When to split Oak

cqaigy2 · Sep 23, 2012

Got some newly cut oak from a friend. Living in PNW one rarely cuts or burns anything but pine or fir so this oak is a novelty to me. I've been bucking it up and it seems to cut ok while green but im wondering about when it is drier. There are a bunch of smaller pieces i wont need to split but some of the larger pieces are between 24-30 ish across so they will need to be split. Does this stuff split easier after dry or when still green?

burnieman · Sep 23, 2012

Split it now. It turns into rocks as it ages. Good luck

lockhaven · Sep 23, 2012

it depends on what you are splitting it with, with a maul wait till it freezes and it will pop open except for the knots, with a splitter split it now it will hold water forever until it is split.

Larry Caldwell · Sep 23, 2012

Split it NOW! If you wait it will turn into concrete. Also, it will dry much faster after it is split. You won't get much heat out of it this year, since each piece will be boiling a gallon of water up the chimney, but if let it season until next year it will be great firewood.

Western · Sep 23, 2012

Most all I use is oak, splits pretty easy by hand when fresh, not to bad when it's a year old either. What Lockhaven said, is why I'd split it now, speed up the drying.

blucoondawg · Sep 23, 2012

split it asap, I have cut dead standing oak trees that had been dead for a long time and had no bark left on them and they were still wet as ****, oak takes awhile to dry, and when you throw it in your house you can't mistake the smell of it, has a sour smell.

cqaigy2 · Sep 23, 2012

Thanks for the input!
I only have a splitting maul so will go to work on it right away. I have enough dry seasoned wood to last me thru this winter so will be looking forward to next year. I hear oak is nice to burn. I did notice the sour smell of the wood, fir or pine smells kind of sweet to me, pleasant. one thing ive notice is how much heavier it is!

techwrtr2 · Sep 23, 2012

Oak is a good solid wood for heating. Some of the weight is water of course, but even when dry you'll notice how much heavier it is. You'll also notice it burns longer.

I've been dragging oak out of the woods lately to burn. It's been down for a long time. I am continually amazed how solid the core is. Outer edge may be a little soft (ignites easier though), but the bulk of each log is solid enough that you'd think I dropped it last month not... well a long time ago.

lockhaven · Sep 24, 2012

I guess it what you are raised on I love the smell of fresh split oak

Pete Judd · Sep 24, 2012

I have an Alaskan chain saw mill, and I hate to see the stuff going into a wood stove, to much fir and alder around here to burn a good hardwood like oak. But sawing, or splitting wet is better than dry. It can turn into a "rock".

cqaigy2 · Sep 24, 2012

Pete Judd said:
I have an Alaskan chain saw mill, and I hate to see the stuff going into a wood stove, to much fir and alder around here to burn a good hardwood like oak. But sawing, or splitting wet is better than dry. It can turn into a "rock".

Yes, I agree. Not being a sawyer, but it looked like this tree might have had some nice boards in it. It was taken down by an arborist for a friend of mine because he didn't like the leaves in his yard. Kind of sad to think it lived that long then to be taken down because of the leaves. All i have here are fir needles, would love to collect oak leaves for the garden. Out of curiosity, how small a piece can be slabbed on your saw mill?

NHmitch · Sep 24, 2012

We burn as much oak as we can, and then we try to cut other hardwoods, because they burn longer, produce more BTU's at around 36.6 million BTU's per cord, compared to Pine, that burns at around 19.6 million BTU's per cord. When it is dry, it weighs in at about 1800lbs heavier than Pine per cord. It really is a great hardwood to burn, if it is well seasoned, but it does have that sour smell, like others have said here.

Do you have much of an issue with creosote burning pine, and firs? We use to live in Idaho, and Washington, and I know what you mean when you say that you have all fir trees. It was pretty rare to find good hardwoods in the mountains..

Western · Sep 24, 2012

lockhaven said:
I guess it what you are raised on I love the smell of fresh split oak

X's 2, I also like the smell of pine. my favorite is pinon, hard to beat pinon sitting around a camp fire.

LD1 · Sep 24, 2012

blucoondawg said:
split it asap, I have cut dead standing oak trees that had been dead for a long time and had no bark left on them and they were still wet as ****, oak takes awhile to dry, and when you throw it in your house you can't mistake the smell of it, has a sour smell.

lockhaven said:
I guess it what you are raised on I love the smell of fresh split oak

I too love the smell of oak.

But I got to wonder blucoondawg?? are you possibly mistaken that fowl smelling stuff for elm??

Cause it DOES smell. And rarely do I see an oak standing without bark. But it is extremely common with elm.

bikerdib · Sep 24, 2012

I depends on the type of oak. White oak trees will rot if left standing, I guess they keep moisture inside. However, if you cut and season it, the wood will harden nicely. Live oak is totally different. Like others have said it will season into rock hard wood but even if you leave it standing, it will loose the bark over time and still remain standing. And that standing wood seasons into the same rock hard wood. Post oak is somewhere in the middle.

A local lake I go to still has some standing live oak in the shallow water areas after almost 50 years. All the other trees have rotted and falen but the major limbs of the live oak are still standing strong.

LD1 said:
I too love the smell of oak.

But I got to wonder blucoondawg?? are you possibly mistaken that fowl smelling stuff for elm??

Cause it DOES smell. And rarely do I see an oak standing without bark. But it is extremely common with elm.

bigbull338 · Sep 24, 2012

while your cutting it up go ahead an splitt it as itll speed up the drying time.remember dry wood burns best.the oak will make a nice hot fire an put out the heat.we have no telling how meny cords of oak to cut up an split.

farmeratheart · Sep 24, 2012

lockhaven said:
I guess it what you are raised on I love the smell of fresh split oak

I'm with you "lockhaven", love the smell of freshly sawed or split oak!

Frank

Pete Judd · Sep 24, 2012

Cqaigy, any thing under 3 ft gets hard to secure. And anything over 8 1/2 feet is to hard for me to handle.

cqaigy2 · Sep 24, 2012

Pete Judd said:
Cqaigy, any thing under 3 ft gets hard to secure. And anything over 8 1/2 feet is to hard for me to handle.

That's kind of what i was thinking on the small end. Don't know if I'll see anymore oak but if i see anything that looks as straight as this stuff did, i'll be sure to get some advice from you before chopping it up into little pieces.

NHmitch said:
Do you have much of an issue with creosote burning pine, and firs? We use to live in Idaho, and Washington, and I know what you mean when you say that you have all fir trees. It was pretty rare to find good hardwoods in the mountains..

I don't have anything to compare to but i do clean the stove pipe every year. I get about a cup full of creosote, maybe a little less, on 20 feet of pipe.