Northern red oak is the most commercially important oak in the US. It is usually considered to be the best quality oak lumber. When most people think of oak furniture or cabinets, it’s usually this oak that they picture. Red oak firewood is not as high in BTU as most of the other comm oaks, but it still is a very popular firewood. Red oak wood is a dense hardwood, it burns long and hot as you would expect form an oak.
Red oak firewood can take a long time to dry, depending on conditions. This is another wood that many people say takes two years before it really burns good. As with any wood, drying time will all depend on how small it is split and cut, and the drying conditions. A lot of the places where northern red oak grows are humid, which slows drying time.
There is also southern red oak which burns similar but does not usually take as long to dry. Southern red oak also tends to grow in warmer southern climates.
Let us know your experiences with red oak firewood below.