A Bit of Oak

Vaughn McMillan

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A friend of a friend had to take down a big oak tree yesterday, so the Ranger and I went to pay him a visit this afternoon. I’m guessing the smallest piece is a little under 100 pounds, since I could lift it a little way off the ground (briefly). The others were strictly roll or moving dolly material. The lift gate brings a smile to my face every time I use it.

Here’s the load. I failed to get a good side shot of the truck, but it was pretty hunched down on the springs. I could tell it was loaded when I was driving it, but I only had a couple of miles to travel. (I had the color balance set wrong on my camera for the first couple of pictures, hence the green truck):

Valmont Oak 01 800.jpg Valmont Oak 02 800.jpg

And a couple shots of it all unloaded…the yellow-looking stuff on the side is some eucalyptus that’s probably the worst wood I’ve ever tried to turn. Very acidic (it reeked of hydrochloric acid and it rusted my lathe beds within minutes of contact), but it also cracks at the mere though of drying. I’m going to cut it up small enough for the green bin and throw it away:

Valmont Oak 05 800.jpg

This big trunk slab is only about 8” to 12” thick, so it won’t yield any real big pieces, but it may have some interesting bark inclusions and stains in the finished piece. (Or it may be total junk once I get inside of it.)

Valmont Oak 06 800.jpg

And here’s one of the perils of working with “yard” wood. This one’s not bad since it’s pretty visible…

Valmont Oak 04 800.jpg

…but this one could sneak up on you pretty easily if it weren’t for the wire sticking out:

Valmont Oak 03 800.jpg

This is my first experience with oak on the hoof. I'm not sure what type of oak it is. The fresh cut ends are red (as you can see in the pics), but I'm wondering if it could be one of the other oaks we have in California. The leaves most closely matched the blue oak example shown here:

http://hastings.berkeley.edu/OakStory/TreeOaks.html

Any ideas?
 
Nice find, interesting info, didn't realize the eucalyptus was so acidic...good to know. Those could be some interesting show pieces with the bobbins left in and turned right.
 
Darren, this was the first eucalyptus I've run into that was like this. It's "yellow stringybark" eucalyptus, pretty common around here, but it was wicked stuff. I rough turned a big bowl over the course of two evenings, and it wasn't until the end of the last session that I finally figured out where I recognized the smell from. It smelled just like the hydrochloric acid we used to use in the testing labs to clean up concrete testing equipment. It sure stunk up my Trend faceshield. And the chips it stained a freshly-waxed lathe bed in about a minute, and within about 5 minutes rust was starting to form.

I've not heard the term bobbin used in describing oak. What are the bobbins?
 
Quite the haul Vaughn :thumb:

Should be some interesting stuff come out of that!

I think Darren is talking about the ceramic insulators that are in the wood.
 
Vaughn,
I can't say for sure, but the wood looks very much like the red oak we have here in TN.. I'm a lousy wood identifier... I'm pretty sure of the wood part, but beyond that, I have to rely on other more knowledgeable people. The thing that throws me is that my red oak has about an inch and half of white sap wood around the logs that are nicely spalted already... the pieces I have are from a tree that evidently died and then fell across the road. I just happened on a neighbor cutting the tree up to clear the road. When I was loading the wood, he told me it was worthless and not any good for anything... made some really nice bowls though for worthless wood.
 

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Another nice haul Vaughn! Time to start some serious roughing out, ay? Blue Oak huh? Never heard of that one. From my days in Socal I remember those big gnarly oaks, most always refered to as coastal or 'california' live oaks. The name seemed to be used by most people for anything that looked like an oak. Looking forward to seeing somthing made from it!
 
Never heard of 'blue oak'. But, we have a lot of white and red oak in the Ozarks, probably the predominant hard wood. Good for flatwork and firewood. If I had known ye liked for turning, you could have helped me clean up the property after the ice storm. We would have even put you up and fed you well. ;)
Other than that, nice haul.
BTW, a lift gate is considered cheating. Hernias and ruptured disks are part of the 'fun'. :rolleyes:
 
Barry, I hadn't heard of blue oak until I found the Berkeley site, but the more I look at things, I think it's probably the Canyon Live Oak shown on that site.

Frank, I'm not sure yet if I like it for turning, but I should know in a few days. Thanks for the suggestion on the metal detector. I have that exact model and you're right -- this will be a perfect time to put it to use. :thumb:
 
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