All Around Best Firewood

[Hedgerow]

And, red oak splits easier than white.
In my neck of the woods anyway.Btu wise I rank white oak right up there with hickory tho. And...I gots lots of all 3 and stuff.

You got beautiful trees where you're at... I got btu's, but everything sucks to split... You'll see come October... We gonna give sunfish's super split a workout...

 

[JimmyT]

JimmyT,

So many people ask for red oak but i think white oak is easier to split and better btu.
White oak sure could be a winner in the list of needs because it can easily be split with a maul and has good or great other qualities.

haveawoody, you are correct white oak is rated at 24.2 million btu's per cord and red oak is 22.1 million btu's per cord. Here's the kicker the insects love to bore into the white oak and make that fine wood powder out of it. I had some white oak last winter and I thought the powder post beetles were going to eat it up before I had a chance to burn it. Evidently the insects don't like the tannins in the red oak. I've stored red oak for 4 and 5 years without insect damage. Here's the Chimney Sweep's Firewood BTU Comparison Chart---Sweep's Library - Firewood BTU Comparison Charts

 

[Hedgerow]

haveawoody, you are correct white oak is rated at 24.2 million btu's per cord and red oak is 22.1 million btu's per cord. Here's the kicker the insects love to bore into the white oak and make that fine wood powder out of it. I had some white oak last winter and I thought the powder post beetles were going to eat it up before I had a chance to burn it. Evidently the insects don't like the tannins in the red oak. I've stored red oak for 4 and 5 years without insect damage. Here's the Chimney Sweep's Firewood BTU Comparison Chart---Sweep's Library - Firewood BTU Comparison Charts

Bam!!! Jimmy T just interjected a serious variable to the firewood equation!!! Bugs!!! Another awesome firewood the insects love is hickory!!! Those miserable locust borers even like the outer layer of Hedge... They DON'T, however, like Mulberry... Hmmm... Another plus for the "other" yellow wood...:msp_sneaky:

 

[haveawoody]

J.W Younger,

I think in southern ontario we might have both as different species, i believe it's northern red that is no picnic to split with a maul, and not sure of the name for the white oak but splits pretty easy something like ash or maybe just a bit easier.
Our white oak is almost a whiskey barrel brownish color.

Got to love what gets grouped into one general name for trees.

 

[haveawoody]

Hedgerow,

I think the wood is a bit faster to cure than oak, but i think the bark is very much like fruit tree bark that likes to keep a layer of moisture under it.

I love when i find barkless locust dead wood, it seems to burn a step beyond it's cured counterpart.
Bet that is the same for most wood though.

 

[gpsman007]

lOCUST

Is the all around winner

Burns Hotter
Burns up completely and leaves very little ash

 

[fields_mj]

wampum,

Locust is really nice wood but i have to tell you when i see a big pile of rounds and the splitter i get ready for a tearathon.
2 year wood me thinks is the real way to burn locust.

That's why I just noodle them. If they don't pop apart after 2 or 3 well placed hits with the X27, then ol' Bertha gets some play time

 

[Misfit138]

Wood Doctor,

I got a good score on Friday morning for wood real close to home.

2 fallen trees needed removal so i went out expecting a couple old dead ash or elm trees would need a cleanup.
When i got to the site i discovered 120' x4' and 110' x3' sugar maples on the ground.
Odd trees because most of both trees were similar in width from top to bottom.
I chained all day Friday to get it to manageable sizes, loaded my big 4 wheel cargo trailer 4 times on Saturday and Sunday all day and ended up with 7 full cords of the heaviest hardest sugar maple i have ever cut.
Dulled to the point of not cutting 2 new chains cutting them up on a s361 and s390 and the third chain was almost to dull to cut when i just finished (didn't hit the dirt once).
Almost everything had to noodled to move (impossible to get a splitter anywhere close).

Growth so slow on the trees it was difficult to see defined rings, so i guess both were very old trees fighting for light and more like rock than wood.
Can't wait to burn them in my personal wood stove next year and beyond
If it burns anything like it cuts it should keep most of the province warm LOL

Nice to get paid for removal also after a find like that
Nice to have a hot tub after moving it all.

