White Oak takes forever to dry.

[FlyingDutchman]

I wish I could afford a new truck, mine is dead in the water, needs injectors too bad its knocking.

Oak is great firewood if you have the time. Sucks fighting with it green for sure.

 

[jrider]

What size splits and length? Your location makes a big difference as well. I make my splits on the smaller side, wood is cut to 16” and sits in a wide open field with zero shade. I can get oak to season in a year and less if we have a hot sunny summer. Location: south Jersey

 

[farmer steve]

Well dang it !! Now I feel obligated to impress the arborists with another truck.

Is my replacement truck satisfactory ?
If not I'll likely trade it in .
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Your almost there. Green white oak does seem to take a while to dry. I think that chesnut oak dries a bit faster.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I split my black oak (red oak family) into large chunks for those long, overnight burns. I really don't know how long it takes to dry. The stuff I'm burning is at least 5-6 years CSS. Wonderful stuff! I don't have to get up to reload in the middle of the night and my wife rarely has to feed the stove when she gets up.

My friend never gets ahead. He cut some green oak this summer and will burn it this winter. It will take lots of pine and fir (also cut this year) to keep it burning.

 

[sb47]

Drying time depends on location and environment and what climate your in and if it's in log form or split and where and how it's stored. Down here, once split and stacked in full sun I can get white/water oak to burn just fine in 8 months. If I left my white oak stacked for more the 2 years it's basically rotted away and worthless junk. Down here most oak will rot very fast if left outdoors and if it left in contact with the ground it rots even faster.

 

[Multifaceted]

I've been removing the bark from oak when splitting and let to dry. It seems that any oak splits that contained bark were not nearly as dried as the barkless pieces, and often they'd be sprouting fungus on the bark and spreading.

 

[J.W Younger]

I've been burning some post oak I cut short hopeing it would dry faster.
It's been burning pretty good even thou the trees only been down a year.
Takes longer to load the owb than the full lengths but seems to burn better.
White Oak is a damn fine wood.

 

[greenskeeper]

never had a problem burning oak (or any other wood type) after one year of drying

 

[sb47]

I've been burning some post oak I cut short hopeing it would dry faster.
It's been burning pretty good even thou the trees only been down a year.
Takes longer to load the owb than the full lengths but seems to burn better.
White Oak is a damn fine wood.

I find post oak take the longest of the oaks to season properly. But once it's dry it's damn good firewood.
My favorite oak is live oak, it burns hotter and last longer then most any other oak I have used and leaves the least amount of ash and has less smoke and creosote. Grills up the best tasting stakes too.

 

[SS396driver]

Most oaks take a while to properly dry. I let the green ones rest for at least two years. This year I got about 6 cord of ready to burn along with 10 green cords. I'll be cutting on the property I posted about for at least 5 years. I haven't even gotten into 10% of the wood that's down . And the loggers are about 50% done.

Love cutting splitting and burning in a week

 

[numnuts]

A little surprised by the long dry times. I get a combo of Oak and Mesquite. Once cut, I split and stack in a shed. I guess 40 plus days of 100 in the summer at <20% humidity might have something to do with it. I generally allow a year to cure, never had a problem.

 

[Brushwacker]

About 95% of 2/3 cord stockpiled in my porch is fresh dead standing white oak cut Nov and Dec..May not be perfect but i haven't noticed any sizzling. Limb wood and top of tree gets pretty dry. Splits from the trunk usually i give them a day and night leaned up near my stove insert. When it gets on the warm side in my house i open the door to the porch and let the wood get some warm dry air. I have some older seasoned wood, several species, pine, pin oak, mulberry, cherry, this and that, outside i bring in little at a time for building a hot fire when i let it die down . Most the dead standing i cut i think is about 3 years dead, some more. I look for trees with the bark mostly gone and peeling. Have an 8 acre woods about 80% the white oak has died from root disease in the last 4 years or so.

 

[jrider]

never had a problem burning oak (or any other wood type) after one year of drying

I agree with you 100% that it burns with no problem BUT dry some 2 years and you will notice a huge improvement on burn times and how little air the stove needs.

 

[SS396driver]

A little surprised by the long dry times. I get a combo of Oak and Mesquite. Once cut, I split and stack in a shed. I guess 40 plus days of 100 in the summer at <20% humidity might have something to do with it. I generally allow a year to cure, never had a problem.

Yes summer here is 80°to 90° plus with average humidity of 70%. But we do get a few weeks where its 80% plus humidity. Things mold even with the sun out. Guess that's what happens with the great lakes to the west and the Atlantic ocean to the east.

But the dead I've been collecting is usually leaners or ones that drop onto other tress on the forest floor. Most of the oak looks like this and is about 15 to 18 % at the fresh split. Some are punky on the outside too.

 

[J.W Younger]

never had a problem burning oak (or any other wood type) after one year of drying

Me either but I've done most if not all of my burning for the last 30 years in a forced draft outside burner.

 

[Marine5068]

A little surprised by the long dry times. I get a combo of Oak and Mesquite. Once cut, I split and stack in a shed. I guess 40 plus days of 100 in the summer at <20% humidity might have something to do with it. I generally allow a year to cure, never had a problem.

But I would expect dry times to be shorter in Texas. Longer hot days.
It's not nearly as humid as here in the Boreal forests of Ontario.
We have a lot of surface water and hundreds of thousands of lakes a rivers. Have about 1/3 of all the worlds fresh water actually.
I like reading about all the different places that we all cut and use wood on this site. Very interesting and great pics of all over the world.
It usually take me at least 3 years after splitting to season/dry Oak or other hardwood species like Sugar Maple or Elm and sometimes Hickory or Hop Hornbeam (Ironwood).
I love burning White Oak but there's not a lot of it around me. You see mostly dead or dying Ash from the EAB so there's lots of that available now.
I just cut some Red Oak last Fall and it gets tiring explaining to some people that it's for a few years from now...lol.
They don't get it if they don't cut firewood.
Of course it will dry faster when I get my firewood lean-to built next Spring to stack it under.
Here's a cord of Red Oak. Can you tell it's Oak?....lol

 

[Marine5068]

never had a problem burning oak (or any other wood type) after one year of drying

Really?
Well you're the only one here with that problem I guess.
If you burn wet wood you're wasting your time, effort, heat and maybe even your house and safety in a chimney fire.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Many years ago when I was just getting into woodburning I got some Oak and I tried using it drying it the same time frame as other woods that I had, not knowing how long it holds it's moisture, and it didn't burn well and I remember thinking "I thought this was supposed to be primo fuelwood?" and was disappointed. A few years ago I got my hands on some more and since I had read about it taking time to dry out I did just that, and the difference is very much noticeable!

I don't know how it manages to hold onto it's water weight so long but it does, but when dry burns oh so nice!!!

 

[sb47]

Many years ago when I was just getting into woodburning I got some Oak and I tried using it drying it the same time frame as other woods that I had, not knowing how long it holds it's moisture, and it didn't burn well and I remember thinking "I thought this was supposed to be primo fuelwood?" and was disappointed. A few years ago I got my hands on some more and since I had read about it taking time to dry out I did just that, and the difference is very much noticeable!

I don't know how it manages to hold onto it's water weight so long but it does, but when dry burns oh so nice!!!

Watch these videos and it will explain why different oaks holds water.

 

[panolo]

There is a company that builds barrels for beer and whisky about 45 minutes north of me. I helped the guy complete his purchase on a new truck and started chatting with him about the business. They are all made of white oak.