Which American Oak trees to buy ?

[Konstabel Els]

I have the possibility of buying cheap young American Oak trees to fell...or more expensive older ones

what are the pros and cons of each....what is the better value ?

they are intended for the fire

[Martin H. Eastburn]

Most all oak have a good fire wood ability - I'd think willow oak is poorest.

You don't mention which you have available to you. There are many many.

I have Red, White, live, Bur, Willow, in my front yard area. The back wood lot contains those and pine and other wood. Including the genetic mixes.

The Red fall more the white I believe is strong along with the Bur.

If you give specifics I think I can come up with real data from a software tool.

Mart> I have the possibility of buying cheap young American Oak trees to

[Konstabel Els]

they are both the same type...but I don't know which, the question is the pros and cons of young / old

[dpb]

Size of log and handling/splitting effort about the only difference other than split will dry somewhat faster than in-log and makes a more convenient fire log w/o bark on all sides.

Takes more trees for same amount of wood if smaller, of course, and depending on what you're expected to do w/ the "twigs" more trouble there as well.

There's no difference in heating value.

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[Konstabel Els]

someone was trying to tell me that older wood would be more dense and therefore burn longer

[dpb]

...

...

Not so's you'd notice it, no.

Comparison for old, virgin-growth timber vis a vis mill-grown for pulpwood perhaps a little but even there you'd not notice it for firewood in all likelihood. A comparison of regrowth 30-50 yr oak vs smaller stuff, no way.

Depending on how small is "small" and what the price differential really is and how much one was talking about, I'd probably choose more on convenience and the resulting log size than anything else. If'en they's givin' one away and chargin' dearly for the other, that's one thing. If it's a relatively small amount and not a huge amount of wood, bigger is probably easier to handle in the end if you can split on location or have the facilities to move the log to the splitter. If it's all handwork, otoh, you might opt for smaller for handling...

But, it really isn't going to matter in the end wood at all.

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[Martin H. Eastburn]

I'm cutting out an oak that fell across my fence - sawing up limbs as if they were trunks. I drag a limb out - 6 to 8" in diameter and start sawing off firewood logs. The tree is dead and partly decaying. I think it was a big white. I saw down to 1" or so to have starter wood. I'll get to the trunk - trying to get it to fall to the ground - it is hung up on a 6" limb that is now mostly broken. It is high enough to be dangerous if it falls wrongly. So I bide my time with the large limbs and will work down to the smaller branches.

Mart> >> Most all oak have a good fire wood ability - I'd think willow oak is poorest. >>

[Martin H. Eastburn]

Ring thickness. If there is narrow pith between the hard rings then it is mostly hard rings and burns slow.

If it is in a rainy open area - the rings will be wide and more spongy due to fast growth.

Mixture of both is best. The narrow rings is harder to start but burns well once there.

I wouldn't worry much - just make sure the rings are not massive. They weigh less when dry and more when wet when large.

Mart> K> ...

[dpb]

...

That's strictly true but only will be noticeable to any extent at all in softwoods outside of _extremely_ different growing conditions. In oak and other hardwoods in a random stand there's going to be essentially no difference and he isn't going to know before he cuts it anyway... :)

The question was older vis a vis younger/smaller and only if he can determine accurately age and can tell there's a significant growth rate difference between the two will he have the necessary information a priori. In any even, I'd be quite comfortable figuring that the choice from places he'll have to choose between will lead to the choice being immaterial outside the physical size considerations previously outlined... :)

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[Dave Hall]

[Konstabel Els]

I ended up buying the older trees at Euro 34 per cubic metre instead of the younger ones at Euro 30, they were 200m closer to the road plus they had less barbed wire that was ingrown!