Cutting up white oak tree

   / Cutting up white oak tree #21  
There's something going on there if the cuts are smoking that much. I cut black locust almost exclusively anymore, and it's a lot harder than white oak. It will throw sparks, but the cuts don't smoke. I've also cut some osage orange, which is almost exactly twice as hard as white oak and I've never seen the cuts start smoking. :unsure:
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #22  
As was pointed out above, white oak does accumulate minerals under the right conditions, often a lot of it in the bark. I have used white oak in furniture and if one cuts too fast, it will easily gum/smoke, especially if the wood isn't fed straight or the blade is the tiniest bit dull.

I guess I am not convinced that there was anything wrong in the cutting, especially if the chips looked ok. The minerals in the bark alone could easily have friction heated the chain and have accounted for the sparks. That said, I might have double checked the chain for evidence of adequate oiling. I have had chains smoke on old, dry cherry, and that did cause me to disassemble everything to double check the oiling passages, but nope, just another hard, hard wood.

I dealt with a lot of white oak and some black locust as a kid, and if it is dry, white oak is hard, hard, hard. I would take black locust over white oak any day for cutting. But for both of them, I certainly would process the wood ASAP after felling. A couple of the old farm buildings were made with white oak, and you either pre-drilled a nail hole, or pounded in three nails part way and removed three bent nails to make a hole deep enough for the fourth. But I think that different woods are always interesting; we had a bunch of Dutch elm then for firewood; easy to cut, but miserable to split with all sorts of branched fibers.

All the best,

Peter
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #23  
We cut dead hard oaks here and a good oiler makes a difference. I swapped my 460 oiler out for the PNW HO oiler and put the 460 one in the 361. That bumps the output up in case I'm in that dry hard oak.
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #24  
I am in agreement with Peter / Ponytug on this one. Guessing the tree has been dead and drying out for some time. The main trunk would be extremely hard when dry. Some of the old buildings here on the farm are built with white oak. You can’t drive a nail in it. It is tough to cut with a skill saw. I can imagine the problems cutting with a chainsaw.
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #25  
I’ve also cut up trees and gotten sparks. I’m almost positive there were no nails also.
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #26  
Back when I burned firewood - 30+ years ago - I acquired some black locust. A small stand of trees adjacent to an old homestead site. It was VERY heavy, dense wood. Tough to cut and difficult to split. But when it was all done and racked up - made excellent firewood. Bank the wood stove with a couple chunks - it was still hot and glowing when I got up. This was seldom the case using my normal firewood - pine.
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #27  
I have no facts to back me up but I think that the oaks are notorius for drawing minerals from the ground and having it throughout the wood. I have heard a few loggers and sawyers around here mention trees that had a lot of mineral in them and the sawmills sometimes won't even take them. I have experienced some veins of mineral in some of the oak I have had sawn from my property here in years past. Some of it you can clearly see in the wood as striations of different colors, especially in white oak but have seen it in my red oak and post oaks too.
It's the same with red oak here, we have to call the buyer for the pulp mill first if we want to bring a load of mostly oak. I'm not sure if it picks dirt up from the ground or if wind kicks it up onto the bark and it's absorbed that way.
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #28  
I've pretty much burned wood my whole life. I currently go through about 5 to 6 cord a year for heating. I typically have white oak, read oak, some gum, poplar, locust, etc. The ONLY time I see chains start to smoke is when they are flat out dull. Of course, we all know how fast a chain can go dull if you cut into the ground with it, but the wood itself can also be a bit dirty. Nothing you can do besides sharpening the chain and going at it again. I cut enough that I bought my own sharpener and always have several chains ready to go. There's no bigger waste of time than continuing to cut when the chain is dull.
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #29  
I've pretty much burned wood my whole life. I currently go through about 5 to 6 cord a year for heating. I typically have white oak, read oak, some gum, poplar, locust, etc. The ONLY time I see chains start to smoke is when they are flat out dull. Of course, we all know how fast a chain can go dull if you cut into the ground with it, but the wood itself can also be a bit dirty. Nothing you can do besides sharpening the chain and going at it again. I cut enough that I bought my own sharpener and always have several chains ready to go. There's no bigger waste of time than continuing to cut when the chain is dull.

Yes…but..
…don’t you see a difference in the saw dust / shavings that are coming off the chain when it gets dull? Powder vs matchsticks.
OP says the sawdust stayed the same.

I don’t see how it could stay the same and not be cutting. Or be cutting and heat to the point of setting log on fire.

People have been known to put the chain on backwards. I wonder…?
 
   / Cutting up white oak tree #30  
There's no bigger waste of time than continuing to cut when the chain is dull.
Ain't that the truth. When it quits cutting right and gets hot its time to switch saws and then sharpen or change the chain. Yet I still catch myself fight through a with dull chain when there is only a couple of cuts left.
I cut mostly fallen or standing dead oaks and some are chain killers. Not at all uncommon for them to smoke and throw sparks.
 
 
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