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What part makes it [Ash] better than oak?
Dries faster, burns hotter, makes better coals, easier to work with, the smoke doesn't burn my eyes as bad, straighter grained......

Around here 90% of the Oak is Bur Oak. I find that Bur Oak needs to be cut, split, and stacked to season in a dry area (shed or similar out of the elements) for at least 2 full summers to burn properly. That just doesn't work for me. I burn 12-15 cord a year and don't have a woodshed. The Bur Oak is also a twisted, gnarly tree for the most part. Unless you cut a big one down in dense woods you'll only get maybe 10ft or so of straight wood before knot city and twisted branches hit. Its impossible to stack nice even though i don't stack. Bur Oak also has a real tendency to reabsorb moisture any time it rains or if it sits outside in the winter so its always wet. Then there's the smell, I hate the strong, eye burning smell of the smoke when i reload the stove. once up and running its fine like any other wood. last there's just the sheer weight of it. its heavy when wet and still heavy when dry. being i notice no difference in burn time or heat output its just an extra burden to deal with being heavy and crooked as it is.

I have burned plenty of Pin Oak and i like that. it seasons in a FULL year, is straight grained, and makes for good firewood. I notice Pin Oak dries down to weigh less than Bur Oak does too. great wood, just doesn't grow around my home area much.

My favorite local firewoods are Ash, Elm (even though its a PITA to split), and Flowering Crab Apple. We get tons of people wanting their old, overgrown flowering crab apple taken down so i take it home and burn it. More rare trees in my favorite list are Pin Oak, Cherry, and Locust. I wont burn Willow, Cottonwood, or Basswood but will burn Boxelder, Silver Maple (as long as its not huge), and any evergreen variety (Pine, Spruce, Cedar...)

I guess I should start an "I hate Oak" thread and see how badly i get flamed. im not on here long enough to fight that fight and im also a non-confrontational kind of guy so I'll let someone else like Whitespider have that one
 
Here there is red oak and white oak everyplace so plenty of access, prefer white if it available. Locust is here but usually disappears pretty quickly. I do have a cord and I use it mostly at night, burns hot and long with good coals. I have access to a downed ash tree but was told it was low in BTU's and lots of ashes and no coals.
????????
I was told it was Ash, I have no leaves and don't read bark well?
Any guessers?
 

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Oak is excellent in my boiler but after I get through the rack of oak sauna wood I have I will not probably not seek it for that use again. It takes longer to light and doesn't heat up the sauna as fast. Tamarack is my favorite sauna wood because it provides immediate heat and also lasts a decent amount of time.
 
Here there is red oak and white oak everyplace so plenty of access, prefer white if it available. Locust is here but usually disappears pretty quickly. I do have a cord and I use it mostly at night, burns hot and long with good coals. I have access to a downed ash tree but was told it was low in BTU's and lots of ashes and no coals.
????????
I was told it was Ash, I have no leaves and don't read bark well?
Any guessers?
Looks like Ash. Usually, under the bark are markings left by beetles that kill the tree, found in the photo provided.
 

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Hello everyone. New here . Background I run a lawn service. Fall income is trees and firewood . I am a small operation as far as wood goes 3 maybe 4 months a year max. I typically split around 25 cords of firewood to sale. I have your typical equipment nothing really to fancy
 

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Here there is red oak and white oak everyplace so plenty of access, prefer white if it available. Locust is here but usually disappears pretty quickly. I do have a cord and I use it mostly at night, burns hot and long with good coals. I have access to a downed ash tree but was told it was low in BTU's and lots of ashes and no coals.
????????
I was told it was Ash, I have no leaves and don't read bark well?
Any guessers?

Not 100% certain, but that looks like Ash bark to me. Great wood, splits easily, burns hot and makes good coals. Not as much BTUs as Oak, but higher than other common hardwoods; however, the ease of processing it is a plus for me. Sadly, in the next 20 years there may be no more Ash trees left due to the EAB.
 
Hello everyone. New here . Background I run a lawn service. Fall income is trees and firewood . I am a small operation as far as wood goes 3 maybe 4 months a year max. I typically split around 25 cords of firewood to sale. I have your typical equipment nothing really to fancy
Welcome to the forums RDA. Great people here, tons of knowledge and info that will answer all your questions.
 
IMG_20170501_153253.jpg Most of the ash I have came from a girl scout camp outside of Gettysburg. An dead ash fell on a camper at a local camp ground and killed a sleeping camper now they want all the ash trees down before it happens again. Sad to see them all dieing but it makes for a surplus of firewood.IMG_20170922_183814.jpg This is the fence row at my brothers housd. There's 5 medium size mulberries in thers. I'll take mulberry any day but most people around here don't think its good wood for heating
 
Hello everyone. New here . Background I run a lawn service. Fall income is trees and firewood . I am a small operation as far as wood goes 3 maybe 4 months a year max. I typically split around 25 cords of firewood to sale. I have your typical equipment nothing really to fancy
Welcome!
 
View attachment 612417 Most of the ash I have came from a girl scout camp outside of Gettysburg. An dead ash fell on a camper at a local camp ground and killed a sleeping camper now they want all the ash trees down before it happens again. Sad to see them all dieing but it makes for a surplus of firewood.View attachment 612422 This is the fence row at my brothers housd. There's 5 medium size mulberries in thers. I'll take mulberry any day but most people around here don't think its good wood for heating

Wholly cow, when and which campsite? I'm about 12 miles south of Gettysburg. That's horrible. Yeah, I took down a standing dead Ash over the summer, have about 4 more standing dead on my property. There's a pretty large one near my house, but leaning away that is showing signs of crown dieback and the bark sloughing off from woodpeckers trying to get the EAB larvae. That same tree stood next to an equally large Red Oak that had to come down from a massive Carpenter Ant next at the base of the trunk. Friggin' bugs...
 
Wholly cow, when and which campsite? I'm about 12 miles south of Gettysburg. That's horrible. Yeah, I took down a standing dead Ash over the summer, have about 4 more standing dead on my property. There's a pretty large one near my house, but leaning away that is showing signs of crown dieback and the bark sloughing off from woodpeckers trying to get the EAB larvae. That same tree stood next to an equally large Red Oak that had to come down from a massive Carpenter Ant next at the base of the trunk. Friggin' bugs...
It was out bullfrog road but there bringing a tree crew in guess we didn't work fast enough. I'm in Hanover so not far from Gettysburg myself.
 
Hello everyone. New here . Background I run a lawn service. Fall income is trees and firewood . I am a small operation as far as wood goes 3 maybe 4 months a year max. I typically split around 25 cords of firewood to sale. I have your typical equipment nothing really to fancy

Welcome. I don’t post much, but it’s fun to look around and read. Like your truck.
 
It was out bullfrog road but there bringing a tree crew in guess we didn't work fast enough. I'm in Hanover so not far from Gettysburg myself.

Wow, that's even closer. Bullfrog Rd. is about 6 miles away from me. Was that recently? I don't remember reading about that in the local papers.
 
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