White Oak Trees (Should I sawmill them?)

[madosta]

Unfortunately I had to have two large White Oak trees dropped and I kept 4 of the best biggest logs 20"+ and over 9' in length.

Do these sell for anything as they are besides firewood potential?

I'm thinking about having them saw milled and then making something out of them. Not sure if it's a good idea or not. Any advice?

 

[Gary S]

Get them to a sawmill fast. If they aren't cut soon and they dry down a little, they will crack, and all you have left is firewood.
If you get them sawed, dried and planed down, you have some quality wood for furniture building.

 

[Stuart in MN]

The Woodmizer portable sawmill website has a feature where they will put you in contact with a sawyer in your area - they can bring out their equipment and cut up the wood right on site. http://www.woodmizer.com/us/ResourceCenter/FindaCustomSawyer.aspx

 

[willymakeit]

Are they close to a house or barn? Alot of sawmills ask because objects get put in trees and have become part of it. There could be damage charge .

 

[Freefall_Doug]

Can you use a metal detector to check for old nails etc?

 

[Stuart in MN]

I think a lot of sawyers have handheld metal detectors they use for that purpose, especially if they cut wood from trees in residential areas - lots of nails, hooks for clotheslines and so forth buried in them.

There's a tree on my property line that's grown entirely around a steel fencepost, I hope I'll be long gone when it's finally time to cut that one down.

 

[5lima30]

One additional suggestion after having the lumber sawn is have them run it through a kiln. This will help prevent warping and also kills any insects in the lumber. JMHO.

 

[wnstwolf]

Northen tool home sawmill for your chainsaw and a nice planner. I will be posting tomorrow what I thurned a cherry tree into. Totally a ton of work but in the end you have your labor and another tool.. ;-)

 

[Toomanytools?]

Not as nice as red oak for making stuff, but still worth using. If you can get them milled and store them to air dry.

 

[Champ ionized]

White oak has a beautiful tight grain that when quarter sawed looks amazing. I had some quarter sawed and kiln dried two years ago and did my kitchen cabinets with it last year. Turned out beautiful.

 

[djjsr]

White oak has been getting hard to find around here. Maybe it's a slower growing tree?

 

[Kevin54]

Are they close to a house or barn? Alot of sawmills ask because objects get put in trees and have become part of it. There could be damage charge .

In quite a few places around our area, companies will come in, make offers on Oak trees. They will cut them, and pile the brush. Most get fairly good prices for the wood. But where they get them from is IN the woods. Most of the time they won't take wood along fence rows, and they won't take trees from in town. reason being is trash inside of the trees. The City Park in my hometown took out a large number of trees. The city needed a place to get rid of them and my dad said he would take them as he heated with wood. They dropped off long log so we had to cut them. On one tree we started cutting right below the crotch and hit something and screwed the chain all up. There was a Model T coil in it. Someone swapped out a coil years and years ago and laid the old one in the crotch. It probably had 8" of wood all around it. We got it out by splitting carefully, but I don't know what ever happened to it.

 

[madosta]

Get them to a sawmill fast. If they aren't cut soon and they dry down a little, they will crack, and all you have left is firewood.
If you get them sawed, dried and planed down, you have some quality wood for furniture building.

Awesome, working on it right now!

The Woodmizer portable sawmill website has a feature where they will put you in contact with a sawyer in your area - they can bring out their equipment and cut up the wood right on site. http://www.woodmizer.com/us/ResourceCenter/FindaCustomSawyer.aspx

This is cool, I was wondering if that was possible.

Are they close to a house or barn? Alot of sawmills ask because objects get put in trees and have become part of it. There could be damage charge .

They were super close to the house, that's the only reason I had to cut them down. I am personally worried there is metal in there, but you never know...


Thanks, I'm thinking a nice kitchen table would be grand.

 

[shoot summ]

Not as nice as red oak for making stuff, but still worth using. If you can get them milled and store them to air dry.

I've worked a lot with both, white oak is WAY prettier than red oak, IMO. All personal preference, but many of the pieces I've built from white oak get way more attention than ones out of red oak. The grain is tighter, and not as wild as red oak. Both machine about the same.

I dropped an oak tree in 2007 after a bad ice storm here. The traveling tree cutting gypsies were also nice enough to drop a couple of big white oak logs in my driveway for me. A day with a guy with a portable saw mill and I had some nice quarter sawn white oak, and my tree was firewood, had a lot of mineral streaks and was generally just crappy wood(looked like red oak lol).

