I hate Red Oak

[CTburning]

This is not a farce, I really hate Red Oak. I have been struggling with it for Four years and I thought I would have mastered it by now. My old smoke dragon blew through a cord a month and I had a hard time getting ahead. Last winter was my first with the Fireview and I burned a cord of Red Oak that was split small and seasoned for 12 months. It did ok but some pieces mildly sizzled. When the Oak was finished I burned some dry swamp maple and then had to burn 6 month seasoned swamp maple and it sizzled like crazy (2009 was a bad summer for drying). I ended up retiring the stove by the end of February last winter as I didn't want to struggle with wet wood anymore.

I have been burning chunks, uglies, White Oak and some beautiful pieces of Dogwood for the last Month or so. The stove is doing much better this year and I don't have any sizzling and the stove temps are higher. The wood was stacked in the shed by Apr of 09 and both types of Oaks were bucked several months prior to splitting and stacking. The pics are of two pieces of White Oak and a Red Oak split is in the middle. The split is about 3.5" square and 16" long. It sizzled like crazy and actually got much worse than the pic shows. It eventually formed a U shape with only the upper side not sizzling out water. I have two cords of White Oak for this winter and a cord of Red Oak from Dec 08. I should be good to go this year but my plan was to burn 2+ cords of Red Oak from March 2010 next winter. It will not be ready. I have already split 2-3 cords of Red Oak and some kind of light maple that is sitting in a heap and is slowly being stacked for 2012-2013. I have changed my strategy and I'm now seasoning wood for a year + out in the open and probably won't cover it. I got some pallets and I'm stacking in two groups based on species, in the sun and wind. I may bring it into the shed after a year or just skip that step entirely.

This is more of a rant than anything else. This happened about a week ago and I have been burning the white oak steadily since then without incident. I did have a small amount of water come out of a 4"+ round of maple but in was over in a minute and could have been a bit of a fluke.

I say all of this to warn anyone trying to burn Red Oak that hasn't been seasoned for at least two years. People aren't kidding when they say 3 is better! I will get by next year but I'm going to have to find some wood to season in 12-15 months. I found a tall skinny Black Cherry on my property and a large one that is on my property but close enough to my neighboors that I will talk to her about it. I also found what I think is an Ash tree and that would provide another cord or so. I have only seen one other Ash on my neighboors property and would rather keep it so I'm hoping the Cherry will do the trick. After that I will be set with 3 year seasoned wood. My neighboorhood is called "Oakdale" for a reason. I have huge 4ft diameter Red Oaks on my property. I just wish it was called Locustdale or Ashdale or even cherrydale. That would make my life easier. Unfortunately it is predominantly Red and White Oak and Swamp Maple.

 

[Danno77]

I hear ya, I really do. But when it's dry, that stuff burns great

 

[DiscoInferno]

I try to really get ahead on red oak, as that's often half my wood. This year I cut and quartered several cords of red oak and left them stacked in the woods (behind a neighbor's house; they're safe) since I don't have room to stack them at home right now. This way I get an extra year's worth of seasoning in the woods before two summers in my yard. A "bonus" of sorts is that the bark will rot some in the woods and mostly fall off when I move it.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I hate Red Oak

So does God. That's why he burns Doug Fir

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Another reinforcement of the theory of not burning oak until it has been properly seasoned for 3 years. Oak can be frustrating for sure just because it does not willingly give up its moisture but the payback is great!

 

[Wood Duck]

I think you need to start doing some scrounging off your own property. I'd expect cherry, swamp maple (red maple), ash, or several other types of trees to be fully seasoned next winter if you can cut them now. I'd try to give the oak a full two years, which means get two years ahead or at least far enough ahead that you can use the other wood sooner, the oak later. it is a hassle getting ahead, but once you're there you won't have to be concerned whether you are stacking oak or something else, since it will all sit two years before you burn it. At one point I was trying to stack oak separately from the faster-seasoning woods, and it was a pain.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Wood Duck is right except I'd give the oak 3 years. For sure cherry and ash would be good woods to be cutting now.

 

[raybonz]

You can dump your red oak here and I will patiently wait for it to season... Try cross stacking it exposed to wind and sun and it will dry faster (single row is best or double with air space between rows).. Great stuff when seasoned with LOTS of btu's... Red oak is very common here too..

