# Cutting wood



## texasfarmboy (Nov 13, 2011)

I have a 52 acre farm. It is full of what we call "live oak". Many are dead and now is the time to mark them before all of them lose their leaves. Question is, since they died some time ago, are they good for anything? Do you cut living trees for your fireplace? I have one I have not used since I owned the place, two years now. I know absolutely nothing about this.


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## ben70b (Aug 29, 2012)

Burn the dead ones, unless they have rotted


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## Thomas (Nov 1, 2006)

Oak dry,be careful not to put to much in fireplace..stove etc. lot of HOT heat.


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## texasfarmboy (Nov 13, 2011)

thanks good to know, what about cutting one that lives, how long do you leave it to season, do you cut it up right away


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## UncleJoe (Jun 16, 2013)

texasfarmboy said:


> thanks good to know, what about cutting one that lives, how long do you leave it to season, do you cut it up right away


Cut it up to the length you need, split it and stack it with some type of covering over it but leave the sides exposed to allow air to pass through. You can get away with 6 months of drying split and stacked wood but a year would be better. Burning wood that isn't dry will waste the available BTU's. The woods energy is spent drying itself out instead of heating your home. It will also leave a nice thick coating of creosote on the inside of your stove and your stovepipe. Even dry wood will leave deposits so make sure you clean your chimney at least once a year. I've heated strictly with wood for about 10 years now and can't imagine heating any other way.


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## texasfarmboy (Nov 13, 2011)

Tried a fire in it once, closed flew and then opened just enough to pull smoke out, but shortly house was full of smoke. Something in chimney? It has a cap by the way.


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## Weegie (May 28, 2013)

As previously stated, it needs to be cut and split to aid the drying. Stacked and covered over here it is recommended to dry it for two years to get the best out of it but a year would be enough.

It has a high calorific value (gives out very good heat!). We have a fairly large two hundred year old house which we heat entirely by wood - three wood burning stoves. The advantage of wood is you get heat from it three times; when you cut it, when you stack it and when you burn it.

This is a poem which describes the qualities of different woods for heating. 

The Firewood Poem

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.

Bye


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

Unless you have an insert on the fireplace, the best heat you will get is from cutting, splitting and dragging the wood to it.


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## texasfarmboy (Nov 13, 2011)

I don't really care about the heat, it's the effect mostly. Seems a shame to have a nice place far from the rest of the scum with a fireplace you can't/don't use. Seemed to work fine for a few minutes and then we got run out by smoke.


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## ben70b (Aug 29, 2012)

Make sure your chimney is clean and your damper is open, if it is too warm out or it's raining it may just smolder. You gotta make sure you get a good draw and the chimney is clean tho


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## Fredneck (May 25, 2012)

i like the poem, but i want to defend elm as firewood. i heated a mobile home for 15 years with wood - ash, maple, and mainly elm (as i had more of it available). it seemed to me that elm is as hot as ash when dried, and hotter than (silver) maple. my only minus for elm as firewood is splitting it. it is absolutely brutal, and i split all of mine by hand, with an 8 pound splitting maul. learning to split elm by hand is an art form and an ordeal.


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

Fredneck said:


> i like the poem, but i want to defend elm as firewood. i heated a mobile home for 15 years with wood - ash, maple, and mainly elm (as i had more of it available). it seemed to me that elm is as hot as ash when dried, and hotter than (silver) maple. my only minus for elm as firewood is splitting it. it is absolutely brutal, and i split all of mine by hand, with an 8 pound splitting maul. learning to split elm by hand is an art form and an ordeal.


I cut mine to fit with the saw. More gas, less work. 

Splitting it with a wedge is like beating on an inflated tire with a baseball bat!


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## texasfarmboy (Nov 13, 2011)

Yeah, the wedge or maul is more work, but my fat diabetic ass needs the workout.


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## UncleJoe (Jun 16, 2013)

Been meaning to do this for a few days and finally got to it today.

Here's my wood shed. It's 16' deep, 12' wide and 8' high at the back and 10' at the front. It's oriented North-South so the prevailing west wind can blow through. The sides are semi-open to provide airflow. Hanging from the rafters on the right is all the lumber I need to close the sides up tight in the event of a really harsh, snowy winter. The green tarp will close the front. 

On the left you will notice the wood is cross stacked to make a column. On the right is the way most of the wood is stacked in there. What's in there now I split and stacked in April/May. Now that the heat of summer is subsiding, I'll fill it the rest of the way except for that little corner where the generator lives. The shed holds between 8-9 cord. I use about 6 per winter so there is always a little extra in case the winter starts early or hangs on longer into spring.

So now you have a goal. Happy splitting.


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

I use a DR electric splitter. It does an amazing job, but whatever it can't split gets 'the treatment' with Husqvarna. 

