The south Texas variety is used for small stuff only. The grain is
twisted, highly interlocked, and becomes extremely hard almost to the
point of brittle when it dries. Also, any harvested LO that I have
seen discolors as it ages, and doesnt' take finish all that well.
I have turned it on the lathe, and it is pretty miserable as the grain
is so dense and twisted.
That being said, there are a couple of carving mallet makers that would
use anything else because a properly dried mallet made from all that
interlocking grain is heavy and won't crack. And one of our local
judges uses a whopper of a gavel made from the stuff. So it is good
for some things.
Personally, I really like to BBQ with it.
Robert
"Kevin Coleman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I have part of a huge california live oak fall down. is such a tree
>suuitable for building furniture or making flooring?
>
> Thanks
> KC
Others will tell you its hard to work and the grain goes everywhere. This
has some truth in it however, is a great wood for flooring, hammer handles
and mallet heads. I know a guy that has an entire work bench top from it.
(It was built in 1855!) He still uses it every day.
If milled properly, stickered and air dried it will work fine. Many older
houses in California have it for flooring and cabinets. It will twist
during the drying so mill it with this in mind.
Dave
Teamcasa wrote:
<<Others will tell you its hard to work and the grain goes everywhere.
This
has some truth in it however, is a great wood for flooring, hammer
handles
and mallet heads. I know a guy that has an entire work bench top from
it.
(It was built in 1855!) He still uses it every day.
If milled properly, stickered and air dried it will work fine. Many
older
houses in California have it for flooring and cabinets. It will twist
during the drying so mill it with this in mind.
>>
Absolutely true. Re-reading my post one could easily get the
impression from my poor typing that the wood isn't good for mallets,
handles, etc. I agree with TC, it is wonderful for it. To make a
point to one of the guys in our woodturnnig vclub, I turned a 1/2 dowel
out of the stuff and challenged him to break a 12 inch long piece with
his hands. He couldn't, and no one in the club could do it.
One of the guys at the carving club sponsered by WC uses it exclusively
for all his mallets and wood hammers that he uses in his crafts. The
wood is so stable when dry that you can drill a hole in it and bell out
he bottom and literally pour in molton lead to add weight. (Think
brass and other sheetmetal work here).
I have seen cutting boards made from it, and personally have made a
couple of spoons and spatulas. Although the grain is just a bit open
faced, the interlocking structure makes it easy to clean as opposed to
many of the red oaks.
I have only seen a few boards from the stuff around here as the south
Texas variety is just gnarly. But then, just about every damn wood in
>south< Texas is.
Robert
Ed,
Not sure if you've made your final decisions on what you're doing w/
all that oak. But the place on 49 that does milling is California
Hardwood Producers. Google 'em, I think they have a page. I know for
certain that they mill and sell CA Black Oak as hardwood flooring.
If you have more firewood than you can sell, or for that matter, more
than you want to buck and stack, we heat w/ wood in the winter, and I'd
come and help you cut and clear some off your property. I'm in N.
Auburn, about a mile from the Placer/Nevada Co. line.
Chris
Newsotter wrote:
Thanks to all of you who responded to my questions about the black oak
wood in my back yard. I guess the bottom line of it is that I shall be
keeping one piece for a rustic bench in the back yard, and the rest will
be sold for firewood. Maybe the cash will let me buy some other wood in
the area for working with.
Ed
"Newsotter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
If the wood is worth doing anything with, I'd like to do it with
> this particular wood because it came from the trees that my wife loved.
> She spent a couple of days crying after they fell, and I'd like to make
> her something to help her remember the days she used to look out of the
> window to admire them. Something to make her smile about them. Thanks.
>
Not as pretty as white oak, or even eastern red. Coarse-looking but unique.
Dad made a lot of stuff out of it out in YC.
Patriarch wrote:
> There's a mill/yard/dealer in Auburn, on the highway north of downtown.
> They sell only locally cut timber/lumber, from what I understand.
>
> At very least, visiting with them, before you get too deep into this
> project, might be worth your time. The day I dropped in, they were up to
> their eyeballs in fresh stock...
I think I remember seeing a place just off I80 in between the Newcastle
Road exit and Auburn, but I don't think that's what you're talking
about, is it ? I'm guessing that you're thinking of somewhere on
Highway 49 between I80 and Bell. Am I right ? I don't think I would
want to sell them any wood, but if you guys think that Black Oak is
worth using for anything other than firewood, I might want to have a
couple of logs sawn into boards which I would then take home to dry, and
these guys north of Auburn sound like they might be able to do that for
me. If the wood is worth doing anything with, I'd like to do it with
this particular wood because it came from the trees that my wife loved.
