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turning live oak

R

rdc

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I am considering turning live oak. At this time I do not have a piece of the wood to examine or to experiment with. I know that red oak has an open grain and therefore very porous. What can anyone tell me about turning live oak and it's characteristics? Would it be possible to turn a functional bowl?
thanks rdc
 
I once brought some oak back from Florida that was called "live oak". I kept some and gave some to another turner friend. Neither of us was able to utilize it because it cracked so badly. I know there a many varieties of oak and I have no scientific name for this variety, only that I was told it was "Live Oak". At least it was free :) .
 
I have only had experience turning Coastal Live Oak from California. I love turning Oak...but there are problems drying it. Coastal Live Oak likes to warp, crack, twist, etc. But is a very pretty wood. I have only turned it green and not into a "functional bowl" as I turn mostly vessels. I turn vessels green - thin (1/4" or less) and then dry slowly. If you can get the wood for free - try it. Nothing ventured - nothing gained. It might be possible to dry Live Oak in a kiln without cracks, etc. I like the smell of the shop when I turn Oak. Watch out as wet Oak will rust the ways of your lathe quickly. What fun.
Hugh
 
Live oak can be got in the piles here in Charleston, SC. Yes, it's basically Red oak and it does tend to bend and split a lot. If you're good at turning really thin, green wood, you can make some bizzare shapes on it if you steam it a bit (wet it down real good and nuke it in the microwave a couple of minutes to make pliable) and use some clamps to bend it to the desired shape, but don't go too harsh. When it dries it should stay that way.

Drying by soaking first in denatrued alchohol will help with reducing splitting and maybe with the amount of warpage.




Anyhow, just know that live oak is very, very susceptible to "heart rot" where the pith of the tree basically is like wet rotted mud. Often stinks, too. But you'll see it very quickly upon chainsaw surgery--- you may be able to use it as a funky "natural edge" bowl.

Good luck.
 
I do those "funky, natural edged" bowls from red oak. I turn it relatively thin then watch it carefully for cracks. If I see one trying to develope (hairline), I CA it and compress it for a few minutes. Once I've done this for a week or two, I remount and turn it to finish. This is usually enough to keep noticable cracks at bay.

It will turn your hands and tools black. Just wipe down the tools and lathe with WD-40 and wash your hands with lemon juice or dandruff shampoo.

Dietrich
 
We have a lot of "live" oaks around us. They are called live oaks because they keep green leaves all winter and get new leaves in the spring, look like very small magnolia leaves. We lost several during some of our recent hurricanes. They have a interesting tight grain that makes it very tough to turn because it WILL crack really bad. To be honest it is almost impossible to split for firewood unless you have a hydraulic splitter and takes forever to dry, so after a storm you can usally get all you want. Not good for much else.
 
Typically here in Austin, live oak doesn't get turned much. It is very reactive wood - it would prefer to warp and crack than become a bowl. Also per the other posting it can smell just like an old urinal. But maybe you'll get lucky. You could always use it for practice wood. Definitely turn it wet since it will be hard as a rock when dry.
 
I have turned white oak with good results.

The only live oak I have is really punky. It is so full of worm frass that the first time I tried to cut it with a chain saw I had an instant white out. It has been a good material for testing different stabilizing processes. But I digress.

Live oaks are in the white oak family as far as I know. I have turned several white oak bowls. They were turned green and soaked in alcohol. I have had several people say they could not successfully dry white oak bowls using the alcohol process. My experience has been very good. I am interested in your experience if you use the alcohol drying process on live oak. You can find alcohol drying information on my web site or email me if you want.

Good luck.

Dave Smith

Enjoying a rain break in Longview, WA.
 
Live oak

Years ago as I was just getting into turning, I was doing "weed pots". While visiting Fla sev'l times, I gathered some spalted branches and they turned beautifully. Recently, I used one of those branches to turn "buttons" for paper weight/magnifiying glass. They did not split, and were beautiful-and I am not an oak lover. A co-worker brought me back a 13-15 inch diameter broken "branch "of live oak when visiting the Ga homestead last Xmas. I turned 5-6 beautiful bowls. It turned nicely, sanded nicely, finished nicely and didn't split. After I was through finally sanding, I picked out the hardpacked varmint tracts with dental pics for about 45-60 minutes each!!!. They were artistic. They did not split. Maybe my good experience with live oak is because it was not real green. Other oak has been a problem for me with splitting. Gretch
 
About three weeks ago I cut down a large live oak tree which died at my mothers house to keep it from falling on her power lines. I cut most of it up into fire wood for her. I kept several limb intersections and portions of the crotch to try and turn. I got a chance last week I used my chain saw to rough out two bowl blanks which I turned with a natural edge. The wood turned very easily green. I soaked the roughed out bowls in alcohol and wrapped the outside with newspaper leaving the center of the bowl exposed to air. It has been about three days and they have not cracked yet. I have turned some spalted white oak and it turned well and looks nice. In this area Oak is the preferred firewood and I have been splitting it since I was a kid so it seams to spilt like Oak :D
 
Myrel - I hope your bowls turn out well. Oak can be a nice wood if you can get it to a finished state without cracking. 3 days out of the process isn't enough to tell. It will be nice to see how they turned out in 30-50 days. They should be good and dry by then.
 
Three days out is a good indicator in my experience. Bowls soaked in alcohol will generally lose between 80% and 90% of the weight lose in the first 3 days. Depending on the wall thickness and the drying conditions the bowl should be dry in 2 weeks. Several people wait 3 weeks to finish turn so they don't have to monitor bowl weight.

Dave Smith

Just one mans opinion in Longview, WA.
 
Thanks Jeff and Dave I looked at them again last night still no cracks and they are much lighter now then when I first turned them, I will keep you posted. I turned one to about ¾ inch wall and the other to about ½ inch.
 
Live Oak Bowl

This is a Live Oak bowl that i turned from a piece of limb that i picked up while in Charleston on my honeymoon. We call it the Honeymoon Bowl. LOL
 

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Have turned numerous pieces out of Live oak. Enjoyed each one. Would ruff turn the piece then put it in a paper bag (date and type) then forget it. Six months to a year later going through the pile of ruff turnings find it, then remount it and finish. It takes finish very well and does have a musty oak smell as you turn it. After the last hurricane that pasted through here years ago, had a bunch of it, but as time goes so does the Live Oak.

Gary:cool2:
 
I enjoy turning live oak.
Just did a couple of bowls for the empty bowls from live oak.
It moves a lot when drying but has an interlocking grain so it isn't prone to cracking.

I have small collection 3-4" balls turned from green live oak in demonstrations.
These are quite oval when dry but haven't cracked. they got no care beyond being set on a shelf.
 
The secret is out! Any Live Oak that contains part of the pith is going to crack, the question is how soon. The true branches do not contain any of the pith and you should be able to turn them with no problem. Now that I've said that, every piece of Live Oak in the world will split before it hits the ground!
 
Live Oak is great to turn

I have turned quite a lot of live Oak. I am attaching a few images of pieces, but generally, it is much easier to turn green than dry. Once you final turn and finish it, it is incredibly strong and smooth surface.
 
It turns like butter when it is green. When dry, it is about as hard as a rock. The part of live oak that i like the best is right at the transition area between trunk and roots. The grain just below ground level is beautiful and doesn't seem to warp much if any. This is not something that I expect to come across anytime soon, but a tree blew down in a storm so I decided to try turning the root area just below the trunk and glad that I did.
 
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