# I love standing dead oak!



## Gboutdoors (Feb 27, 2014)

I have 5 cords of red oak split and stacked for winter 2015-2016. I had 5 cord stacked for this year and had hoped to carry over 2 to next year but that does not look good with all the cold we have been having. So I started to cut down some of the dead standing oak out back yesterday in hopes to have some wood for next year. I know some will say that it can't be but I fell two oaks bucked to 16" and split last night. Took the m/m out and most was at 17-20% and the rounds from the bottom 3'-4' were 21-23%. took some into the stove and it burned great.

 Now these trees have no bark left on them and have been dead for more than 4 years at least as we bought the land and built our house back then and they were all dead at that time. I know it takes 2-3 years to season fresh cut oak but has anyone else found dead standing at these moisture readings. This is going to save me for next year and get my three year plan set.


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## gzecc (Feb 27, 2014)

Dead standing is the best oak. The tops are usually almost ready to go. The bottom trunk usually requires the usual 2 yr routine.


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## razerface (Feb 27, 2014)

i cut a lot of it out of my woods. The top i burn immediatly,,,and the bottom 3-4 ft gets thrown on the pile to split and season. Just keep checking with your meter,,,it gets wet quick toward the bottom.


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## STIHLY DAN (Feb 27, 2014)

Anyone find that standing dead is denser and gives more heat. Might just be me but the color, weight, and texture all seem different like it's not the same tree.


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## BrotherBart (Feb 27, 2014)

STIHLY DAN said:


> Anyone find that standing dead is denser and gives more heat. Might just be me but the color, weight, and texture all seem different like it's not the same tree.



I have a big standing dead oak that makes a shower of sparks and dulls the chain. Five feet up the trunk. Been standing there since 2004. Hard as a brick.


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## Applesister (Feb 27, 2014)

Chestnut oaks die in my lot, only found one standing and it fell wrong and got snagged. On the ground salvage, sapwood gone and heartwood solid but beetle damaged. This wood drys within a year and burns HOT.
They seem to rot at the stump and come down in heavy winds.
Red Oaks come down from heavy winds(hurricane) and heavy rains and pull stumps with them. Roots attached. These trees have the most water. 
On dead ranges 43%- 32% 
I have some real big black oaks down with the same deal. Huge crowns, heavy winds and washed out roots.
I have cut up oak that looks like its been laying for years. It burns real nice within the 1 year seasoning range.


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## blazincajun (Feb 28, 2014)

BrotherBart said:


> I have a big standing dead oak that makes a shower of sparks and dulls the chain. Five feet up the trunk. Been standing there since 2004. Hard as a brick.


 
Those old fence posts sure are hard on saws


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## Free BTUs (Feb 28, 2014)

I had 5 standing dead red oaks in my backyard.  They have been standing dead for about 10 years.  I cut down 3 of them and they were pegging the mm at >50%.  The middles are dense as rocks, but still loaded with water.


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## Woody Stover (Feb 28, 2014)

I wish I could have got the whole thing, but at least I got part of a dead-stander, a Red I think, that fell over near my house. I didn't split and check it yet but I can tell by the weight of the rounds....this stuff is ready _now_!


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## xman23 (Feb 28, 2014)

The oaks out back of my house are healthy. The only ones I get are the blow overs and lightning strikes. I recall hearing something about an oak issue. What's killing them?


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## Woody Stover (Feb 28, 2014)

xman23 said:


> I recall hearing something about an oak issue. What's killing them?


I don't know if we've got a disease here, but drought hammers the Red/Blacks. The cores rot out on a lot of them, too....


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## Free BTUs (Feb 28, 2014)

Don't know what killed those 5, but I have plenty of live ones.  I've dropped 4 of the live ones and I need to drop about 6 more (they are too close to my house).


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## Gboutdoors (Feb 28, 2014)

Here on our land in Fairhaven a few years before we bought the land and built our house they had a very bad infestation of caterpillars in the spring that stripped all the leaves. Then that winter there was a really bad infestation of winter moths and the oaks could not recover from this double hit in one season.

Just cut down another dead red oak and my first white oak. I split a few of the white rounds and they were at 20% to 24%. again these are dead standing with no bark left on them for 4+ years. Even the bottom 4-5' were at 27-30%.