Ray

 

[gzecc]

Stay away from oak unless you can afford to season in single rows, stacked loosely and split small for at least 2 years. Look for ash, locust, norway maple, sugar maple, cherry, beech, hickory, etc. I only take oak if it literally gets dropped in my yard by someone else.
Search craigslist, other species than oak do show up on occasion.

 

[spur0701]

I've been burning a lot of red oak without a problem but it was standing dead (in some cases for at least 3-5 years) and cut back in the early spring...and we had a hot dry summer.

 

[Wood Duck]

We all write how long we need to season this wood or that wood as if we all had the same climate, the same sun and air movement in our stacks, and the same style of stacks and size of splits. We don't. There are all sorts of factors that can make your wood season more slowly, so you have to learn by experience about how long you need to wait to burn a given type of wood. Plus, as Backwoods savage reports, more time is better. After I burn through a small stack of mixed hardwood and Red Oak that is at least 6 years since splitting (it was here when I moved in), I'll begin burning wood that includes a bunch of Chestnut Oak that just passed two years since splitting and stacking. I won't really know what shape it is in until I begin to take down the Holz Hausen. With a big, round stack there is just no easy way to check the wood in the middle until you take the stack apart. The stuff on top is quite dry, but it ought to be, since it is in full sun and strong wind 6 feet off the ground.

If you have the space and enough wood to burn in the mean time, I'd try seasoning the Red Oak another year, then see how it burns, but be prepared for the possilibity it will need one more year after that.

 

[Redburn]

I have a love hate relationship with it .... There's allot around here to the trick for me is split it small and single row direct sun I cover the top I try to let the air flow through........ and keep my figures crossed...

 

[weatherguy]

I hated it til I got my hands on 4 cords of nicely seasoned red oak, now I love the stuff

 

[Cascade Failure]

If you're actually in Oakdale and not a community named Oakdale in Western CT I'd be more than happy to come pickup all of that nasty oak!

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Oak takes more than a year, usually. It's what I have the most of, so I deal with it. I'd take ash or maple over it if I had a choice, just for that reason.

 

[Slow1]

These threads always scare me...

What I am burning this year as far as oak goes came to me already a couple years old (CL finds) and I have let it dry another year as well. Rest of what I'm burning is not oak and has had at least 18 months to dry out - much of it closer to 24 by time it will hit the stove. So this year is good. However what I have for next year is largely red oak. I have about 1 1/2 cord of ash that was standing dead and split last summer that I will move to the front of the line, then I have a cord of oak that is now 18 months old so it will be 2.5 years at start of next burning season. Rest of what I plan to burn was split this last Jan so I expect it will be almost exactly 2 years by time it hits the stove - which sounds like it is right on the line.

Then there is my 12/13 supply that is heavily oak and was just split over the summer - seems I'm not really far enough ahead here to really feel comfortable yet eh? I really need to find some non-oak hardwood to put into the mix so I can let the red oak sit for longer.

Then there is the question of how much we're burning... I had thought that my 4 cord budget was overly generous since we burned 3 cords each of the last two winters. However it seems the wife is now comfortable loading the stove AND discovered she likes to have the house warmer. So we are burning more wood than we did last year - hard to tell exactly how bad it will be (there is only so much you can shove through the stove after all) but I'm pretty sure that we'll burn the full 4 cords if she is left to feed the stove as much as she wants to... so much for my idea of having 4 years worth of wood put up (12 cords now - @3 cords/year = 4 years).

Ironically it seems this winter may be one of my best for a while.

I wonder if there is a word for "wet wood anxiety"

 

[louieva]

CTBurning,

I think that is a good move to use pallets to get it off the ground. I only have pin oak right now (which is in the red oak family) and so I have to learn to use it.

I've found that Craigslist is a good place to find free pallets.

How did you stack your red oak before? I find that any that is touching the ground just soaks up moisture like a sponge even in rounds.

 

[jpl1nh]

These threads always scare me...

