Wood ID and what to do with it...

[Ljohnsaw]

So last night a big gust took out the top of a dying oak at the top of my driveway.  I had pulled down one limb last summer that was long dead, home to woodpeckers and swallows.  The top was still alive but the broke off limb compromised the trunk.


 
I spent the morning clearing up my driveway so I could get out.  I was surprised when I cut it into firewood lengths.  The very center (2" dia?) is slightly punky with another inch band of very solid dark (almost black) wood followed by "normal" oak color.  Is this what you call "black oak" or is this rot-induced color?  I'm thinking I need the help of the experts like @Wood Doctor or @WDH on this.



 

 

 
The remaining limb is alive but all will be coming down soon.  I'm hoping the trunk and the limb will have this black heart.  I'd love to make countertops with the trunk for my cabin kitchen or perhaps a dining table.  The short logs I've cut I may slice them up on my wood shop band saw.  Not sure if I want to do 5/4 "boards" or just a cant to make something with later.  You can really see the medullary (sp?) rays on the end cuts!  Suggestions?

[firefighter ontheside]

I would say some kind of white oak with the dark color caused by rot in the heart.  You can slice some end grain really cleanly and look at the pores to make sure if its red or white.  White having closed pores and red open.  The black oak I have milled looks like other red oaks I have milled.

[esteadle]

Looks like the Live Oaks I see all over Florida, but you're in Northern California. 
Do you have any pics of the leaves? 
It's a lot easier to identify trees by their leaves than their wood color. 

Check here: 
California Native Oaks

[Ljohnsaw]

Live oak are evergreen and my oaks are not.  So, based on the leaves and acorns, Blue Oak.  Come to think of it, the leaves do look blue in the summer.

[Don P]

Cut a very thin cookie and let it dry. I suspect you are seeing decay, if so that center will dry fast, excessively, break up into cubes and have no real cohesion. Not saying that can't be fixed with epoxy if it is appealing.

[WDH]

Quercus douglasii is one that I am unfamiliar with as it is native to a small area on the West Coast.  I have never seen the wood of blue oak, but I believe that the "blue" part of blue oak has to do with the blueish tint of the leaves.  

[Ljohnsaw]

Another thing about the live oaks is they tend to grow in big arches.  They like to send trunks out like shrubs, sometimes horizontal.  Not quality saw logs! :D  Live oaks (locally) have the sharp spines on the leaves - hard to miss.  As you can see by the remaining trunk, this one grew up in one stem, not out in many stems so can't be a live oak.  I have 5 other smaller ones closer to the house down the driveway.  They produce tons of acorns and, in the fall, TONS of leaves to clean up (NOT evergreen).  When I had a 5 acre place 20 miles from where I am now, it was nearly all live oaks.  Couldn't drive a lawn tractor under them.  Always had to be trimming them up.  We had two of the valley oaks up there.  They were massive trees with the typical lobed leaves.  Around here where I am now, valley oaks are usually found in parks, very majestic trees.