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## red oak (Feb 28, 2014)

There's a fungus attacking the red oaks in my area, leading to the trees rotting and being hollow.  Still plenty around but not uncommon at all to see standing dead red oaks around here.  Yes the tops and branches are usually ready to burn fairly quickly, much quicker than the lower trunk.


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## STIHLY DAN (Feb 28, 2014)

So how are they denser, harder. and more colorful? Is there a scientific reason.


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## Paulywalnut (Feb 28, 2014)

Red oak crowns are so big and sprawling that they will come down quite easily when the soil is wet.


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## billb3 (Mar 1, 2014)

7 cords of dead standing red oak
a couple weekends in November, a couple weekends in February
tops around 19/20%, tree base approaches 27% when cut




the wood I cut and split  in November is down to 15/16 to 21/22%


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## TimJ (Mar 1, 2014)

nice pile billb3


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## Gboutdoors (Mar 1, 2014)

Billb3  you seem to be getting the same readings as me. Must be that we live in wood heaven or just live right. Are you close to New Bedford area?


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## billb3 (Mar 1, 2014)

Stone's throw to Umass
some of the wood comes from Bezerkley

Red oak die-off is a lot worse up that way

4 or 5 years  dead standing, some has a little punk, most hasn't, some with carpenter ants in it.
a dozen or so splits with  ants in heartwood but not bad at all.

Any ants in heartwood we just split and put to the side so snow and water gets into the galleries and freezes. Drowns and Kills 'em quick. They can barely move in this cold. Bird food.


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## motorcycle07 (Mar 1, 2014)

I have been surviving off of dead oak. Last year it was one that I cut on my folk's place that I remember playing on as a kid when it blew over ~10 years ago. I burnt the whole tree last year but I did not have an EPA stove then. This year I fell an oak that had been standing dead for at least 5 yrs if not 10. The tree was a pasture tree so it was huge (~40" base diameter) and had four large (30" diameter) main branches. I do not have a moisture meter. The tops burnt well, but the base of the branches and the trunk was wet to the touch and smelled wet also. Those pieces will not be burnt this year. I do not think we have anything in particular killing them. We just have a lot of old oak trees and I think it was just their time. Large pasture oaks are a chore to process.


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## Nick Mystic (Mar 1, 2014)

I've been cleaning up a section of our property on the opposite side of a ravine that requires a lot of effort to get the wood out, which is why I  haven't logged out the dead wood in a few years. One nice oak tree had been hung up at a 45 degree angle in another tree for years and it has remained really solid since it's been up off the ground all this time. When I finally cut it up I was surprised to find it at 15% moisture on a fresh face of a split! This encouraged me to attack a few more oak trees that had been on the ground for a few years and I was happily surprised to get similar results from those tree, as well. The undersides were a little decayed, but 90% of the wood was perfectly dry and solid. This kind of oak has the added advantage of being so much lighter to carry out a piece at a time compared to fresh cut wet oak. I can handle 12" rounds up to 20" long and carry them across rugged terrain to a trail where I can get my wheelbarrow about 100 yards away.


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## Woody Stover (Mar 2, 2014)

billb3 said:


> 7 cords of dead standing red oak
> a couple weekends in November, a couple weekends in February
> tops around 19/20%, tree base approaches 27% when cut
> 
> the wood I cut and split  in November is down to 15/16 to 21/22%


Man, you've got me fired up about all the dead Black/Red I've got around here. If I can stack a bunch of tops for my SILs, they'll have some long-march wood for next season instead of the soft Maple and Cherry I've been feeding them the last couple years. Having a hard time getting ahead on those folks...got my hands full feeding our stove plus the mighty Buck.


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## 7acres (Mar 2, 2014)

Woody Stover said:


> Man, you've got me fired up about all the dead Black/Red I've got around here. If I can stack a bunch of tops for my SILs, they'll have some long-march wood for next season instead of the soft Maple and Cherry I've been feeding them the last couple years. Having a hard time getting ahead on those folks...got my hands full feeding our stove plus the mighty Buck.



Newbie question... What does SIL stand for?


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## STIHLY DAN (Mar 2, 2014)

Sister in law.


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## 7acres (Mar 2, 2014)

STIHLY DAN said:


> Sister in law.



Haha! Okay. Boy that's some seriously obscure logger jargon there.


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## Gboutdoors (Mar 3, 2014)

Ok here is what I got from this weekends work .
	

