iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Firewood

Started by Frank H., December 12, 2009, 07:15:06 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Frank H.

Hi,
I was wondering what you all think.  I have, both on my own property and on others I have access to, dead white oak standing.  I leave it up until I need it, such as for a custom cut firewwod job (you know, when people only want 12 inch pieces or something.) Its dead, and dry as a bone, and pretty much ready to burn a few weeks after cutting.  Is it better to do this, or skid it to a pile and cover?  What do you think?  Just as a side note, I've seemed to notice a lot of dead oak lately in our area of NE PA, and was wondering whats going on with that?

Ron Scott

Nothing wrong with storing and drying the firewood on the stump and cutting it when you need it if you have all season access to it and it fits with your work plans and marketing. Just be aware of the hazards involved in working in such an area and cutting dead trees.

As for the oak dying, it could be a number of things. I would check with your local extension service or conservation district forester for an appropriate local diagnosis of the cause.
~Ron

Frank H.

Thanks Ron, I am curious to talk to someone who has info on this.  It seems that there are wuite a number of oaks (generally white) dying around the area.  Monday I'm going to contact my local forester to see what he thinks.

And, yes, I know, it sure can be hairy working with dead trees.  ABC  Always Be Careful.

Thank you.

Frank

woodmills1

are the dead trees in the understory or are you seeing dead large mature full crown trees?
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

Frank H.

Dead large mature trees, mainly, some smaller ones in the understory.  Not a huge percentage or anything, just a little out of the ordinary.

woodmills1

If it was only understory I could understand, seems like the whites grow a little slower and can get shaded by others and die, but mature is puzzling. 

Are you near sussex county NJ?  I grew up there.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

ljmathias

Isn't there an oak blight going around that is killing some or all of the oaks when it hits?  Don't know much about it except having seen it on the forum here- I try not to think about it as I have a bunch of oaks I'd hate to lose.

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Ron Wenrich

It could be gypsy moth or oak leaf roller.  I had them both go through a stand in one year, and that resulted in major mortality in just one year.  White oaks were hit hard.  Gypsy moth goes after the oaks, but chestnut and black oak seems to take a bigger hit. 

As for standing dead, I've always found them to still have moisture in them.  Rarely are they that dry, even after standing dead for several years.  Has the bark popped off?  You might get some dry sap wood if the bark is off, if not, it will turn to dote.   The standing dead won't take as long to dry as a green tree.

Wood drys out the end of the boards or logs.  With it standing dead, there are no ends for the water to escape.  Very little goes across the log or tree.  Boards have a lot of surface area that help get rid of water in the outer layers.  Further in, that water usually goes out the end of the board during kiln drying.

I have some old oak boards that I have used for kindling.  They've been cut for probably at least 50 years.  They were old fence boards, and I took down the fence 25 years ago.  I put the wood in the barn and have used it for kindling just this week.  It still hissed from the water inside, even though they looked dry.  Go figure.

Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Frank H.

I live north of Scranton a ways.  We did have bad gypsy moths for a few years back, so I could see that.  It is mainly white oak that seems to be taking the beating.  I do try to dry for a little while when it is dead, as long as possible. The bark is coming off of what I cut, but for the most part, it is solid.  It splits great, and the grain is coming apart.  I really only use it for cut sizes that are odd.  Otherwise, I use whats been split and seasoned for 6 months or better.  Thanks

Frank

woodmills1

2 times way back in my past I was forced to cut hand to mouth for the heating season, meaning go out on sat or sun after working all week and harvest.  was lucky enough to find some standing dead bark off oak.  yes it had moisture but 2 days standing in front of the wood stove made it burnable.  On the ground dead, forget it.  Best dead wood ever was some long fallen chestnut I got from a side hill at a monestary in NJ, burned at once and sent that little old ashley barrel stove into half and half red glowing
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

Ron Scott

On my logging jobs where there is standing dead oak with the bark off, the first thing that the loggers do each day is cut the dead oak for their "personal" use firewood. They often carry home a pickup laod a day for their personal cache.

A side benefit to being a logger, I guess. ;) The more markets that there are for the different wood products, the better TSI job that a forester can do. Not good now with all the pulp mill closures.
~Ron

tughill

I'm thinking gypsy moth is what killed these oaks.  I cut a mountain of dead oak when I was younger, that was (i'm assuming) killed off by the gypsy moth infrestation that we had in that area in the early 80's, which was pretty bad.  I grew up in NY only about 10 miles from the PA NJ border.

A lot of what we cut had fallen, and was quite dry.  The oak standing dead seemed to stay pretty solid, only the sapwood would rot and get soft.  The stuff that had fallen was mostly smaller, and I think came down in ice storms.  So I wouldn't worry too awful much about it being hazardous, this oak I was cutting had solid centers, and would stand there a long time, for the most part.

What part of sussex co. woodmills?  I grew up in orange co. NY, just across the border...small world.
"Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not."- Thomas Jefferson
Local Farmer here won 10$ million in the lottery, when asked what he was going to do with his winnings, responded, "Keep on farming until that's all gone too."

indiaxman1

Dead white oak..standing and fallen is the meat of the wood I harvest for firewood.....generally these are understory trees....nothing burns like debarked white oak..as for the die off, we got hit by the moths several summers ago, but, a drought after did the most latent damage..on the higher slopes, the chestnut oak really got hit...looked like a fungal..inner bark turning black....took out whole stands of chestnut oak, some black oak....if you wait on the white oak die offs a year..the bark peels off, sometimes popping off when split....it is currently warming this cabin

woodmills1

but he said they are not understory.

I love standing dead oak,,,,,,,,,,,,it is all understory


why for the mature dead?? :P
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

PlicketyCat

I can't speak to the oak since they don't grow in Alaska; but we have tons of dry standing spruce up here and it makes the absolute best quick-lighting firewood. Our spruce is either beetle-kill (really bad bark beetle problem in some areas) and that is more newly dead, but still very burnable; or it's fire-kill which makes for excellent firewood. We had oodles of fire-kill spruce that have been standing dead on the stump for almost 40 years (we call them "deadites")... you can stick a newly bucked 9" round of that stuff in the firebox with a couple of crumbles of newspaper and it'll light right up and crank out a lot of heat (but burns really fast). 

I'm guessing that the forest fire acted like a kiln when it went through, drying the trees almost instantly, then 40 years standing with the bark scorched off let it dry out the rest of the way. But it is, by far, our favorite wood for getting the stove started in the morning, getting up to cooking temps, or warming up the tent quickly.

A lot of the folks around here will ring the bark off a good tree above the stump and let it stand there for a couple of years. It burns a little slower and cooler than our deadites, but it still catches faster and stays burning better than some of the other stuff that's been felled and covered to season for the same amount of time.  But I still think, other than the deadites, the best firewood I've ever burned was felled, bucked and split green and then lightly covered in spaced stacks (not a pile!) to season for a year or two.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. --- Oscar Wilde

Follow our adventures at Off-Grid in Alaska blog.

woodmills1

I grew up in newton NJ,  we used to go to port jervis in high school since the ny drinking age was 18 and NJ was 21.  we also went to a place called carsons corner in I think unionville it is a refrigeration place now
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

Phorester


If the oaks just died within the last few years, I'll bet they still have a bunch of moisture in them as others have said.
Probably be best to cut them down, cut to length so they dry out from the ends of the short pieces, stack and cover just as you would for cutting & seasoning green wood.  The only difference is that the dead trees will season faster than green ones.

Thank You Sponsors!