Great story. Had to quote it.

 

[J.W Younger]

J.W Younger,

I think in southern ontario we might have both as different species, i believe it's northern red that is no picnic to split with a maul, and not sure of the name for the white oak but splits pretty easy something like ash or maybe just a bit easier.
Our white oak is almost a whiskey barrel brownish color.

Got to love what gets grouped into one general name for trees.

Yep, got to be close to 500 species of oak and they all fall into either the white or red group. Now you gimme sum actual straight grained pin or red oak and nothin splits much eaiser.Throw in sum black jack(red) or twisted grain post oak (white)and you got yer work cut out for u.
When it comes to white oak the scaley bark stuff used for making whiskey barrels is my favorite firewood. Ain't too bad to split either. Takes a while to season good tho.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Wood Doctor,

LOL probably a good thing i don't live handy to you then.
I bet you will have a couple 8hr chainathons and wilt when you see the splitting pile of rounds.

I had a wilt moment when i unloaded my last load of sugar maple late sunday night and looked back at the mountain that needs splitting. LOL

My wife came out about that moment and asked if the king's chamber was suppose to go at the bottom of the pyramid.

Splitting a big pile of rounds is huge. I found out an interesting poperty. Get this:

Using a chainsaw with a sharp loop and no other fancy equipment, I can buck cut by myself in one hour what it takes two hours to split and stack.

The other day I spent four hours bucking rather large large logs at a reasonable pace using my Stihl MS 361. The next day it was impossible to split and stack all of the processed firewood in one day. You may have to keep that in mind.

Any other similar experiences out there? Forum, please advise and discuss.

 

[anymanusa]

well I have sweet gum to start the fire with, Honey Locust, Beech, Red Oak, White Oak, and Black Locust to maintain it with. Last year the Honey Locust burned very well. I'm anxious to see how well it burns this year, after one more year of seasoning. All the other wood I listed was harvested this year, so some of it might not be ready to burn this season.

 

[haveawoody]

Wood Doctor,

Ditto for me.
1 day of chain saw work=2 of splitting and stacking for ash, walnut, silver maple etc.
I'm always cutting real heavy very hard woods sugar maple, rock elm, hickory etc, so for me it's more like 1 chain day=3 S&S.

Investing in a splitter with a 4 way cutter, a catcher so every split doesn't fall to the ground and a towable cart to dump wood into and take it out with no bending i think are great back savers.

Still takes me about 1 for 3 but without them 1 for 5 LOL

 

[fields_mj]

Using a chainsaw with a sharp loop and no other fancy equipment, I can buck cut by myself in one hour what it takes two hours to split and stack.

Before I comment, I will say that I prefer to use my 064 and noodle the rounds rather than use my little diddier splitter. I noodle them about 3/4 of the way, then stand them up and hit them once with the X27, maul, or what ever I have handy. Stuff that splits easy anyway gets split with the X27, and I don't split anything that will easily fit through my 10"x10" door on the wood furnace.

Now, having said that, I don't know where you found that piece of information at, but the only way it can be true is if you're only going to buck rounds that are small enough that they don't need split at all. Depending on the make up of the area you're cutting in, this could be really easy, or dang near impossible. For my dad it's easy because there are lots of dead hickories on the property that are only 10~12" max at the base. For me, it has been flat out impossible until this year. Previously I only cut the blow downs out of a mature "forest", and they were normally well over 24" at the base. Now they've logged over 1100 "mature" trees off the property so I have a LOT of tops that I can work on. Maybe it would be a good idea if I just focused on the stuff that doesn't need split so that I can make the most of my limited tiem this winter.