What I am burning this year as far as oak goes came to me already a couple years old (CL finds) and I have let it dry another year as well. Rest of what I'm burning is not oak and has had at least 18 months to dry out - much of it closer to 24 by time it will hit the stove. So this year is good. However what I have for next year is largely red oak. I have about 1 1/2 cord of ash that was standing dead and split last summer that I will move to the front of the line, then I have a cord of oak that is now 18 months old so it will be 2.5 years at start of next burning season. Rest of what I plan to burn was split this last Jan so I expect it will be almost exactly 2 years by time it hits the stove - which sounds like it is right on the line.

Then there is my 12/13 supply that is heavily oak and was just split over the summer - seems I'm not really far enough ahead here to really feel comfortable yet eh? I really need to find some non-oak hardwood to put into the mix so I can let the red oak sit for longer.

Then there is the question of how much we're burning... I had thought that my 4 cord budget was overly generous since we burned 3 cords each of the last two winters. However it seems the wife is now comfortable loading the stove AND discovered she likes to have the house warmer. So we are burning more wood than we did last year - hard to tell exactly how bad it will be (there is only so much you can shove through the stove after all) but I'm pretty sure that we'll burn the full 4 cords if she is left to feed the stove as much as she wants to... so much for my idea of having 4 years worth of wood put up (12 cords now - @3 cords/year = 4 years).

Ironically it seems this winter may be one of my best for a while.

I wonder if there is a word for "wet wood anxiety"

How bout "hydrosplitphobia"

 

[Danno77]

I wonder if there is a word for "wet wood anxiety"

How bout "hydrosplitphobia"

xylophobia - fear of wooden objects or forests ; hydrophobia - fear of water

let's combine them to get hydroxylophobia fear of watery-wood...

 

[raybonz]

These threads always scare me...

What I am burning this year as far as oak goes came to me already a couple years old (CL finds) and I have let it dry another year as well. Rest of what I'm burning is not oak and has had at least 18 months to dry out - much of it closer to 24 by time it will hit the stove. So this year is good. However what I have for next year is largely red oak. I have about 1 1/2 cord of ash that was standing dead and split last summer that I will move to the front of the line, then I have a cord of oak that is now 18 months old so it will be 2.5 years at start of next burning season. Rest of what I plan to burn was split this last Jan so I expect it will be almost exactly 2 years by time it hits the stove - which sounds like it is right on the line.

Then there is my 12/13 supply that is heavily oak and was just split over the summer - seems I'm not really far enough ahead here to really feel comfortable yet eh? I really need to find some non-oak hardwood to put into the mix so I can let the red oak sit for longer.

Then there is the question of how much we're burning... I had thought that my 4 cord budget was overly generous since we burned 3 cords each of the last two winters. However it seems the wife is now comfortable loading the stove AND discovered she likes to have the house warmer. So we are burning more wood than we did last year - hard to tell exactly how bad it will be (there is only so much you can shove through the stove after all) but I'm pretty sure that we'll burn the full 4 cords if she is left to feed the stove as much as she wants to... so much for my idea of having 4 years worth of wood put up (12 cords now - @3 cords/year = 4 years).

Ironically it seems this winter may be one of my best for a while.

I wonder if there is a word for "wet wood anxiety"

Sogiophobia?

Ray

 

[bjkjoseph]

i had some red oak that took 3 years to season...its worth the wait.

 

[Kenster]

Stay away from oak unless you can afford to season in single rows, stacked loosely and split small for at least 2 years. Look for ash, locust, norway maple, sugar maple, cherry, beech, hickory, etc. I only take oak if it literally gets dropped in my yard by someone else.
Search craigslist, other species than oak do show up on occasion.

Stay away from oak? That's easy to say if you have a choice. We don't get a lot of ash, maple, or beech around here. The only locusts we get swarm in the hot dry summer and eat every living green thing.

What we do have a lot of is OAK.... so we deal with it and it burns soooo fine!

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Let me alleviate yer problem . . . I'll take that nasty red oak off yer hands and give ya some nice clean looking Aspen. 5 cord minimum, straight up. Yer in West CT, we can meet in East NY and swap out.

Happy burning

 

[gzecc]

Let me alleviate yer problem . . . I'll take that nasty red oak off yer hands and give ya some nice clean looking Aspen. 5 cord minimum, straight up. Yer in West CT, we can meet in East NY and swap out.

Happy burning

I would give jeanine wood anytime she asked?

 

[thewoodlands]

Thanks for the warning, 56 degrees up north so the stove is cold.


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