The Forestry Forum
General Forestry => Sawmills and Milling => Topic started by: qbilder on November 23, 2010, 08:18:09 PM
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Has anybody ever cut an oak that had dark brown wood? I cut a small log this weekend that had chocolate brown wood with very bold medullary rays that were nearly black. It was stunning quarter sawn wood. I have never seen anything like it but would love to have a load for myself. I'm in the mountains of southern NM and oak isn't uncommon but it's always just the typical sandy blond colored stuff. I grew up in the Appalachian mountains & we cut several varieties of oak but I have never seen anything that was dark brown. It wasn't bacteria or mineral stained. It was consistent dark brown with a thin white sap ring. I wish I had pics. But I was grinning every cut, amazed & awed with it. It was like walnut stained white oak but natural.
Is this a species of tree I can identify & target? I'd love to have a load. Thanks
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sounds like post oak to me. real hard. pc
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I immediately thought Post Oak, but my book doesn't show it that far West. Some of our Foresters probably can help. Leave and bark samples would help.
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The bark doesn't seem any noticeably different than other oaks around here. And the leaves are miniature. They are only a couple inches long by maybe an inch wide. I won't know til spring exactly what different varieties we have because there's no leaves right now. But I have noted some with sharp lobs & some with rounded lobes. None get very large or straight so they're not a commercially cut tree. The largest I have seen are pushing 24"x8' before branching. I'm not native here & don't know the trees well enough yet. But I have seen lots of the local oak & this is the first time I seen dark brown.
I have found 2 types of hard maple growing here, plus a tree that is strikingly similar to cherry in every way except instead of the sweet cherry smell, the lumber has an almost citric smell. Even the leaves & bark look the same as cherry. None of the trees get large or abundant enough for commercial logging/milling so there's not much info about them. The conifers are quite popular for milling around here while the scrubby little hardwoods are ignored.....except for firewood.
I appreciate the lead on post oak. I'll look into it. Many thanks.
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Your leaf description eliminates Post Oak. It had already been eliminated by geography. Canyon Live Oak is a possibility. It's leaves are one-third enclosed and it loses it's leaves yearly. It's found in Southwestern US.
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May not be the same but I've cut oak with that brown coloration that had a cavity where a branch had broken off and the pocket held water. Frank C.
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In my limited experience, the white oak group produces more of a brown heartwood while the red oak group produces heartwood that has more red in it and less brown. However, that may not apply out West. Therefore, when I read your description, I suspected a white oak of some sort.
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I've cut some white oak that had real dark heart with distinct rays.
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It does have white oak characteristics such as the bold rays. The other oaks here seem to be like a red oak with finer rays and lighter color. It's not brown from a rotten branch. This is uniform & consistent color throughout the log from base to top, and distinct line between heart & sap. I appreciate the help, fellas. I think I have some leads to look into.
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I vote for live oak. How hard was it? Didi it gum up your blades real bad?. Leaf shape oblong and rounded with a small point on the end, about 1 1/2" long and 1/2" wide? Sounds like something similar to a live oak in central Texas called scrub oak.
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I vote for live oak. How hard was it? Didi it gum up your blades real bad?. Leaf shape oblong and rounded with a small point on the end, about 1 1/2" long and 1/2" wide? Sounds like something similar to a live oak in central Texas called scrub oak.
That maybe sounds like our culprit. Muchos gracias