Yes it is a red oak, just not red oak
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I wasn't aware of that, explains why its so dang tough. I know one member made some falling wedges with it.
There are a bunch of rounds at a job I did a few yrs ago, I left them as it's pretty heavy wood
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I prefer dead standing wood if I have the choice and I leave behind the green wood whenever possible unless I'm getting paid to take it or someone asks for it.
If I had to choose a live tree to cut for firewood here it would be black locust as it's the easiest to limb out, split, and quickest drying. Most of the mulberry I come across is a lot of work for firewood. Regardless, if I'm in a scrounging scenario then I'd be more than happy to have mulberry
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Thinking about the denser species here I'm reminded that most of the hardest woods will shoot some awesome sparks when you open the door(I combat this by opening the draft first for a bit). I'm wondering if you guys in Australia deal with that on your dense wood too, and how about the softwoods.