For me, I have found that it takes me about 4 hours to go cut a full truck load of wood, and another 30 min to get it home and unloaded into a pile. Generally, I have to drag most of my wood out with a chain in order to get it to where I can cut it. I don't have to drag it far, maybe 20~40 yards, but that's enough to get it up out of the ravine onto some level ground where I can work more safely, AND where I can back the truck right up to it to load it While I'm in the woods, if I can get it into the truck, then I don't usually split it. The exception to that would be if I'm working on a large trunk in which case I just go a head and noodle everything into 6"~8" x 24" pieces. The wood gets stacked into my truck bed (full 8' bed) and I stack it as high as I can without the risk of anything fall off on the way out. I can't quite get a full cord on. I need to add some side rails. Once I'm home, I try to seperate the load when I take it out of the truck so that anything that will need split goes on one side of the pile, and anything that doesn't goes on the other side, and any odd ball funky stuff gets tossed into it's own pile. The "needs split" pile is normally smaller than the (ready to burn" pile, but like I said, I don't split anything that I can get into my old wood burner There's enough smaller stuff for my wife to fire the stove once a day for a 4 or 5 hour burn. From there, I've found that I can noodle/spit the rest of the load into burnable pieces and have it stacked in around 2~2.5 hours. Generally speaking each of my stacks is 2 truck loads so I will unload 2 truck loads into the same pile (2 mornings worth of work) and then on a Saturday morning, or one evening during the week I can go out and noodle/split and stack it. So I'd say that for me it's 2 days sawing, one day splitting/stacking. That's just how it works out for me though. I've seen a lot of wood piles with nothing thicker than 5" in it and I wonder how they find all the time to do all that splitting. I also wonder what kind of burn times they are getting.

Mark

 

[haveawoody]

fields_mj,

For me i only chain and noodle to make things light enough to lift onto the splitter so my time generally is spent loading, unloading and driving a full cart to the stack to pile.

I'm ok with a 200lb round lift so rounds under 2' are just cart moved at location onto the trailer then cart moved off the trailer to the splitter.
If i have a big job i end up with a big pile of rounds near the splitter after a few trailer loads.
If it's a smaller job stuff comes off the trailer right to the splitter.

No maul for me unless it's something relatively easy to split and just a small amount of rounds.
If it's less work to maul than fire up the splitter it gets mauled.

Lots of small wood moves for me i think eats up time so when i chain i have a pretty good idea for each hour i chain it's 3 or 4 S&S.

 

[fields_mj]

fields_mj,

For me i only chain and noodle to make things light enough to lift onto the splitter so my time generally is spent loading, unloading and driving a full cart to the stack to pile.

I'm ok with a 200lb round lift so rounds under 2' are just cart moved at location onto the trailer then cart moved off the trailer to the splitter.
If i have a big job i end up with a big pile of rounds near the splitter after a few trailer loads.
If it's a smaller job stuff comes off the trailer right to the splitter.

No maul for me unless it's something relatively easy to split and just a small amount of rounds.
If it's less work to maul than fire up the splitter it gets mauled.

Lots of small wood moves for me i think eats up time so when i chain i have a pretty good idea for each hour i chain it's 3 or 4 S&S.

That makes sense. I can see why you do what you do. Sounds like you are doing tree removals, and I can certainly see where that would be the case for that. I'm just cutting firewood out in the woods. Since I have to drag the wood a little ways anyway in order to be on safe cutting ground, I generally drag them out far enough that I can load them straight into the truck. I'm like you in that I'll put some pretty good size rounds in the truck. I won't go quite to 24" though. Lifting one of those that's 24" long onto the tail gate of a 3/4 ton pickup gets old pretty quick. It's okay if I only have one or two, and i can load them in the beginning, but after loading the other 4,000 pound of unseasoned wood into the truck, I just don't have enough left in me to pick those big ol things up any more. Besides, I already blew both nuts out once and I can think of some MUCH better ways to get 2 weeks off work. I'll go up to about 16" or so. Any bigger than that and they get noodled before they get loaded. I figure I'm going to have to do it anyway, so why waste my back/groin trying to get it into the truck in one piece I also unload right by where I stack and I split at the same spot, so I don't end up moving stuff around a whole lot. It get's unloaded, and split right where it's at, then goes onto the stack one split at a time. My little diddier is small enough that I can get it into where ever it needs to go, but since I'm only going to split a dozen or two rounds, it generally isn't worth the time or effort to get teh tarp off of it, get it in position, and get it started. It's just easier to throw Bertha on the ATV along with the X27 and/or a maul, and go noodle them.

