Red oak or ash preference

Was able to get back into some red oak recently. It is well seasoned and split small. The oak burns more cleanly than the Ash I am used to, but also burns quicker. Not sure yet if I get longer burns from the Ash species, or just the size of the splits.

What has been you're experience? What are your longer burning species?

 

in theory, ash vs oak if all the variables are the same oak should win.

 

White Ash: near burns green, is lighter when bucked for elderly humping, smells nice, splits well even frozen, has a clean white color ( colour for Canada).

As for the Oaks, Red or White -- high BTUs, BUTT--takes forever to dry ( at least 2, TWO years ) under cover and then the splits still sizzle. My back hurts humping the oaks.
Yeah, I will mix oak with other species for long fires. Red Oak does offer a perfumey odor in the stack that I will often come out to smell as I am admiring the lovely stacks. OCD.
Oh, we have very few Oaks in this woodlot. The standing dead ones are long cut and burnt. Stihl don't like Oak.

If there's a choice: Beech, Apple, Sugar/Hard Maple, Yellow Birch. Butt, I don't have that option.

 

Red oak smells disgusting when split. Flies love it. Great firewood though.

 

All my life I thought it smelled like pickles. Then my wife said it smelled like cat pee...... she ruined it for me I tell ya.

 

For my current situation at my current dump.................if given the choice of oak vs. ash.................I'm taking the ash....................as it seasons way faster (1 year CSSed and it's usually good)...........................and I'm looking to try to sell this dump shortly.

 

I happen to mostly be burning red oak and ash in my shop this year. My firewood isn't very dry so Im starting my fire in the morning with ash and then mix the oak and ash during the day. I would like to have a the three year plan but there is one thing holding me back. Id love to have some dry oak.

 

Don't have much oak in my woodlot


Do have an abundance of ash, and that's great


Ash splits easy-peasy and dries quickly
Both of those are good qualities in my opinion.

I've got a few dead/dying ones that I need to drop this year

 

I’ve heard others on here say the same thing but I’ve never experienced that.


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I love the smell of split oak. I think it reminds me of being kid splitting with or for my father.
I’ll take oak over ash. Don’t even have to think about it.
I’ve got a lot of both. I try even out what I take both in species and location so at a glance it looks like hardly anything has been harvested.
Although I do try and take more swamp maple than anything else. Forester says I could take it all or nearly all and it’ll be back soon enough.
I’d do that with oak if it acted like the maple.

 

Red oak burns longer for me, and hotter. Ash is easier to handle - the easiest wood there is to handle in my opinion. That may be due to my location, though. Red oak tends to be a yard bird around here - most of the woods were cut clean of red oak so there's not much straight to be had. Ash on the other hand is probably the second most populous tree in the woods, and it's almost all straight as an arrow.

Ash borer is here now though... Gonna be some naked looking forests and shorelines around these parts in the coming years.

 

No sign here yet of the EAB that I’ve noticed. You can’t be more than 70 miles down the pike, so it’s closing in.
Farmer that leases some our property has been slaying ash for the last 5 years or so off of his property to get the timber value before scourge hits.

I’ll need to study up on the signs they’re here. That’ll be the cue. We’ve got some majestic specimens and it’ll be a sad day.

 

Unfortunately the EAB is here already. As a result, I am burning 95% scrounged ash this year. I have red & white oak on deck for the next three years though. Just need some more ash for the milder temps.

The oak will be welcome for the overnight burns, it was fairly cool in the house this am, but that may partially be my catalyst needing a bath.

 

I'll be burning 99% red oak next three years. I like ash just as well. Ash burns up better at the coaling stage than oak, which gives an advantage when heating from the basement. If the stove was on the main level, probably wouldn't matter what wood i burn.

 

Oak is my favorite for the serious cold but it hasn’t been very cold this winter. The ash is almost gone here. If I go 25 miles south there’s still a good bit standing. Ash is so easy to handle, drys fast and is versatile with heat output. It’s my favorite. It’s going to be different burning and not having ash. I roughly have 5 cord of ash. A cord a year for the next five years is the plan.


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I just had four cords of freshly split white ash delivered. According to the charts, white ash is only marginally behind red oak in terms of BTU's but it seasons WAY faster than red oak because it starts with a much lower moisture content. Dry ash will beat wet oak any day....I just don't have the space to store three seasons of wood, thus the choice of ash for the fall 2019-winter 2020 burning season. Oh yeah, freshly split red oak smells like rotten provolone to me.

 

I'll be swimming in ash next year. It's already started. I already took one down that eab killed. That's over a cord. I've got 4 more to cut in my yard. One of them might be 3 cord on it's own.
Neighbor has 2 that he'll have taken down this year. Those 2 yes have to be all of 4 cords minimum, and I'll get most of that wood.

I like oak, but it takes 3+ years to season around here, with as big as I split my pieces. I'll be cutting a nice sized red oak this year at my buddy's. You have to love how that stuff splits.

I'd take oak over ash though.

 

Oak is like perfume---in Maine. Wellllllllll, in N.J. that's a whole other thing...
Then agin, what is this "smells like provalone" thing ? Only in N.J.