# Slow growth versus fast growth



## wombat (Sep 16, 2014)

I had heard that fast grown oak is tougher then slow grown. But I had no idea of the difference until witnessing it first hand. I just happen to get a couple of left over oaks pieces from separate builders. 
Not having used it before I put them through my long grain strength tester!! :) Okay admittedly it's not very scientific, but at least I tried for some consistency in the testing. http://kookaburrakatties.blogspot.com.au/p/long-grain-testing.html

The first piece I tried, snapped liked butter, it was so bad I tried another one, same thing. I thought this can't be right oak is supposed to be tough??? So then I grabbed the second piece......it was tougher than my iron bark!!! I then put it in the vice, I couldn't even break it along the cross grain!

So my question is... is this just a characteristic of oak or are most hard woods so dramatically affected by their rate of growth??


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## phinds (Sep 16, 2014)

A fellow sent me a piece of oak for my site that has to be the slowest growing I've ever seen or heard of. It has essentially contiguous growth rings (about 40 per inch) and since oak is VERY porous, that means that a large percentage of the volume is HOLES because the earlywood has the biggest pores and this was essentially ALL earlywood. if you were to hold this piece in your hand without looking at it, just feeling the size, you would likely be willing to swear that it could not possibly be oak because it is much too lightweight. You can see that particular piece on my white oak page.

So ... slow growth = lots of pores (= holes) and for woods with big pores (and they don't come much bigger than oak), that equals light weight, less strength.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


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## phinds (Sep 16, 2014)

Here's a pic of it. As you can see, the growth rings are so close together it doesn't even LOOK like growth rings, and you can certainly see what I mean about the "holes"

Reactions: Way Cool 3 | Informative 1


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