Now if I had to remove entire large trees and leave the place presentable when I was finished, it would be a whole different story. A lot more time would be spent splitting, and I would be much more prone to get the splitter out

 

[haveawoody]

fields_mj,

I do tree removal and a job can be as small as a tiny tree to many real big ones.
Moving the wood ASAP and getting paid is priority 1, splitting takes a second for sure.


I watched something interesting today next door at a site i was working.

I watched a man cutting long hardwood logs into 3"- 4" rounds.
My curiosity got to me after about an hour so i wandered over to ask what the heck he was doing.
He told me he was cutting firewood, you can imagine my reply was firewood with 3" rounds ?.

Then he rolled one of them on the flat ground, picked up a maul and 3 easy hits later he had 4 pizza shaped pieces.
I questioned him about stacking the pizza pieces, and he said easy to put triangles together to make a stack and they dry faster and burn better.

Might be an interesting way to maul the tough hard woods as long as you like pizza pieces.

 

[anymanusa]

fields_mj,

I do tree removal and a job can be as small as a tiny tree to many real big ones.
Moving the wood ASAP and getting paid is priority 1, splitting takes a second for sure.


I watched something interesting today next door at a site i was working.

I watched a man cutting long hardwood logs into 3"- 4" rounds.
My curiosity got to me after about an hour so i wandered over to ask what the heck he was doing.
He told me he was cutting firewood, you can imagine my reply was firewood with 3" rounds ?.

Then he rolled one of them on the flat ground, picked up a maul and 3 easy hits later he had 4 pizza shaped pieces.
I questioned him about stacking the pizza pieces, and he said easy to put triangles together to make a stack and they dry faster and burn better.

Might be an interesting way to maul the tough hard woods as long as you like pizza pieces.

You waste a lot more of the wood to saw kerf when you do that, a lot more.

 

[haveawoody]

anymanusa,

That was my exact thought when i watched (what a time and wood waster).
But if you think about it on a 12" length of round a normal cut of hardwood he is making only two extra cuts.
The wood would require a noodle cut to be able to split anyway so that noodle cut would equal about 1 1/2 of those two cuts anyway.
As the rounds get beyond 2' in diamater i bet it's less wood waste since double noodles and more come into play to split in the traditional way.

For the difficult to split woods a small wood waste Vs the ability to split anything with a maul easily isn't a bad trade off, and as the rounds get beyond 2' it's probably more efficient than traditional cutting.

I bet he can load a seriously full truckload of 4" rounds and isn't spending hours sharpening chain from noodle cuts.
The idea won't work for me because I'm not sure people are ready to buy wood pizza for the wood stove.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Splitting a big pile of rounds is huge. I found out an interesting poperty. Get this:

Using a chainsaw with a sharp loop and no other fancy equipment, I can buck cut by myself in one hour what it takes two hours to split and stack.

The other day I spent four hours bucking rather large large logs at a reasonable pace using my Stihl MS 361. The next day it was impossible to split and stack all of the processed firewood in one day. You may have to keep that in mind.

Any other similar experiences out there? Forum, please advise and discuss.

Couldn't agree more with ya Doc, I've found the same rough numbers to be true for a long time. I try to sucker friends into helping split when I can. Having more help at the splitter end speeds the process up by more than a simple factor of 2, just by being able to keep that ram going back and forth all the time.

I'm not a noodler, I only use it if I'm somewhere without my tractor and loader.

Back on topic for a minute: I like sugar maple probably the best out of what's available around here. Near the heat output of red oak, with faster seasoning times. But, variety is the spice of life. I burn up to 10 different species here over the course of a winter, from box elder and poplar to ironwood. They all keep the house warm.

 

[haveawoody]

Steve NW WI,

Sugar maple is a personal fave of mine to burn in my wood stove, i think it's as good or a little better than oak.
Not the easiest thing to split with a maul though.