Live Oak firewood

SomeHuntingGuy

SomeHuntingGuy

Eight Pointer
I grew up out west and have split firewood since I can remember. In fact, I'm a bit disappointed that my parents let me split firewood as young as I did.

I've also split normal hardwood. But tonight I finally made a solid effort in splitting Live Oak. I couldn't do it when it was just cut down (actually, hurricane Flo' downed the tree), and 15 months later I still couldn't cut the logs. I took a chainsaw to the logs to cut them in half (with the grain) and it still was insanely hard to cut with both the chainsaw and awl.

...and the dang wood is still wet! Next time I suppose I'll pass on free live oak for firewood. Would've been easier to go cut down an oak and cut it all by hand than deal with this insanely hardwood.

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SomeHuntingGuy

SomeHuntingGuy

Eight Pointer
Definitely the dentist I've seen.

Does green wood seriously split the best? I thought dried did.

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Eric Revo

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Live oak is your bank logs...we burned many cords of it and if you cut the limbs for regular fires they burn great. Anything with an ajoining branch just plan to disgard but the trunk pieces that are straight will bust just fine.
If blackjack and turkey oak got as big they'd give it a run for the money.
Pignut hickory was always my nemesis.
 
pattersonj11

pattersonj11

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I think the wet vs dry wood is an East/west thing. Out west, they burn quite a bit of evergreen woods. In the East, they burn a lot of hardwood. The firs and such split fine either way but easier when dry. Oak and hickory are just a pain either way.

I have run into stuff full of knots...but never seen that which couldn’t be split.
 
Papa_Smurf

Papa_Smurf

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Gum is the worst ive split. The grain has curves to it like curly hair.

We bought a big splitter about 12 years ago and it is worth its weight in gold.

Sometimes if the blocks are tio big to lift we use the tractor bucket and lift them up to it. Then roll them on and it busts them open. Roll one half back to the bucket and work up the other half. Never have to bend over at all except to roll them into the bucket.



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Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
I'm a big fan of a powerful wood splitter also. The one we use is powerful. I've seen it actually cut a block of wood in two when the log refuses to burst. I to was required to split firewood at a very young age. A crosscut saw, axe, hammer and wedge were our tools of trade. Wood splitters hadn't been invented yet, in fact I think they were still working on the invention of the wheel. LOL. Now that that's in the past I can't say it caused any lasting damages but thank goodness for the invention of the wheel and the wood splitter. LOL.
 
nccatfisher

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Papa_Smurf said:
Gum is the worst ive split. The grain has curves to it like curly hair.

We bought a big splitter about 12 years ago and it is worth its weight in gold.

Sometimes if the blocks are tio big to lift we use the tractor bucket and lift them up to it. Then roll them on and it busts them open. Roll one half back to the bucket and work up the other half. Never have to bend over at all except to roll them into the bucket.



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Click to expand...
Try some elm while you are at it. As bad or in many cases worse than gum.
 
nccatfisher

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
6mm250 said:
Sweet gum is marginal as firewood , elm is less than worthless.

Mike
Click to expand...
If you burn either in a water stove it isn't ideal but it is better than burning trash. I have a friend that burns anything that will burn in his. He gets wood from a buddy that does tree removal and gets pretty much junk wood that he doesn't sell. It is free and delivered so he doesn't complain. I have been to his house and he has his wood segregated and it is amazing the difference in good wood and junk wood as far as burn time and BTUs.
 
gameland

gameland

Twelve Pointer
Pecan is the absolute worst I’ve ever tried to split by hand. Years ago we lived in a house that had oil heat but the heat exchanger was cracked so wood was all we heated by. Those first couple of years before a wood splitter was rough! A maul, couple of wedges and few thousand swings later we had wood for the winter.
 

Justin

Old Mossy Horns
Elm isn’t bad to split..... green. It burns alright too. Smells bad but burns alright.
 
Eric Revo

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Willow is probably the worst wood I've used for heating, red cedar the worst for a fireplace as it's dangerous due to it's popping and throwing flaming shots all over the place. It'll run you away from a fire ring.
 
gremcat

gremcat

Twelve Pointer
Dobber, I was thinking of Ironwood when this thread started. Being less familiar than most here with wood species I thought maybe it was a local term for one already mentioned. I’ll say, switching from a limboing saw to the bigger Jonesered felling saw with a fast cut blade is brutal for all day cutting but eats about anything.
 
gremcat

gremcat

Twelve Pointer
SpecialK I’m with you, we’ve got a large “decorative” fireplace we light for entertainment mostly. I took two large coal stoves out and added 2 more heat pumps cringing when I did. My utilities jumped $45/mo. Should have done it as soon as we bought the place. No more worrying about Wife or kids having to fill and empty the stoves with my fairly constant travel.
 
gremcat

gremcat

Twelve Pointer
Is kind of a shame to use only 1 of 4 chimneys but the others are capped at the wall so not a full fireplace like older places. Still might add an insert to the big one. I have many cord of oak split and with gypsy moths hitting there will be a good supply for awhile.
 

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
I'm still trying to set up a deal where I can have my kids fix one block of firewood for winter heat. Everything from the time it is brought to the wood yard. Saw it with a crosscut saw, burst it with a hammer and wedge and an axe. then show them a photo of the stacks of fire wood used during a winter for comparison purposes. Naturally I'l going back thru this post to attempt to determine the hardest of the hard for the task. LOL

Perhaps it might help them rethink their oft repeated joke of walking to school bare footed, up hill both ways. LOL
 
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