Well seasoned or rotted?

[woodzilla]

so I have a guy who has a couple cord of mixed hardwoods for the taking (lots of red oak). However It looked like some pieces have dry rot in spots... What is cut off on wood in this condition? He's cool with leaving bad stuff behind. Any inside is appreciated.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

If it's red oak, take it. The stuff burns better half dry rotted than most other wood in its prime.

Then load it all up, bring it by my place, and I'll swap ya all the Aspen you want for it :coolsmirk:

 

[savageactor7]

^you got aspen in NY...I thought they grew out west. Unless your talking about poplar ...just cut a few cords of that the last couple of days, makes for a good shoulder season wood. Beside that they're a pain in the ass tree in the sense they'll take over a wood lot.

 

[billb3]

red oak here is hard as a rock. Burns solid, too.

Pungy gets whitish on the ousides, can stick a screwdriver blade in it, burns like paper, sucks up water like a sponge.
If the rest of the piece is 75% solid I'll stack and carry it in.

If the center had carpenter ants in it , it gets left on the forest floor. The ants are gone, but the wood is worthless. More paper.

 

[woodzilla]

ok, so I split 3 pieces off a round and to my surprise, they did not go up like tinder. 3 hrs later with air open full the whole time, stovetop is 450 and coaling up nicely. Think I'll be going back for a lot more of this stuff.

 

[jpl1nh]

I collect a lot of lying dead red oak. IMHO it takes longer to go punky than just about any other wood except maybe black locust. A punky spot here or there, it still burns, take it all. The price is right.

 

[jpl1nh]

^you got aspen in NY...I thought they grew out west. Unless your talking about poplar ...just cut a few cords of that the last couple of days, makes for a good shoulder season wood. Beside that they're a pain in the ass tree in the sense they'll take over a wood lot.

While they are known for growing out west, I guess do to the large stands of them, populus tremuloides ie Quaking Aspen, is also the poplar of the northeast.

 

[jebatty]

And why the trash talk about aspen? It has about 60% of the heat value of red oak. I've burned it almost exclusively for 18 years, well seasoned, no creosote, through the coldest winters, including -55F (not normal) and howling winds. IMO all wood is good firewood.

 

[syd3006]

I to sometime wonder while reading these posts why some of you folks are so reluctant to acknowledge poplar as good wood for fuel. I wonder if it could somehow be calculated growth time of oak or some other popular fuel wood vs. poplar and then compare the fuel quantity and value of each wood after 30 years or so. Poplar grows very quickly and where I live is one of the limited available hardwoods.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

It's just that other wood gives so much more heat and lasts longer. We've burned popple many times but it certainly is not my first choice, in fact, it is quite low on the list.