# Need White Oak Info



## HomeBody (Jun 7, 2013)

I just got permission to cut wood in an 80 acre virgin tract. I can cut anything that is dead or down. The timber is mostly white oak, with huge live trees and logs laying everywhere. I'm just a small time hobby woodcutter and this timber is overwhelming. My buddy cut a cookie off an oak log and counted 170 rings. I would like to find some nice spalted white oak but don't know what I'm looking for. Never held a piece of spalted oak in my hand. 

Will spalted white oak be obvious if I cut a cookie off of a log? What will the end grain look like if it's spalted good? 

The timber also had hard maple at one time, but the previous caretaker decided that hard maple wasn't native to this tract and dropped many of them.:dash2: Hard maple logs everywhere. I plan on looking inside some of those logs too.

This place is amazing and I just stood there looking at all of it wondering where do I start?:i_dunno: Gary


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## DKMD (Jun 7, 2013)

Start by taking pictures and posting them here, Gary...

Endgrain cookies will tel you a lot a out what's in the logs. Good, black line spalting should be pretty obvious when you dock the ends of the logs. Don't forget to check both ends since the degree of spalting may differ. I think you'll probably have better luck finding well spalted maple than white oak... Spalting is rotting(fungal attack), and maple rots faster than white oak.


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## Graybeard (Jun 7, 2013)

It will be interesting to see if you find any. Like David said white oak tends to be pretty stable. We used it green to make hog fences out of. If it got dry you couldn't drive a nail through it, had to use a drill first. Of course that wasn't on the ground. Keep us posted.

Graybeard


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## Flacer22 (Jun 7, 2013)

I've got a huge amount of white oak both for firewood and lumber and never found any salpalted. Good luck my farm sounds simmlair nothing like fighting giant oaks.


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## Patrude (Jun 7, 2013)

HomeBody said:


> I just got permission to cut wood in an 80 acre virgin tract. I can cut anything that is dead or down. The timber is mostly white oak, with huge live trees and logs laying everywhere. I'm just a small time hobby woodcutter and this timber is overwhelming. My buddy cut a cookie off an oak log and counted 170 rings. I would like to find some nice spalted white oak but don't know what I'm looking for. Never held a piece of spalted oak in my hand.
> 
> Will spalted white oak be obvious if I cut a cookie off of a log? What will the end grain look like if it's spalted good?
> 
> ...



My experience is consistant with whats already been said. I go out into the woods with a small sae and backpack salvaging downed timber for turning. If Maple has been on the ground for any reasonable length of time it will almost always be spalted. The Oak is a different story, just very unlikely to get spalting with it.


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## Kevin (Jun 7, 2013)

WO will not spalt. RO will. I wouldn't waste any time on the oak, I'd focus all my energy on the maples. But don't get caught up in the internal fighting between those species. They have a long track record of warring against each other and if you get caught in the middle, you could get hurt. 

_There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples,
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade.

There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream "Oppression!"
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And now the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw._

Lyrics by Neil Peart


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Jun 7, 2013)

Kevin said:


> WO will not spalt. RO will. I wouldn't waste any time on the oak, I'd focus all my energy on the maples. But don't get caught up in the internal fighting between those species. They have a long track record of warring against each other and if you get caught in the middle, you could get hurt.
> 
> _There is unrest in the forest,
> There is trouble with the trees,
> ...



wow didn't see that one coming but ur right been going for 30-40 years now ain'ta?


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## HomeBody (Jun 7, 2013)

Okay, now I know WO won't spalt. You saved me lots of time. I don't have any use or room for plain WO, but I will make room for some spalted maple. I'll take pics of the place next time I go up there. Gary


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