get the top pieces really dry.

I've experimented with the effect of rain by weighing uncovered pieces of oak before and after rain. I have found that after a hard rain it can take days of sun to recover. My yard is only good for 5 hours of sun at best. So for me, if my wood wasn't covered, a summer with a hard rainstorm once a week (a dozen hard rains) along with a few cloudy days would waste the entire summer. And so far that is exactly how the weather has been here this summer. As such all my wood gets covered as soon as it is stacked. I make sure there is overhang so that water doesn't run down the face of my stacks.

I found a scale to be a real good tool in figuring out how things are drying so I could tune my methods. You might find weighing some pieces on a regular basis to be a real eye opener. Especially after you move them inside.

 

Moisture meters dont lie....get yurself 3 years ahead and you will never have to worry about how dry your stash is..

 

If you can get the White Oak fairly dry, you might get away with mixing in a split or two in the back of a load of your good dry stuff. I'm not sure how far you can push this without affecting the re-burn of the smoke...

 

Thanks all !! Paul sounds like we are on the same page. I have 15 cord plus and I am 4 years to the good and I have about 4 loads of white oak down and cut up. I don't like to cut when the sap is up at all but a buddy of mine offered to split 3 white oaks with me to help him and I could never turn down a stick og white oak if it was in the middle of the interstate lol 6 coads I have was cut last fall and in a open ended building. My small building 3 coards and it is prime white oak and down locus with no bark. I am really in pretty good shape and will be better next year.

 

Backwoods I will even take old oak boards /barn wood and cut m up and burn them lol Boy you talaking about getn hot.