I was told this tree is rock oak... well it is as hard as rock and heavy.
I did a search on the forum and found nothing posted about rock oak.
I had to google it to find out what it was.
Rock Oak
Quercus montana oak, is a species of oak in the white oak group.
Native to the eastern United States. It's a ridgetop tree.
It is also called "rock oak" because of montane and other rocky habitats.
They are valuable for timber if very straight.
Anyone here ever cut any ?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/IMG_1425.jpg)
Yes, we call it chestnut oak ,have sawed tons of it , saws like white oak and we sell it around here right along with white oak . splits pretty easy. alot of it grows here on ridges in ky. were fortunate to have lots of it.
Also called Quercus prinus or chestnut oak. Sawed millions of bf of it. It gets sold with white oak, and there is really good quality in some of the trees that grow on the better sites. Sometimes those ridge tops have a nice large flat on the top, which has a pretty good site. Sites with lots of rocks tend to be drier, and the quality isn't quite as good. If it wasn't for rock oak, I never would have had much grade white oak. Does not sell as white oak veneer.
It has poor rot resistance, unlike white oak, so most people around here are looking for that characteristic, and I have not cut or sold any of it. My white oak sales are poor, red oak is a good seller. I am going to start sawing more white oak, and likely some chestnut oak, and make some marketing changed to resolve this. Chestnut oak has about all the same other properties as white oak, so furniture guys like it...
Done rocked that tractor right up on it's nose.. ;) ;)
Looks like the botanist had a little fun with this one.
It's making some good lookin lumber. I would say so far this is the hardest sawing lumber I have sawed.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/DSC04088.JPG)
I looked at buying some chestnut/rock oak last week. Way too much shrinkage, was what I found out for timbers.
It's my favorite of all the oaks. Cuts nice & looks amazing when quarter sawed. I like it for its darker color & heavy ray pattern in the grain.
Quite a coincidence, I`m sitting here trying to remember how to post pics cuz I have a photo of the same kind of log I was looking to ID, Thanks kbietz
Down here water oak is a bad thing. Never knew why. Now I know. I cut some last summer and left it to dry. A few weeks ago I pulled out some boards for a project and ran them through my planer. Then I changed the planer blades. It was so hard that it ripped chunks out of the blades, and the wood splintered, ripped out against the grain, and generally was un-usable.
I bet it would make good wagon tongues.