Oak Firewood: How Good Is It Compared to Other Wood?

There are a ton of trees out there, and to be honest, almost all of them can be used as firewood. But, some types of firewood burn hot, clean, and long, while other types of wood have less heat output, more smoke, and sometimes even dangerous sparks.

So, what about Oak? Does Oak make good firewood?

Oak firewood is absolutely one of the best types of firewood you can burn. It has a high heat output of 26.4 million BTUs per cord of seasoned wood (for White Oak). In addition, Oak produces minimal smoke, does not spark significantly, creates excellent coals, and is easy to split when dry.

But how does Oak compare to other types of firewood? What are the details on the burn qualities of Oak? And how can you be SURE, that what you have is actually Oak? Let’s answer those questions!

Oak vs. Other Wood

To help you get an idea for how Oak compares to other types of firewood, we’ve put together a graphic below, which provides a snapshot of some of the most common types of firewood in our area (in the Midwest USA), and they are divided into 3 levels of quality.

The top tier (top of the pyramid) is the absolute best firewood you can burn, whereas the bottom of the pyramid is the firewood that will still produce heat, but is not ideal because of low heat output, excessive smoke, difficulty splitting, or some other reason.

This ranking is not an arbitrary list, and it’s actually based primarily on data from several university extension offices.

If you’re not familiar with those, extension offices are typically associated with a university, and their role is to do research and provide services which help citizens better manage their land and natural resources. This includes guidance on the qualities of trees and firewood.

To learn more about the data sources, you can read the note below the image. Now, here it is!

The information in this image is based largely off of data from the following sources: Utah State University Forestry Extension, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, University of Illinois Extension, University of Missouri Extension, South Dakota State University Extension. In addition, where there was missing data (only a few occasions), I’ve used my own experience to round out the data.

In the following section, we’re going to see how Oak measures up against the 6 most important burn qualities for firewood. Let’s get to it!

The 6 Major Burn Qualities of Oak

1. Heat Output vs Other Wood

One of the biggest factors that separates Oak from the pack, is that its heat output tends to be on the upper end of the spectrum.

Below, you’ll find a chart that summarizes the BTU output and weight of 15 common firewood species’ (Note: data sources are mentioned beneath the infographic above)

We’ve used data for White Oak below, but you can assume that all types of Oak are going to produce considerable heat. For example, White Oak, Red Oak and Bur Oak all produce around 25-30 million BTUs per cord.

Species	BTUs	Weight / Cord (lbs)
Black Locust	29.3	4192
Hickory	28.5	4072
Beech	27.5	3760
Oak (White)	26.4	3776
Mulberry	25.8	3712
Ash	24.2	3472
Maple (Hard)	23.9	3408
Black Walnut	22.2	3192
Pine (Southern Yellow)	22	2936
Birch	20.8	2992
Sycamore	24.1	2872
Black Cherry	20.4	2928
Elm	20	2872
Maple (Soft)	19	2752
Aspen	18.2	2160

Having seen this table of data, you may be wondering, what about Hickory? Or Black Locust and Beech? Are those better than Oak?

Frankly, the answer is “it depends”. All 4 of those types of firewood are exceptionally good, and you should feel good about burning any of them to heat your home.

But, there are a few characteristics that distinguish Oak from other woods, let’s keep going to touch on each one.

2. Amount of Smoke

Oak produces very little smoke, especially when compared to Pine or Hard Maple, which are known to be big smoke producers.

Low smoke production is a common trait among our top tier firewoods, like Hickory, Ash, etc. However, Mulberry, which is an otherwise top-level firewood, does produce a moderate amount of smoke.

It’s also worth mentioning, that almost any wood will be VERY smokey if you burn it wet. In addition to risks of creosote build-up (see #6 below), high smoke production is one of the reasons you should always make sure your firewood is properly dried before you burn it.

3. Does it Spark?

Firewood sparks may initially seem like a minor factor, but it can actually be a major safety issue. Here’s two quick examples:

Catalpa wood pops really significantly, and it’s so powerful, that it can literally blow the front-glass off of a wood stove. Crazy stuff.

Mulberry is known to throw a lot of sparks, and in a locking wood-stove it’s fine, but if you have an open-air fireplace those sparks could jump right out of the fireplace and catch something on fire.

The great news is, with Oak, neither of these are really a problem. Oak has very low levels of sparking and shouldn’t cause any issues in a wood stove. You should always keep an eye on open-air fireplaces, but it should be safe to burn Oak there as well.

4.Smell or Fragrance

When burning oak firewood, it gives off a mild “warm-summer-night” type of smell. Oak produces a milder version of the earthy smoke smell you would get from Hickory firewood.

Oak is also a great choice of firewood for cooking and smoking meats. If you are interested in the different fragrance profiles of firewood, you should check out our article on the 11 best smelling types of firewood.

5. Does it Produce Coals?

Another factor that is commonly used for rating firewood is “coaling”. When any kind of firewood burns it produces coals, and the quality of the coals produced have a big impact on how long (and how well) the fire will continue burning.

For example, wood that has great coaling properties will work well as an overnight fuel in wood stoves, because the quality coals will help the fire stay hot through the night. These long-lasting coals will allow you to easily re-start a fire in the morning by simply adding more wood to the existing embers.

Oak has excellent coaling properties and large Oak logs work really well as “overnighter” fuel for wood stoves. As a heavy hardwood, Oak is simply more dense, and it’s coals will significantly outlast lighter woods like Pine, Birch, or Aspen.

6. Creosote Build-Up

If you’re using a fireplace or wood stove in your home, another important thing to consider is maintenance of your chimney, and specifically preventing creosote build-up.

