Not the best way to harvest wood…

[Lou Jacobs]

I got an email last night from a neighbor a few blocks from me who asked if I’d like some red oak to turn before an arborist crew came to take it away. The 100’ tree was about 36-40” in diameter near the base. It came down on Thursday during the storm that blew across the country. I was already in the midst of processing a large quantity of cherry and beech from trees that came down somewhat less violently in my neighborhood, but I have a hard time passing up wood that is offered. I also felt that I wanted to help create something positive for this family from their loss. I got five sections of 12” diameter logs, including one crotch piece, so hopefully will be able to make some nice bowls and platters from it.

 

[Denny Nebgen]

Ouch! At least you get some wood from this but, Man! that is tough.

 

[Karl Loeblein]

Too bad they did not think to move the car out from under a big tree before the storm hit.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

I do not care for red oak although plentiful it does split rather quickly. So you might want to get busy as soon as it warms enough to work.

 

[Monty Ivy]

Ooof. At least it wasn't a prized Ferrari. I have a low success rate with oak. 1 or 2 out of 5 bowls make it to 2nd turning. I've pretty much stopped taking any of it.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

I’m anticipating some failure Monty. Blanks are in plastic now, and hopefully I’ll get to rough turning them all within the next couple of days. I’ve still got a big backlog of cherry that’s staring at me. Hoping for warmer weather and calm breezes in the near future. Happy new year!

 

[robo hippy]

Red oak is ring porous. Never forget Roy Underhill on the PBS show when he explained the difference between white and red/black oaks. He split off a billet of red oak, stuck it in a bucket of water, and blew into the top end. Bubbles came out the bottom end. "This is why you don't use red oak for whiskey barrels!" I don't really care for oak.

robo hippy

 

[Richard Coers]

Hope that table saw table is aluminum! Wet red oak wood and dust can rust cast iron in about 30 minutes!

 

[John Hicks]

Id put every one of those in double paper bags until you can rough turn and seal them!

 

[Michael Anderson]

Dang Lou! I think I need to be your new neighbor with all of this nice wood you’re scoring lately! Haha

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Hope that table saw table is aluminum!

Yes, the saw is aluminum!

Id put every one of those in double paper bags until you can rough turn and seal them!

Thanks for the caution John! I spent several hours today rough turning and even coring a few. They are back in a plastic bag and will be sealed tomorrow.

Dang Lou! I think I need to be your new neighbor with all of this nice wood you’re scoring lately! Haha

Michael, there’s a nice house for sale right around the corner. Even has a bit of woods on the property. It’d be great to have a turning neighbor!

 

[Ric Williams]

It's kinda disappointing to hear about the undesirability of red oak since it's the predominate species in the woods on our property, and there's enough of it down and available to supply several turners for decades. I guess I've been lucky with the red oak I've turned so far, though they've mostly been small to mid sized hollow forms. I've got a 14" bowl that I rough turned a few months ago that, so far, has stayed intact. Don't know if the fact that the stuff I've harvested has sat undisturbed for a while before I cut it into 4' logs and then sat stacked for another couple of years before being cut into blanks has anything to do with it, but anything I've turned seems to have lost enough moisture that I'd consider it semi-green. At any rate, I've enjoyed turning it and have had some nice results so far.

 

[hockenbery]

It's kinda disappointing to hear about the undesirability of red oak

Desirability is in the eye of the turner and the piece of red oak.

I used to turn real red oak occasionally when I lived in MD. In Florida I have turned a good bit of Laurel oak which is a red oak with a finer grain.
red oak. One one on the left is red oak with spalted sapwood

 

[Michael Anderson]

@Ric Williams I agree. There is a lot of variety to the various red oaks as well. Like Al said, Laurel Oak is fairly tight-grained. Black Oak (which is a variety of red oak [if you consider it a matter of just red vs white] has very distinct and dark medullary rays, and almost resembles Beech if oriented right. Color variation is prominent as well, and you. Can usually find some very interesting spalting, which is especially cool if you contrast a heavily spalted sapwood with a clean heartwood.