What is water oak?

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 14:46:39 -0400, eclipsme <[email protected]> wrote:

>I just re-sawed a small log from a tree that came down during one of our
>hurricanes here in Florida. I have always been told that this type of
>tree is called a water oak. It is deciduous and I believe is native.
>They are all over.
>
>The wood is beautifully spalted and lovely, but quite light in weight,
>and seems very soft. I can scratch it with my thumbnail. Not like any
>oak I have seen before.
>
>Does anybody know anything more about this wood?
>
>Thanks,
>Harvey


http://www.thejump.net/hunting/plant-id/water-oak.htm

eclipsme <[email protected]> wrote in news:rvO4g.32666$Kh5.28876
@bignews8.bellsouth.net:

> I just re-sawed a small log from a tree that came down during one of our
> hurricanes here in Florida. I have always been told that this type of
> tree is called a water oak. It is deciduous and I believe is native.
> They are all over.

There's a dozen or more very similar oaks that inhabit north Florida.
All of them are evergreen (drop their old leaves in the spring after
the new leaves come in). They grow pretty quickly. They differ from
live oaks in not producing massive horizontal branches.

> The wood is beautifully spalted and lovely, but quite light in weight,
> and seems very soft. I can scratch it with my thumbnail. Not like any
> oak I have seen before.

In my experience, Florida oaks produce very dense, heavy, hard
to work wood. They're red oaks, not terribly durable, tend to
smell awful when cut, and don't usually have attractive figure.
They're good for pallets, and not too much else.

I'm guessing your wood has started to rot (which makes sense
if it's spalted). Might be good for turning if you can
stabilize it afterward.

John