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Started by rutro, November 11, 2015, 03:52:49 PM

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rutro

 We live in E. Texas near Athens. The recent heavy rains have been a blessing and a headache. Needed the rain bad, just not so much all at once. I'm a new guy on this board, joined to learn more about the care of the trees on our small property. So the largest Post Oak we had laid down after 20 + inches of rain. Perfectly healthy appearing tree. It's 67 inches around at about 6' off the ground. It seems to have some burl. The trunk is all that I have left to take care of. Over 14' to the fork, not hollow that we can tell. Is it worth cutting up for lumber? Or should I just cut it up for fire wood/ cooking wood? I will post some pics later I think. If I can figure out how on this board. 

beenthere

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.

Sorry to hear about the oak tree going down. Hope there is no hidden internal cull when you open it up.

Pic posting help is on the Home page near the end of the different Boards and is pretty straight forward.
Need pics in .jpg format, name an album in your gallery, and upload your pics there.

Shout out if any steps give you a fit.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

rutro

Thanks for the reply beenthere. Cross my fingers I have found no bad stuff ... yet. There are so many hollow oaks around here I'll be surprised if there are none at all. I'm going to try to post a pic or two here...

  

  

 

  Cool !!! I figured it out. That bottom pic is a small slice out of one of the limbs. I used some Wood Juice stabilizer on it to bring the color out. Might make some knife handles out of that one....

CCC4

I believe that post oak is no good, look either a shell or massive heart rot for the duration of the body mass

mesquite buckeye

If it is solid, it could be nice. They used to use post oak for 4 square (quartersawn) because of the large pith rays. It is too curved to cut as is. Why not cut it somewhere in the middle of that curve and find out if it is rotten in the middle? Is there someone nearby who could mill it for you?
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

rutro

  Hey  mesquite buckeye, Thanks for the reply. Well I got into it back about the middle of the curve and thought it was solid. But there was a place in the heart that looked funny. It was bad about as big around as a coke bottle. So I went ahead and took it down in 3' and 4' pieces. Trying to get the pieces that have good looking places for knife handles. That stuff in the middle is strange and I need to find out more about it. Hope all the timber is not doing that. Learning as I go....

Den-Den

Not too far from you; I have not had much luck with post oak.  It is difficult to dry and most of them have a lot of knots.  There are exceptions and it can be nice material if you can find a nice saw log.  It is really great fire wood.  Burls are good for turning.
You may think that you can or may think you can't; either way, you are right.

mesquite buckeye

If the rot in the center is small, just ignore it and mill the rot off your slabs just like you would the bark. No big deal. For small stuff this log should have interesting figure and work well. Expect the figured stuff to move and maybe crack a bit as it dries. This is the perfect time of the year to cut it up as the cool weather will slow down the drying process and give you less cracking. ;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

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