White oak turning pink 10 minutes after milling?

[Delawhere Jack]

Finally got to mill some Pennsylvania oak, red and white today. It is superior stuff! 

From the white oak, as the client was stacking, he noticed that some of the boards had turned pink after being milled. I also noticed the center of the heartwood on one of the logs also had the pink color. Never seen this before. The trees were standing dead for a while, and the client thinks they died due to the neighbors sand mound  septic system covering the roots.

Not the best photo, best I could get with the light. The pink was like fresh milled ERC but not as brilliant.



 


 

[hackberry jake]

Yep, When I was a lumber stacker for a big circle mill, I noticed that. When freshly sawn red oak is pink and white oak is brown. After about 10 min the red oak turns tanish-brown and the white oak turns pink. Really made things interesting for a rookie  ;D

[sealark37]

A few years ago I purchased a very nice white oak log from the deck of a local sawyer friend.  It was about 28" at the butt, twelve feet long.  It was such a good looker that he had called me to come and marvel at it.  We loaded it on the carriage, and proceeded to open her up.  At the opening cut, the slab and face were pitch black, as were the rest of the beautiful, clear boards.  Neither of us had ever seen such a color from a sound log.  I ran them through the edger, and got a nice wack of 8",10", and 12" boards, plus a basket of stickers.  By the time we had stacked the boards on the bunks, the color had changed to blood red.  After loading on my truck, the color had changed to hot pink.  By the time I stacked and stickered the boards, the color was white white, and it has slowly changed to normal dry oak color.  I have never seen this color change before or since.  I assume that moisture content caused it, but the log looked fresh and green on the outside.  I wish that it could have held that beautiful red.   Regards, Clark

[Delawhere Jack]

A few years ago I purchased a very nice white oak log from the deck of a local sawyer friend.  It was about 28" at the butt, twelve feet long.  It was such a good looker that he had called me to come and marvel at it.  We loaded it on the carriage, and proceeded to open her up.  At the opening cut, the slab and face were pitch black, as were the rest of the beautiful, clear boards.  Neither of us had ever seen such a color from a sound log.  I ran them through the edger, and got a nice wack of 8",10", and 12" boards, plus a basket of stickers.  By the time we had stacked the boards on the bunks, the color had changed to blood red.  After loading on my truck, the color had changed to hot pink.  By the time I stacked and stickered the boards, the color was white white, and it has slowly changed to normal dry oak color.  I have never seen this color change before or since.  I assume that moisture content caused it, but the log looked fresh and green on the outside.  I wish that it could have held that beautiful red.   Regards, Clark

Interesting. I did notice that some of the sapwood on these logs was black. They were standing dead for a couple years (?), and just felled about a month ago. The sapwood was rotted so badly that we had a hard time getting a bite with the cant hook, it was pretty much at compost stage. That's reassuring that you say they eventually went back to normal coloring. It was only about 5% of what we milled today that exhibited the odd color, so worse come to worse he's still got some really fine boards.

John

[drobertson]

I can't remember when the white oak I've cut did not turn pink after cutting, shades vary, but it will turn pink for sure,  david

[Brucer]

I see exactly the same thing with Douglas-Fir. I suspect it's a chemical reaction from exposure to either light or oxygen.