Oak on the ground for 2 years

[Liamd]

Hi All,

We bought a field and had to drop a large oak tree. The tree was felled 2 years ago and is cut into large rounds about 2 feet wide.

What is the best way to deal with them for firewood. Have they been left out too long?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Liam

[neiln]

English oak is fairly rot resistant.  If the rings are off the ground they will last indefinitely.  I'm guessing they have been on the ground, if they've been bark down they will still be pretty solid, however if they've been cut end on the ground they may be starting to rot, and will definitely be quite wet.  Just start cutting, splitting and stacking off the ground and ideally in a dry and well ventilated spot.  They will then dry out and last until you burn it

[trigger_andy]

26 minutes ago, Liamd said:

Hi All,

We bought a field and had to drop a large oak tree. The tree was felled 2 years ago and is cut into large rounds about 2 feet wide.

What is the best way to deal with them for firewood. Have they been left out too long?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Liam

 

Id suspect that after 2 years only the sapwood will have started to rot. 

 

As for how to deal with them for firewood. If transportation to a desired location is not posible then split them with a Splitting Maul (axe) insitu, or hire a petrol towable log splitter, preferably a vertical one due to the rounds size, or pay someone to come in a do the job for you.

[neiln]

If the sap wood is punky, just split off the punk and leave it behind.  

[scbk]

I suppose what you really need is a splitter that can be driven across the field to where the logs lie, and has the ability to lift the logs, and split logs that are 2ft/3ft/4ft wide  

 

 

Even beech or sycamore rings will still produce decent enough logs after 2 years on the deck, they will be a bit dirty though.

[neiln]

Pfff, get at it with an x27.  Should be done by lunchtime...... In late May

[Woodworks]

2 hours ago, scbk said:

 

 

 

Even beech or sycamore rings will still produce decent enough logs after 2 years on the deck, they will be a bit dirty though.

Depends on your climate. Just working through so sycamore felled early this summer and it properly on the turn! 2 years and it would be compost here

 

OP as said heartwood should be fine but the sap may not. If it's a turkey oak then the rotting sap can be an upsetting amount of the wood. 

[openspaceman]

46 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

Depends on your climate. Just working through so sycamore felled early this summer and it properly on the turn! 2 years and it would be compost here

 

OP as said heartwood should be fine but the sap may not. If it's a turkey oak then the rotting sap can be an upsetting amount of the wood. 

Yes people do not appreciate that bugs are eating up dry matter all the time the wood is wet, so nearly always better to get it processed and under cover soonest.

 

OTOH if it is all you've got get in there and retrieve what you can.

[neiln]

13 hours ago, neiln said:

Pfff, get at it with an x27.  Should be done by lunchtime...... In late May

I thought I should be more helpful and give you an idea of how long it might take really.  Clearly that's dependant on the size of the tree and your access to it but an oak with a 2' diameter trunk that is let's say 16m tall.... Rough guess I'd say 3-4 M3, maybe 5m3 of wood in the trunk and crown that might have been big enough to be worth cutting and splitting.  

 

When you say it's cut into rounds 2' wide I realised that might be the length of the rounds not the diameter so you need a chainsaw large enough to cut in half or thirds, ready for the stove/fireplace.  With the right saw and a sharp chain this is done in a couple of hours.

 

Oak splits very easily but hand when green.  Down two years it may well be a good bit drier and harder, you'll have to try it to find out.  I reckon on about 3 hours to split a cube but hand and stack neatly to dry, that's working in my garden close to the stack but the pick up, toss to stack and stack neatly is maybe 2/3 the time, at least half. You'll take longer to get it out a field.  I'd probably just rough split, quartering big rounds just to make them easy to lift, and barrow them to your trailer/car/truck. Then finish the splitting as close to the final stack as possible.

So it could be anything from as little as 10 hours work, more likely 20+, and as much as....who knows.  If access is not easy or you don't have a tractor or such to move big pieces, then it will take ages.  However, if you enjoy being out in the field it can be a pleasant task done an hour at a time.  If it'll take ages then maybe take some pallets to the wood and get it off the ground, or use any long limb lengths to get the rest off the ground.

[Khriss]

Would get it off the  field and under some shelter then you can deal with it on yr slack days. K