Do you clean up wood with soft outer

[Jere39]

This relatively large and very dead old Oak fell from the woods into my lawn during a storm:



It has a good solid red oak center, but an inch or more of soft stuff on the outside. I cut up the tops and branches, and probably won't bother with them:

( 2 minutes of limbing and topping to remove from lawn and cart path to firewood)



(And a couple cuts in the bigger stuff throwing chips of the center wood)



You can see that I get to the meat of the tree and I could shave the soft off while splitting and have good solid wood. But with plenty of standing dead solid all the way through trees, I don't really need the time investment.

Anyway, question is, do you bother cleaning up this kind of tree, or do you move on for easier, cleaner, faster processing?

Ran out of gas, and my pup got tired, so after dragging the tops off the lawn, we took this after action photo:

 

[babybart]

Really depends on my mood. I will skim punk off of big rounds but the limbs are 50/50.

 

[babybart]

Gotta know what those two wheels are for.

 

[U&A]

Unless it’s a LOT of punk...I just split it and whatever falls off from handling the wood is all that I remove. A lot of times when I split since I use an axe the rotten stuff will kind of get knocked off.

Otherwise it just goes in the stove mixed with other “ better” stuff.

Taking the time to remove all that stuff it’s not worth it IMO

At this second iv got a few pc of Black locust that had a rot in the center in the trunk. I’d say maybe a third of the Pieces of wood I threw in there were punky.

She is doing fine with a 600 degree STT

Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

 

[Jere39]

Gotta know what those two wheels are for.

They are concrete anchored pipes in tires I roll out on my lawn and then slide the uppers in to make volleyball poles. Built this in the middle 1970's for picnics. They are almost too heavy for me to roll any longer at my advanced age, but they have made a lot of parties and picnics fun over the decades.

(Throw back to my relative youth)

 

[Marley5]

I personally don't mess with puffy wood or fast burning species.

I live in a Oak dominant region " like you" and prefer maximum btu for my time spent from tree to boiler.

Now if a trash tree falls in my yard, I'll make it go away in the form of smoke.

 

[svk]

I’ll leave the stuff on the outside. It’s good fire starter.

If I have a tree with core rot I’ll knock the core out though and leave that in the woods.

 

[MAD MARK]

They are concrete anchored pipes in tires I roll out on my lawn and then slide the uppers in to make volleyball poles. Built this in the middle 1970's for picnics. They are almost too heavy for me to roll any longer at my advanced age, but they have made a lot of parties and picnics fun over the decades.

(Throw back to my relative youth)

View attachment 779984

I have the exact same thing. Roll them into place for Vball.

 

[HadleyPA]

I just throw the whole piece in. Not worth the effort to try and clean the crap off the outside, it'll burn.

 

[rancher2]

Jere 39 That whole thing would get pickup with the grapple on the skid loader and thrown into the brush pile. I don't mess with wood that has any rot on it. I got a whole pasture full of hedge so I am not running out of firewood any time soon. Making firewood is to much work to mess with rotten wood.

 

[cantoo]

I have a punky wood pile beside my log landing spots in the bush. it gives the rabbits and turkeys some shelter from the elements and coyotes if they need it. I sell some wood so don't want rot if I can help it. I do use some of the less punky stuff in the owb if it seems salvageable. If I find one when I'm running the processor with rot or ants then I throw it aside and it goes into campfires for the kids.

 

[muddstopper]

Punky or rotten cores doesn't change my plans at all. I cut to length, throw on splitter and burn whatever comes out. A lot of the pukey and rotten stuff will just fall off while splitting, and that just gets pushed to the side when I am cleaning up around the splitter.

 

[Jere39]

I did a little cutting of some long dead cyprus stumps at a friend's place. And as could have been expected, I hit something that threw sparks, and then the chain reverted to pulling dust instead of chips. I half expected it, even though I did a thorough inspection . Anyway, I took the saw home and swapped to a fresh chain and walked to that recent storm fall to cut some more into the trunk. It is clear there is plenty of good wood in there, so I'll split and shave it a little and add to my piles. You can see how a fresh chain marks up the end of a Red Oak round till it strops itself a little. Was supposed to be wintry mix today, never happened - Yet

 

[alleyyooper]

I split and burn it If I have to handle it then It gets burnt. I am not a wood snob though and burn some really bad knotty stuff.



Al

 

[Cowboy254]

Yes, I'd burn wood with the soft sapwood exterior. I prefer it that way to the other way around with a termite pipe up the guts.

Obviously it depends on individual circumstances. If you have easy access to great quality wood, well why would you bother with soft stuff. Then again, if you're hard up then you'd rather burn softish wood than the kitchen table. For me, if it's close, dry and easy...it goes in.

 

[macattack_ga]

Really depends on if ya gotta tote the wood inside. We do, so we keep the punk to a minimum.

 

[cuinrearview]

 

[panolo]

Smaller branches I will leave but everything else gets split and alot of that punk falls off. Got a crap ton of oak wilt logs right now where the 1st inch or two suck and the rest is great. No wasting those good btu's.​

 

[SS396driver]

I'll pick up slightly punked dead oak like this . Other wood not so much. I'm burning this wood right now. The ash had no punk on it or bark. Neighbor asked if I was starting to burn telephone poles as I have a few 14 footers that dead straight bleached and bare.

 

[SamT1]

I put junky stuff first in line to burn up. I wouldn’t go out of my way to cut up anything punky, but there in the yard and needing moved I’d burn it no matter how bad it is.