Heading out this afternoon with (3) orange tree sharks. (Husqvarna and 2 Stihls).

Who needs a GYM membership? Not ME!!


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## stephenscity (Oct 26, 2011)

A thought on the draft issue. If your house is too tight it can't draw. If the flu is open and it still doesn't want to draw try cracking a window in the room. Just a thought.


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## texasfarmboy (Nov 13, 2011)

Hmmm, good one. House is really tight so much so that we have to muscle the front door to lock it.


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

texasfarmboy said:


> Hmmm, good one. House is really tight so much so that we have to muscle the front door to lock it.


I never thought of that, since my place is 160 year old drafty barn


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## Tarp_man (Nov 4, 2010)

Oak is great wood to burn. We have an out building and we burn mostly oak. If the tree is still standing, it is probably good. If it has been on the ground for a while..it is likely rotten. Live trees are also great to burn but you have to let them dry for 6 months to 1 year.
Temporary storage buildings and sheds


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## fatjay (Dec 6, 2013)

If you're not worried about the heat, sell it. There's tons of people that are always looking for wood to burn. Here oil is expensive, and it's my only alternative, so I heat with wood. Chainsaw to length, split iwth the maul, and stack. Excercise keeps you alive, and cuts down dramatically on the heating bill.

Here's my delivery last year.


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## PeteNM (Sep 18, 2003)

" If you're not worried about the heat, sell it. There's tons of people that are always looking for wood to burn. Here oil is expensive, and it's my only alternative, so I heat with wood. Chainsaw to length, split with the maul, and stack. Exercise keeps you alive, and cuts down dramatically on the heating bill. "

Oak fetches a pretty good price here. It also is one of the best woods to burn. Lots of BTU's within. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one wood better and that's Hedge, (AKA, Osage orange, Bodark) in some parts of the country. If burning a newer air-tight stove, it ought to be dry. If you burn an old stove like I do, if it goes through the door I burn it, IF there's any heat in it. No junk wood.......

I've burnt and sold wood my whole life and I built a splitter so I split it all, but, I've split a bunch with a splitting mall or an axe. If it's fairly straight grained, it should split easy enough.


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## UncleJoe (Jun 16, 2013)

fatjay said:


> Here's my delivery last year.



Nice load of wood. Do I see some white oak in the foreground of this pic?


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

*Strange bugs*

I split some locust and wild cherry wood today and was greeted by some bugs that LOOKED like roaches!
Could be beetles, but sure looked like roaches!

There is 'ONE' house within a mile of these trees. It was built last fall.

Do roaches live in the forest and eat dead trees?

At any rate, I will be spreading some 7 dust between the wood and the house!

Right now!


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## fatjay (Dec 6, 2013)

UncleJoe said:


> Nice load of wood. Do I see some white oak in the foreground of this pic?


white oak, red oak, large assortment. It's gone now but burned very nicely and kept my house warm for a season.


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## Cublover (Feb 20, 2011)

*Here we go again!*

Tiz wood burning season again. Was too hot to get a head start on cutting and splitting, so now I gotta play catch up.
Stopped by the hardware store and picked up new stove pipe for kitchen and garage stoves. 
Inspected the flue, etc, etc.
Burned some newspaper to check the draw. All systems 'GO'.

Added 2 more fire extinguishers to the collection. I want at least 1 at every doorway and the top and bottom of every staircase. 

Play it safe and keep warm this winter.


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## ftorleans1 (Jul 12, 2009)

If your standing Dead Oaks are solid, Cut the trees to length depending on the size of your fireplace. Check to see how dry the wood is. If the logs center has any pink, It needs to dry a bit more. If the tree is so dry that the center of a cut log is as tan as the outer edge, split the wood and allow it to absorb moisture from the air. Do not place more than one log at a time on your fire if the freshly cut logs are tan to the center of the log. You could end up with an "out of control" burn. 

I try to keep a 1-1/2 year supply of well seasoned wood on hand at all times. I have already started using my stove with small light burns in the early morning with wood I processed Jan. - Feb. of 2013.

Check those Dead standing Oaks really good. You could be looking at a gold mine if they don't have fungus sprouting out of the bark or excessive insect damage. I have cut down many Red oaks which had died, shed all of the limbs and bark and if insect free, That is premium wood. Easy to split, Easy to light...

As for smoking up the house, You will need to heat the chimney enough to achieve a good draw. And as others have mentioned, If your home is really tight, You may need to crack open a window to get a good draft.

Keep us posted with how everything works...


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## tcreeley (Jan 2, 2012)

I buy my wood, use about 3-4 cords a winter. Last year was colder so I bought 6 cords, 4 cords to dry a year, 2 to add onto the 2 I had left over.
Mostly cherry, birch, maple.


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