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
sounds like post oak to me. real hard. pc
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I've cut some white oak that had real dark heart with distinct rays.
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.
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.
Quote from: LeeB on November 24, 2010, 12:31:35 AM
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