I found a freshly downed red oak pole this week, stump rot, with all the bark and sapwood fallen off. The heart wood was nearly perfect after cutting a test and so I hauled the pole home. I split the wood as I unloaded this red oak and checked the moisture, 15%!!! I put the splits in the sun for two days and then stacked the wood inside near the furnace. This red oak is definitely dry since it is igniting easily and burning hot. This is my first tree to go straight into the furnace and so saving the work of stacking. Bark free slippery/red elm has always needed one year of drying to burn hot. The moisture meter cost me a little over $20 and earned it on this lucky tree.
That is great. Finds like that are AWESOME! I have a couple dead White Oak trees down by the creek that have been pretty in-accessable till I did a big clearing project through that part of the woods. Now that I can get the tractor back through there, they will be heading for the wood shed.
I’ve only found that condition in black Locust dead off the ground, bark off. I’m glad you were able to do that with red oak.
Nice that you save the long term stacking task. Missed this thread the other day. Moisture meter comes in handy sometimes! Need to get a new one myself. Gave mine to a friend.
I brought home a 9" slippery elm pole (dead, bark free, and downed) this week and measured fresh splits at 16-18% moisture above 6" diameter and 15-16% moisture below 6" diameter. After a few days drying outside the elm is burning fine in my blend. C/S/S right to the furnace, my favorite wood. This elm pole had a shrinkage crack and splitting was as easy as white ash. I brought home a 18" white ash pole (dead, bark free, and downed) the week before and measured 22% moisture on all of the stem splits. The splits are stacked outside and uncovered and hopefully the current dry spell will last long enough to send this white ash straight to the furnace .
What do you guys mean by 'pole?' Is that a term I have missed or is 'stem' or 'log' the same thing? To me, a 'pole' means a harvested (and usually limbed) log that wires go on top of, lol.
I use the term "pole" for a straight tree without large side branching (i.e. telephone pole, flag pole). "Log" would be a long... cut round on the ground. Every tree has a stem or multiple stems but would not be "pole" if it has a major crotch(s). The both the ash and elm "poles" had straight stems and I had no crotches to split.