If you’ve not heard of creosote before, it’s a side product of burning wood, and it’s basically a black tar that is gradually deposited by wood smoke on the inside walls of a chimney.

Creosote isn’t a problem in small quantities, but if it gets built up, it can be quite dangerous. Build-up of creosote can reduce the ventilation of your chimney, and it’s also HIGHLY flammable, which can cause chimney fires.

To prevent creosote build-up, it’s important to properly maintain your stove and to have your chimney cleaned regularly.

In addition, you should only ever burn wood that is thoroughly seasoned (dried), because wet wood produces more creosote. But another big factor, is the type of wood you’re burning.

In general, firewood that is very sappy will produce much more creosote build-up than firewood that is not as sappy. Most hardwood firewood, including Oak, have low sap levels and produce less creosote than very sappy firewood like Pine.

Speaking of Pine, it’s probably the worst type of wood when it comes to creosote build-up. So much so that many people, including my family, completely avoid burning Pine in wood stoves. It’s not all bad though, Pine makes a beautiful and great-smelling outdoor campfire.

Burn Quality Overall Comparison

Alright, now that we’ve covered the 6 most important burning qualities for Oak, let’s draw a few quick comparisons between Oak and other top tier firewood types like Black Locust, Beech and Hickory.

First, I think it’s helpful to mention that you probably aren’t going to have every kind of wood close by, and a perfectly reasonable way to choose from a list of top firewood types is to go with what is most readily available.

However, if you do have a lot of firewood options, here’s some more info to help you break the tie.

Oak can be much easier to split compared with Black Locust, Beech and Hickory
Oak produces fewer sparks than Black Locust and Hickory (not by much though)
Oak has a mild “classic-campfire” smell, that is great for cooking and BBQ smoking

Hopefully that will help you see a few subtle distinctions between Oak, and other top-grade firewood.

Next, we’re going to touch on a really important topic, that will help you to quickly and consistently identify Oak firewood.

Easy Trick to Identify Oak

Firewood is incorrectly identified all the time. And to get all the above burn qualities and benefits, you’re going to need an easy way to tell if the wood you have is definitely Oak.

The good news is, there’s a really easy trick for identifying Oak firewood, and you don’t even need to have any leaves or bark to do it.

Take a look at the end grains of your piece of firewood. You should be able to see the normal rings that indicate how old the tree was. In addition to the rings, Oak has clearly visible lines that run perpendicular to the rings, going straight outward from the center of the wood.

These lines are called “rays”, and Oak is one of only two types of firewood (at least around here), that has rays that are visible to the naked eye.

The other type of firewood where you can see the rays, is Sycamore, but the lines are much smaller and closer together. Plus it’s easy to identify Sycamore by the light white/green color of it’s bark.

So if you find a piece of wood with rays, and it’s not Sycamore, then it’s got to be Oak. In the photo below, I’m pointing at the rays on a piece of Oak with my pocket knife.

A good comparison to highlight how distinctive these Oak rays are, is Hickory. Hickory doesn’t have visible rays, see the photo below:

As a side note, most trees do have these rays, but the unique thing about Oak, is that you can see them without any magnification device. Whereas you can only see the rays of other wood species under magnification.

Checking the rays is a great way to identify Oak firewood, especially because you can do it all from the end grain. Just to make sure we’ve covered all our bases, you can also identify Oak trees if you have a leaf available.

Identifying Oak by the Leaf

Oak leaves look like the below:

Oak leaves have a unique shape with 5-lobes, and they are also alternate-simple leaves. For a leaf to be alternate, means that they grow on branches in an alternating pattern (e.g. left-right-left, etc.).

For a leaf to be simple, means that each leaf contains only one leaf (simple) and is not a series of leaves stuck together (compound).

If you find a tree with leaves meeting these characteristics, then you’ve found yourself an Oak. Also, Oaks are the trees that produce acorns, so if you see any acorns, then you’re likely looking at an Oak tree.

Seasoning Oak Before Burning

For wood to be “seasoned” basically just means that it’s thoroughly dried. Different types of firewood will require more (or less) time in order to dry-out, and you should always plan to burn firewood that is completely seasoned.

In general, firewood will take at least 6-8 months to fully dry, and for denser hardwoods this process can take even longer. You should expect it to take 1-2 years to fully season your Oak firewood.

Exactly how long it will take depends on several factors, including the climate where you’re located (e.g. wood dries faster in Texas than in Oregon), and if you’ve properly split and stacked the wood.

In order to expedite the process, and to get your firewood seasoned as quickly as possible, use the following tips for fast drying:

5 Tips for Seasoning Firewood Fast:

1. Split the firewood

firewood dries WAY faster when it is split into pieces, rather than sitting in log-form. Think about it, when the wood is split more surface area is exposed to the wind and sunshine, which are the primary contributors to dry wood.

2. Elevate the firewood

You may do a double take here, because a lot of people don’t do this step due to the extra effort required. And I’ll admit, this isn’t absolutely essential, but if you put your stack of firewood up on some pallets or perpendicular planks, it will increase airflow beneath the firewood stack and will accelerate your drying time.

3. Stack the firewood

To optimize your drying time, you should stack your firewood neatly in a location that will maximize the amount of sunshine and air flow. For example, stack the wood away from buildings (out of the shade), and point the face of the stack (not the ends) towards the direction from which you get the most breeze.

4. Leave space between rows

if you make multiple stacks of firewood, each stack should be separated by at least a few inches for air flow. This will allow both stacks of wood to dry better.

5. Cover (optional)

If your wood pile is outside you can put a cover or tarp over the stack to drain any rain/snow. Just make sure that it doesn’t totally block airflow from the side of the stack, otherwise it will trap in moisture and make seasoning take longer.

if you want to learn more about seasoning firewood, you should take a look at this article.