I decided to grab a white oak on my land that has been dead for a long time (years) out of curiosity and, heck, it has what appears to be some real good heartwood. The sapwood... has anyone found an effective way to remove it? I used a hatchet but it's too sharp, need a duller one, lol. Wondered if I turned my bada$$ pressure washer with turbo nozzle would blast it off there! Could split them with hydraulic splitter and that would cause some to fall off but if there's a way to get it off easily, I'm all ears! Leaving it on is ok with me but if I sell it, I don't want a lot of punk on it. pic attached
Yep it’ll burn. If you decide you want to attempt to minimize the amount of sapwood debris that ends up on the floors of your house, a claw hammer can make quick work of getting the bulk of it off. I think that’s an uphill battle though.
As a bit more of a serious answer, I would maybe set aside the inner heart wood for possible sales and keep the punkier stuff for a yourself? It sounds like you might not sell all of it, so sorting it might be the easiest.
^ This. Slab off the edges, they will have some good so they go in your pile. Other goes in sell pile/stack.
You can process it as you normally would. Oftentimes a large amount will fall off and separate in that process. Get it stacked and dried and even more will separate once it’s dried. Whatever is still left on...burn.
This was a big white oak that had been down probably 3 years. As others have said, we split the good wood, went in one shed, on the outside pieces, run the splitter blade about 1/2"-1" inside the good wood, put that in a cull pile, for fire pit or personal use.
If I understand Yawner correctly, he's not worried about the punky part for his personal use...he wants to remove it for wood he intends to sell.
I have cut and split a fair amount of punky centers in some Locust and also Pin Oak this year. If it' really bad I have been able to shave it out with my ax after splitting, and the rest like they said, I burnt it, no problem for my own use. But I am not selling it, of course. As a buyer, I would want a discount to take any punky wood.
If I can find a meat cleaver at an estate sale, I am going to buy it, I think that would work well. A dull one. I'm still going to try a pressure washer, lol.
Most just toss on an extra bit of wood to make up for it if you’re selling it. Seems like you’d have a lot of just splitter trash if you save it for yourself
a year or two ago I started popping most of the sap wood off my oak with the splitter. Whats left will dry quickly, and I use that for maple syrup. All the sapwood goes into the stacks.
