Got wood... but is it oak?

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caliking

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Howdy Brethren.

So here's the story: for my latest project (soon to be unveiled), I need lots of oak firewood. Snooped around craigslist, and found a guy giving some away. He cut down a few trees on an empty lot he owns. Said I could go by and pick up whatever I wanted.

So I went over and picked over the lot. Mostly pine trees, but I found one felled tree, cut up into logs, in the back.

The million dollar question: is it oak?:confused:

It doesn't smell like pine, but I have a cold, so sense of smell is a tad off. I sure hope its oak, because now I have an SUV full of it :eusa_clap
 
A picture of a leaf would help here.
 
Any pic will do. Leaf, bark, grain, end grain....
 
What does the bark look like? Oak and pine bark look different. Pine has a smell, resinous, does it? If not sure, wait until your cold clears and cut some up. Oak will never smell like pine.
 
A thousand apologies... this cold has messed my head up. Forgot to post the pic :doh:

The branches with leaves were all piled up on one side further away, so I didn't get a look or pic.

Thanks.
 
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Awesome! If its oak, then I'm officially labelling this my CL score of the month. :-D

Is red oak better than white? Seems like sellers of firewood around these parts have been advertising red oak, but have not seen much mention of white oak.

How long do folks typically season their oak? I don't know how long this wood was baking in the sun after the tree was cut, but I can find out. I split one log to see what I could do with an axe, and it seemed pretty dry.

My second mission of the day was to stop by another fellow who had to trim the top of one of his oak trees because it was dying or something. No price like "free", so I grabbed a few armfuls of smaller branches and such from him for kindling. Does it matter if the branches were dead/dying? I figured they should burn up ok.

Thanks everyone for helping me out!
 
I am sure it is OAk...not much diff in whie or red...same family same properties. DEFINITLY oak
 
Yeah if anything I've ever seen the wood in white oak seems.. pulpier.. or lighter.. just a LITTLE bit different, but in all honesty I can't tell heads or tails if the smoke tastes any different, cold or not.
 
Around here, it's aged at least 6 months, but I prefer more. Really though, it depends on many factors, most especially how thick it is. One of the best ways to tell is how easy it is to split. If it's fresh, you'll have to work HARD to split it. When it's dry, just a stroke or two is all it needs.
 
After reading your initial inquiry I was worried you might have a sweetgum (we have
a ton of them around here). However, after seeing the bark that's definitely some
type of oak, probably red oak. If red oak it should have a strong oak smoke flavor.
 
Looks like oak bark to me.
I wouldn't count much on it getting much of a season if it was just layiing there in his yard in whole logs. What you'll want to do is split it and then let it dry. Allow for lots of air flow and sunlight to get to the wood. Won't need to worry TOO much about keeping rain off of it, as long as it's got good airflow to dry sufficiently, it'll still season well.

Nice score!
 
For future reference, it's pretty easy to tell the difference between red oak and white oak by the shape of the leaf (assuming they are available to see). White oak has rounded leaves; red oak has sharp edges:

Red_WhtOakLeaves.jpg
 
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