brenndatomu,
I hear lots of people say they are not impressed with white oak and I think the reason is it's one of those woods that likes air changes as the coals grow and quantity of wood burning changes.
I always burn white oak when I'm around to fiddle a bit with air settings, unattended white oak I agree isn't the best, attended white oak is real nice.
Red oak is much more user friendly.
The btu level of honey locust is about the same as shagbark but IMO locust is a wonderful firewood a bit better than shagbark, locust creates a firebox full of red hot burning coals and throws out heat like little else.
I'm sure once you start burning locust it will be #1 on the scrounge list
If you are burning white oak now and have a day when your around the stove try the air settings a bit, check in every hour or so and get the rolling blue flame fire going again with a little more or less air and I'm sure you find it a much better heat producing firewood.
Not to much you can do at night but pick an average air setting and hope for the best with white oak.
Let me know how it goes with your white oak air fiddling because I think we have a couple different white oak species here so it might be a local thing only.
I'm burning black locust and rock elm now and with the cold and 100 mile hr wind it's needed tonight LOL