The wood air dried for 3+ years, here is a door I started making from some of it, unfortunately it is on the unfinished projects shelf.

 

[6768rogues]

A sawmill I visited requires a $200 deposit in case of concealed metal objects that damage saw blades. If a nail or whatever is encountered, your $200 sharpens their blade and you need to plunk down another $200 to resume cutting.
I would probably use it for firewood and buy the wood I need for a project.

 

[camarotoolman]

All lof the above are good. Except that red oak guy. lol I would coat the ends of the logs with wax,varnish or thick paint to keep the ends from drying out and checking. You get more useable lumber. "stick" the boards the correct way, to dry, its best to do that in an open shed to get air moving around it. It should air dry for 1 year per inch of thickness. Decide what you are going to build, so you know what thicknessto cut your boards to. More work, more time but alot cheaper.

 

[KEH]

Re metal in trees, my experience with trees on the farm is that metal is usually near the ground, as in fence material. Cutting the first 6 feet off will usually take care of problems. I have split the first short cut into segments and sawed them into boards on a small band saw, making nice quarter sawed lumber. Made them thick so they could be planed to proper thickness.

KEH

 

[NUTTSGT]

I would try to get them cut into something that you could use and last longer than a few hours as heat in the winter. Step-dad was jusr asking me about an ash tree yesterday. If a freind of his (he has a portabale saw mill) doesn't want it, I'll use it as firewood.

 

[Tazfink]

Maybe a local tractor/steam club would know of a saw mill or even have one on their show grounds and could saw the lumber for a "donation" to the club.

 

[madosta]

Maybe a local tractor/steam club would know of a saw mill or even have one on their show grounds and could saw the lumber for a "donation" to the club.

Hmm now that sounds fun. Nothing better than a tractor powered buzz saw.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Maybe a local tractor/steam club would know of a saw mill or even have one on their show grounds and could saw the lumber for a "donation" to the club.

Those are about a thing of the past around here. Since one exploded a few years back at a fair with fatalities, I believe the operators now need a state boilers license to run them.

 

[Jackfre]

On e you get set up with a sawyer, have him cut to maximize qtr sawn. I did this with some large wh oaks years ago any made a lot of furniture with it. Currently finishing an oak/mahogany trestle table for my daughter. A few years ago I took all the end pieces and cut them into wedges. Gave bags of them as Xmas gifts. Some folks were kinda befuddled at that but a lot came back asking for more.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Quarter sawn is definitely preferred for furniture makers. You get a lot less lumber out of a log when it it is quarter sawn.

You can dry it yourself by storing it off the ground with wood strips between each layer. If it is stored outside, put a tarp on it. It you live in an area with termites or carpenter ants, spray the ground around your stack a couple of times a year. Use an oil based paint on the end to minimize cracking.

You should also rotate the stack every 6-12(?) months.

 

[madosta]

Well here's one of them on the front of a JD 510... lol

 

[KEH]

Making progress! That JD loader is the real thing, that is a heavy tree. there are tables for figuring the weight,but I'm not familiar with them. Looks like you could get an 8 or 10 foot cut off the bottom and make good, straight grained boards. On the rest of the tree with the forks in it, if you have a good sawyer and are lucky at getting it sawed the right way, you will get some furniture grade crotch grain short boards. Then if you are lucky again the boards will dry without cracking.

KEH

 

[BigMike782]

I had a 20" walnut log that I raised off the ground and painted the ends.I took it to a steam museum to have sawn.The sawyer hit a nail and offered to throw it on their burn pile......nah just set it in my truck and I'll pay the tooth charge and go be my way.Found a guy with a WoodMiser,100.00 an hour and 23.00 per blade that gets damaged.125.00 later I have a nice stack of beautiful walnut that has air dried in the barn.Just found a company that will plane it for doughnuts.....winner,winner chicken dinner
The WoodMiser guy said it would have sawn better green but I am VERY happy with how it came out.I stacked and stickered it and never moved it from that point forward.If it is stacked well and stickered there should be no need to need to turn it.

 

[madosta]

I found a local WoodMizer thanks to a suggestion via this awesome forum of awesome dudes! I'll let you know what I end up doing!

 

[Bib Overalls]

Rough sawed white oak planks are the preferred material around here for heavy duty trailers that carry bulldozers and equipment. They are treated from time to time with used motor oil. Prevents rot.