I use a lot of dead Red oak for firewood, obtained with a permit off State Land. Cut some standing dead (2 years) this winter, stacked and split and top covered in a good location. According to Penn State's green wood weight chart, Red oak will lose 28% of its green weight at 12% moisture content. As you can see in this picture, my wood lost 38% of its weight, in 9 months! Anyone have an explanation? Dead oak picks up moisture? I am not planning on burning it this winter, but probably could. I'm gonna have to break down and buy a good moisture meter.
Yeah I’m going to get one too. I have white oak that is gray and checked. It’s always been covered, but I can’t remember how long. It has not been 5yrs. I always thought 2yrs to season White Oak and never knew I needed to wait years on red oak, or wait long for oak that was standing dead.
Did you split it and check the fresh split face for moisture content? Common error from what i understand.
Me too. Alsp depends on how "dead" it was when cut. Barkless and no sapwood...burn it. No leaves and bark tight...wait 2-3 years.
I felled a long huge dead red oak spar last November and processed it right away. The heartwood was very wet. Ill have to check to see how its doing. Sapwood mostly gone but heartwood good. Pic from early December. My guess is its still over 20%.
I’ve always said there’s a difference between seasoned and dry. IMO dead can season on the ground or in the air. Can, it’s not a given. Seasoning IMO is the sap leaving the wood. Dry is water content. IMO sap/water Mix is the initial first seasoning of the wood. It’s then free to pick up straight water from rain or ground contact. IMO sap/water mix takes much longer to leave than straight water. For one the bark must fall off before any appreciable seasoning can even consider starting. Once that sap leaves (or drys) the cells supposedly shrink some. Red oak has open cells but shrinkage still occurs. so it may take 3 years of CSS for the initial season to occur. Once that occurs and water is sucked up it will dry faster than normal. Absolutely no science books have been opened to produce this montage of uneducated opinion
I agree pretty much with you. I've cut some standing dead oak that is ready to throw in the fire, rare, but it does occur. The "grey bones" as I call them. Key, like you said is no bark. Even when bark less trees are wet inside, they really dry quickly when CSS.
I’ve had oak dead on the ground for years, rotting on the outside, heartwood as fresh and wet as the day it blew over. CSS, our of rain in a pole barn never touched by rain, I’ve had it hiss after 4 years. I don’t know what kind of oak is ready to burn in a year. Not the stuff I have that’s for sure
Once I cut a bleached out barkless oak that I thought was grade a ready to burn. It was the worst snake wood I’ve ever had.
My friend Lefty had a white oak trunk laying around for over 15 years, sap wood and bark long gone. Been skipping due to wire. Maybe 5 years ago we started working on it and found the wire was nothing like it looked so got all the wood from it without hitting the wire. Heart wood was like new and almost as wet. He tried to burn some that winter but after a couple pieces he stopped due to it not burning at all. Helped another friend work up a standing dear red oak a few weeks ago, water oozing out when cut and split. He claimed it was dry as a bone and is using it this winter. All I can say is that there is no way I would touch it for at least 2 more years. Of course, I'm a noob that doesn't know anything.
Last fall ( late October I think) I helped some friends cut firewood on their place. Standing dead, fire killed, about 6/7 years after the fire, no bark. I got to bring some home (my first oak) I was curious, so I checked some of the bigger pieces that I brought home and split. Nothing over 8” diameter before splitting and moisture was well into the 30s. I was very surprised! It was burr oak I think and I believe that is in the white oak family
So I checked another piece of red oak in my stacks today too. This was a green live tree that fell across the road, only reason I cut it up. Since April, it lost 35% of its weight. I don't think there is a straight correlation between the Penn State green wood-12%MC weight percentage, have to figure in % of water-wood fiber in green wood, which is different for every tree species. I gave the problem to my math wiz Physics major son, he somehow calculated the piece in this photo which I am referring to in this post was at about 22% moisture...I can believe that. Curious....what is the MC % now after a year of CCS?
I wonder that myself after reading this thread. But it’s buried in a stack, maybe this weekend I can get a split fished out and check it without causing an avalanche
Penn State is wrong. I've been weighing wood to get a handle on how it dries for a while. Red oak, green, split the day it came off the stump will lose about 40% every time that I have checked. Looks like your wood, standing dead at 2 yrs it had about as much water in it as when it was green. Your rate of loss is also what I have observed, that is half of the water (weight) will be lost in the first month. Dont worry about a moisture meter. Your scale and a sharpie are better tools for figuring out when the wood is dry than a moisture meter in my opinion. When it stops losing weight its done.
I agree with everything you said. Thanks. I figured out Penn State chart somehow figures in moisture % when green to get that final number, I was probably using it wrong according to my math whiz physics major son. He came up with some little formula/program for me to use the chart to better reflect MC. A moisture meter would be fun, but I'm sort of old school and like math, so maybe I'll just borrow one some time to play with.
