Red Oak or Pin oak

[Jstier]

So my father-in-Law had some oak tress cut down on his property. A friend of his cut them down for firewood along with some other trees. The guy told him they were all pin oaks. I haven't been able to get a pic yet but he told me the middle/ heart was very red. All the Pin oaks ive milled up usually don't have that kind of color. 

Thoughts? Ill try to get a pic from him tonight. He did save me two 50ft hickory trees that look very nice! 

[High_Water]

Where? I know around here in TX people like to call live oaks pin oaks for some reason, even though we don't have even have pin oaks around here. Could be a similar situation (I know live oaks aren't red oaks). Also pin oaks are in the red oak family so that could explain the coloration.

[KEC]

Pin Oak that I've seen has paler wood, not so red as Northern Red Oak. The branches on the tree come out somewhat horizontally like spruce. It is real decent stove wood.

[moodnacreek]

Pin oak/red oak, big problem around here.  We have red, black, some white and huge pin oak in the lower farmed out areas. I have no market for the pin and don't want any of those logs brought in. Sometimes the bark on the pin look just like the red from across the river. If the pin lay around the sap wood band [that is wide] will start to bleed and give itself away. Also the pin rings are often but not always, very wide and you should see dead knots on the upper cut end of log if not on the bark. As to color, pin has white sap and green/ brown heartwood. If you have upper logs they often have lots of knots/ branches sticking out like a white pine would.

[mike_belben]

Scarlet oak is very red.  The standing tree will have vertical silvery whitish ribs in the bark pattern, a few inches long up and down.  Without leaves it can be hard to tell from a northern red.  The wood color looks about the same to me but scarlet is almost always doaty in the heartwood.  Barn lumber.

[Al_Smith]

Pin is pretty easy to identify because it has limbs growing every where .I don't think it has much commercial value because of that ,too many knots in the sawn lumber .Perhaps blockage and cribbing, maybe pallet lumber . I've got 4 species of oak ,pin ,white ,northern red and burr .

[moodnacreek]

Pin is pretty easy to identify because it has limbs growing every where .I don't think it has much commercial value because of that ,too many knots in the sawn lumber .Perhaps blockage and cribbing, maybe pallet lumber . I've got 4 species of oak ,pin ,white ,northern red and burr .

We see big straight pin oaks with clear butt logs. If they have slowed down they can look so much like red oak until that wide sap band appears. But if you saw one, oh boy, you know on the first slab off you made a big mistake.

[Al_Smith]

My only experience with pin was a giant example with some rounds around 4 feet in diameter .It was late November when a trimmer bud dropped it off and it was about this time of year when I tried to cut it down .Danged stuff had frozen .I threw every thing I had at it including a McCulloch SP 125 C and could not touch it .I gave up after I bounced a steel wedge off my shin .Limped to the house and waited for warmer weather .Dang that hurt .