		
			
		

		
	




About a cord and a half of 17-21%  the rest was over 21% so I stacked it with my 2 year oak I would say that was about a half cord to. It took a little more time to check moisture and stack but I think it was worth it.


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## razerface (Mar 3, 2014)

I don't check the moisture super close when I do it. I cut the tree into rounds, and my wife checks the ends with a meter as I am cutting,,,then decides where to separate for "burn now" and "burn later". In my woods, if there is any bark still on the stander,,,,it will be wet usually. 

I find the "double" tree that has one of the trunks dead, will usually be drier then a single trunk dead tree. I guess the double tree cuts water off when it dies to that side,,where the single does not (pure guess)

We then throw them in different piles for processing. I second guess her sometimes by weight, as I throw the rounds in the trailer.


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## billb3 (Mar 3, 2014)

Gboutdoors said:


> Ok here is what I got from this weekends work .
> 
> 
> 
> ...



What size skids are those ?
They must be bigger than 42x48


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## lindnova (Mar 3, 2014)

I like dead oak.  It usually is 25% for me even on the top so I split and wait 1 year on it.  If it has been dead for a long time the sapwood gets fluffy and soaks up moisture from rain.  I guess it depends on how wet of a season it has been if it got a chance to dry out enough.  I like to get cut down it before the fluffy mess is moved to my basement.  I am getting to the point where the older dead stuff is gone now. 

We have oak wilt fungus around here.  It can wipe out red/pin/black oak real quick.  The white/bur varieties are tougher but still can get it.  I haven't confirmed if I have it or if it is drought/stress related in some area.  I have only a few dead oaks randomly here and there, but there is one area where oak wilt wiped out a big area of young pin oak.  It also got 2 bur oaks, but they died slow a few years later.  I have my piles by my house for most wood and I have my quarantine pile in an isolated spot away from any other oaks that goes straight to the shed or basement to be burned that year and avoid spreading disease.


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## Woody Stover (Mar 3, 2014)

lindnova said:


> I like to get cut down it before the fluffy mess is moved to my basement.


I had a couple where the sapwood was pretty far gone, and I trimmed it off with a small saw; Talk about slow! Hopefully I can catch up on the dead Oaks this year and avoid the fluff in the future. I think the sapwood won't fluff out on me if I've got it stacked and covered....


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## Gboutdoors (Mar 3, 2014)

billb3 said:


> What size skids are those ?
> They must be bigger than 42x48



Billb3  they are 48"x20' your local lumberyard should have them 48"x18' if they carry koma or Kleer trim boards. At our yard we buy it in 20' lengths if you would like some I have plenty. I cut my wood at 16" so I get three splits across the pallet. Each pallet gets 2 1/2 cord if stacked right.


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## Gboutdoors (Mar 3, 2014)

razerface that is how I checked the moisture. I took my m/m with me as I cut the trees down and checked the rounds as I cut them, after the first 21% or less round I just figure the rest is good to go in next years stack.


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## Free BTUs (Mar 3, 2014)

Gboutdoors said:


> Ok here is what I got from this weekends work .
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Nice work.  Man, I wish I had access to dry oak like that.  I am just about out of dry wood (already burned 3 cords this winter) and it looks like winter is not going to go away anytime soon.  I have about 7 cords of wood (mostly oak) css, but it is not dry yet.


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## billb3 (Mar 3, 2014)

Gboutdoors said:


> Billb3  they are 48"x20' your local lumberyard should have them 48"x18' if they carry koma or Kleer trim boards. At our yard we buy it in 20' lengths if you would like some I have plenty. I cut my wood at 16" so I get three splits across the pallet. Each pallet gets 2 1/2 cord if stacked right.


only place flat enough here for anything 20 feet long is my driveway and the garden and even those aren't level.
I double row  16 " splits on 48x42 -  takes 3 skids. Easy enough to follow the contours.


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## STIHLY DAN (Mar 4, 2014)

That's what landscape timbers and blocks are for.


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## Gboutdoors (Mar 7, 2014)

Cut down two dead oaks yesterday after work . I know with out pictures it did not happen so here you go.
	

		
			
		

		
	







Sorry about the sideways pictures don't know what happened. The highest reading was 21% on only two longs the first 4' of each tree all the rest were 14-18%. Did not bring out the tops yet but they will be fine to burn for sure.


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