Split white oak with a cherry on top

A couple weeks ago a standing dead white oak had fallen close to the road near my work. A coworker of mine was in dire need of more firewood so we decided to work the score together this morning and split the wood amongst ourselves. A good time was had as we bucked it, working amongst the mountain laurel. I had recently made a magnetic firewood marking stick and this small score was the one to try it out on. Now I wish I had made one years ago. I cut my lengths short this time at 14” for either north/south loading or as “wife-sized” pieces she can easily load. On the way home I saw a couple weeping cherry trunks that were dumped roadside illegally. One was pretty rotten but the other was solid so I loaded it up. Gorgeous 40 degree bright sunny day here in southern New England.

 

Sounds like a good time

 

Any time behind the trigger of a well ported saw is a blast. To have someone else there is a bonus.

 

The weeping cherry ended up being incredibly stubborn to hand split. I got an equally small amount of it last year which I burned this past fall, and would rate it slightly worse than wild black cherry BTU wise. Still, it’ll dry fast and produce some heat.

 

Nice work Eric!

 

The oak split just as oak should, nice and clean A little stringier than red oak but it’ll make gooder firewood. Looking at the small pile of splits I ended up with, I’m almost bummed out but my coworker was in need more than I was. I’m sure there will be more dead white oak to cut at some point this year.

 

Good to hear you cut firewood with your friend. Good times!

 

Nice job, white oak is good stuff.

 

Great haul guys! Di you get it all? Is the limb wood stove ready? We always have to be opportunistic when it comes to roadside wood.

 

Ive scrounged a few pieces of that from the dump and it wasnt easy to hand split. Good firewood though.

 

We took everything down to about 10”. Limbs were getting too punky for my liking, though they did seem pretty dry. I’ll wait for another sizable trunk to fall. That whole area is an oak graveyard.

 

Any word how the oak is burning for the co worker? For me, no matter how dry standing dead oak may seem, it always needs at least a year to avoid the dreaded brown foam hissing out the ends.

 

He knows better and won’t be burning it anytime soon. This was more about getting him stocked up for future seasons. I say he was in dire need, but really he has plenty for the rest of this season. It’s next year, and the one after that where he needs to be stocking up for now.

 

Sounds like a good time, and a good chance to help a buddy out! I like the marking tool. Is the disc friction fit over the shaft?

 

It’s held in place by a set screw. I put 4 small drill points in the shaft for the set screw to seat in, at 2 inch intervals. So ultimately my options are cutting either a 14,16,18 or 20” length.

 

Can’t beat the magnet.

 

Nice. One thing about all this warm weather is it does make it much easier to get ahead. For me and probably many on here, my 3 year plan is looking more like a 5 year plan if things keep up like this!

 

Sounds like a few more joint scrounging ventures are in order. Have you explained the three year plan to him? Sign him up for the FHC!

 

A little more dead/down white oak today. There were larger logs there that I’d like to retrieve another time. IMO these are right on the cusp of not being worth my time, but white oak is rare for me. I’m going to knock the punk off with my splitter/hatchet before it sees my stacks. I don’t want to be fighting crumbs all over my floor in 2025-2026