Friend had this tree branch in his yard that fell I believe. He trailered it over to me yesterday. Spent 2 hours today splitting with my Gransfors maul along with a bunch of ash. Everything I have is now split. The pile has a strong pungent odor from all the fresh split wood. It's definitely oak, but I think it has to be red oak given how easy it was to split. Interior of splits is white on the edge and very dark red / brown in the middle. Any thoughts are appreciated as to what type of oak these rounds were.
Red Oak is about perfect in my opinion. Heavy splits and more or less straight grain. Splits easy and should put out some decent btu. I won't touch this until late winter even though I know of the 3 year rule. I split fairly small tonight, so I think it will dry quicker.
Yep, really easy to split. Even split small, it probably won't be great any time this winter. But you gotta do what you gotta do
I have about 4 cord now. I'm going to split another 2 small maples that I cut last month and we're going to get 6 more ash trees. I think I will manage even with less than perfect wood given that I'll have a lot of cords for this year. Normally, I'm 3-4 a season. I may need 5 with the less than perfect wood. I have another 3 or 4 thirty-six inch white oak stumps to trim up that should yield about 750-1,000 pounds. I'll certainly have enough weight even if it isn't at ideal moisture content. I can mix the maple in with the hardwood. Maple drops it's moisture quickly.
That's definately red oak, the bark and description are a dead giveaway. In terms of seasoning, red oak is probably the slowest wood to season...it takes 2 to 3 years to be optimal. Now, split small, it may season a LITTLE faster but it's still gonna be wet. If you use it, keep an eye on your flue regularly. Good score, nonetheless.
You can always stack some up near your stove if you have space. You can get some rather appreciable drying in that way over the course of a few months. Whatever you do keep it out of the rain now. Red oak and it's sapwood in particular soak up rain like a sponge.
Only one quick look ID's that as prime red oak. No matter what, I would definitely not be trying to burn any of that this coming winter.
Not necessarily unsafe, it just won't put out as good of heat and may be a pain to keep going. But do be wary of burning wet wood, keep your chimney clean