She spent a couple of days crying after they fell, and I'd like to
make her something to help her remember the days she used to look out of
the window to admire them. Something to make her smile about them. Thanks.
Ed
> I have only seen a few boards from the stuff around here as the south
> Texas variety is just gnarly. But then, just about every damn wood in
>> south< Texas is.
I first want to say thank you for this thread folks. I live just south
of Grass Valley in California and we have tons of oak around, although
mostly black oak. And that brings me to my question: Four weeks ago at
precisely 5:05 am, a snow fall caused two of our black oaks in the back
yard to keel over and take out part of the roof and a good section of
fence. There were 5 growing in a cluster and we have since cut down the
remaining three because they were unstable and apt to collapse on our
septic and/or propane tanks. So now we have a massive amount of black
oak which I was about to start cutting up to sell as firewood. I was
going to keep one four-foot log to use as a seating bench, and was
vaguely contemplating keeping a second section to have it cut up into
rough boards that I could then dry at home and use in a couple of years
or so. Does this make sense ? Or am I wasting my time ? Thanks.
Ed.
Newsotter <[email protected]> wrote in news:92r7g.67402
[email protected]:
>> I have only seen a few boards from the stuff around here as the south
>> Texas variety is just gnarly. But then, just about every damn wood in
>>> south< Texas is.
>
> I first want to say thank you for this thread folks. I live just south
> of Grass Valley in California and we have tons of oak around, although
> mostly black oak. And that brings me to my question: Four weeks ago at
> precisely 5:05 am, a snow fall caused two of our black oaks in the back
> yard to keel over and take out part of the roof and a good section of
> fence. There were 5 growing in a cluster and we have since cut down the
> remaining three because they were unstable and apt to collapse on our
> septic and/or propane tanks. So now we have a massive amount of black
> oak which I was about to start cutting up to sell as firewood. I was
> going to keep one four-foot log to use as a seating bench, and was
> vaguely contemplating keeping a second section to have it cut up into
> rough boards that I could then dry at home and use in a couple of years
> or so. Does this make sense ? Or am I wasting my time ? Thanks.
>
> Ed.
>
There's a mill/yard/dealer in Auburn, on the highway north of downtown.
They sell only locally cut timber/lumber, from what I understand.
At very least, visiting with them, before you get too deep into this
project, might be worth your time. The day I dropped in, they were up to
their eyeballs in fresh stock...
Patriarch
Newsotter <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> Patriarch wrote:
>> There's a mill/yard/dealer in Auburn, on the highway north of
>> downtown. They sell only locally cut timber/lumber, from what I
>> understand.
>>
>> At very least, visiting with them, before you get too deep into this
>> project, might be worth your time. The day I dropped in, they were
>> up to their eyeballs in fresh stock...
>
> I think I remember seeing a place just off I80 in between the
> Newcastle Road exit and Auburn, but I don't think that's what you're
> talking about, is it ? I'm guessing that you're thinking of somewhere
> on Highway 49 between I80 and Bell. Am I right ?
On Highway 49 is the place I was thinking of. Haven't been up there in six
months or so. The other place would be news to me.
Making something from your own trees is one of the reasons we do this
stuff.
Patriarch
On Wed, 3 May 2006 19:57:26 -0700, "Kevin Coleman"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I have part of a huge california live oak fall down. is such a tree
>suuitable for building furniture or making flooring?
>
>Thanks
>KC
>
If it is anything like Souther Live Oak the grain and shape of the
logs is probably not conducive to flooring (maybe short sticks) but I
bet you could work with the grain to make some really cool furniture.
On Wed, 03 May 2006 19:57:26 -0700, Kevin Coleman wrote:
> I have part of a huge california live oak fall down. is such a tree
> suuitable for building furniture or making flooring?
>
> Thanks
> KC
There are several different species that get called "live oak." There are
Interior Live Oak, Coastal Live Oak, Canyon Live Oak - also called Maul
Oak and Goldcup Oak, and probably a few other varieties as well. The
coastal and interior varieties are described as being largely of use only
as firewood - interior has also been used for fence posts. The trees
usually don't produce much clear timber. The Canyon variety was used for
shipbuilding because it is very tough wood and it was called "maul oak"
because the wood is shock resistant and mauls were made of it
historically. In the San Gabriel Mountains I have see some wonderful CLO
trunks. So, it will depend on which variety you have and on the amount of
clear trunk you have. Many live oaks come up in open clusters of stems.
Usually the parent tree has died or been killed by fire and the remaining
rootstock sends up shoots.
JD