river oak

[texx]

had a good score today .the power mob were cutting down trees on the river bank around the power boxes and transformer that run our pumps on the farm this morning when i turned up to start bailing hay they were already into it .
so i went and had a yarn see what they were going to cut or just prune , turned out that 3 river oaks had to go ,one was a ripper so i asked them not to run it through the chipper but leave the best trunk on the river bank and i would collect it when i finished with the hay .
pictured is the resulting load , i worked harder in the hour it took to cut these up and load them onto the ute than i did all morning bailing.
so far i have only docked them to length and split them down the middle i am about to paint the ends with moblicer .
i had no luck with the last one of these i got because it had been fallen for a year or so before i got it .
what else should i do to try and get the most out of this stuff while it dries .
P.S. by the way those blocks are bl**dy heavy in the green state.

[wood hacker]

Great score Texx.

[artme]

Sweet Texx!!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

I can just imagine the grain in some f those branch forks.

[new_guy90]

nice sore

[benupton]

Wow thats nice grain it would look great bookmarked:2tsup::2tsup:.

[Texian]

That is some great looking wood. Suggest you rough turn and seal as many bowls as possible as soon as possible. If your oak is anything like ours you might want to spray the lathe bed with oil and cover that with plastic before turning wet oak. Others will probably follow here with better advice.

[dai sensei]

Really good score there Texx :2tsup:

I'd be roughing out some bowls and then cutting the rest down for handles, pepper grinder blanks etc - ie 75, 60, & 50 mm slices etc and wax the lot. Much easier to cut when it is wet, dam hard and full of silica when dry. After drying they can be cut down further as required.

[Sawdust Maker]

Nice score Tex
I think you have too much wood, so I'm going to have to visit :D

[rsser]

Nice haul Texx.

My two bob's worth is to take out the pith when you're dividing the logs.

Yeah, not all that easy when you're under the pump but it's easier to do it with a whole log than with a half log, and lots of mischief starts from the pith if you leave it til later.

So are there other names for River Oak?

[corbs]

nice score, have heard that its pretty hard to dry and loves to split. Best of luck with them though:2tsup:

I have two in my garden but they have only been in for a bit over a year:rolleyes:

[artme]

That is some great looking wood. Suggest you rough turn and seal as many bowls as possible as soon as possible. If your oak is anything like ours you might want to spray the lathe bed with oil and cover that with plastic before turning wet oak. Others will probably follow here with better advice.

Not like your Oak Texian. Your Oak is a true Oak a Quercus.

This is an Alocasuarina (Spellin?) Called Oak because of the medullary rays.

[texx]

Nice haul Texx.

My two bob's worth is to take out the pith when you're dividing the logs.

Yeah, not all that easy when you're under the pump but it's easier to do it with a whole log than with a half log, and lots of mischief starts from the pith if you leave it til later.

So are there other names for River Oak?

yep it is
casuarina cunninghamiana

no other common name that i know of

[issatree]

Hi Texx,
My $'s worth is to work out which way it was growing, & turn it upside down, & the water will just run out of its own accord. I would also lay it up against a North East Wall somewhere, so as the UV Rays kind of pass over the wood as that appears to be one reasons why wood splits.
Wouldn't leave it to long before you would use the Mobilcer.
A lot of Turners usually just mix up really old paint & use that.
Have you had the Mobilcer long & what may have been the price.
If it is anything like English Oak , then you are going to have a great time with it.
Regards,
issatree.
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[texx]

i have had the mobilicer about 6 months and i got it for nix on the condition that the guy i got it from can use some if he needs to < ( but i am pretty sure he wont ) he had it for years he was the local mobil depot owner and he got it to seal the ends of a few sleepers and never used it again after he did that job.
on the wax sealing thing i have only done it only once before on some olive wood i think it was and half the wax lifted off in sheets of its own accord a few days after dipping it , anyone shed any light on why that happens ,'\
its a mix of bee's wax with just a little bit of parrafin wax melted in with it .

[funkychicken]

So you'll be dropping some of that at my place right?

[powderpost]

My experience with she oaks is that they split quickly and badly. Give it two coats of mobilcer, then a third about a week later. Leave a small piece uncoated and as soon as it starts to crack, cover the heap with plastic sheet and expose it for half a day every week. A pita for sure but that process does work.
Jim

[texx]

anyone ever tried drying wood by freezing , just thought never seen the topic pop up before and i have oodles of freezer space, a walk in freezer room , plus i have 2 (stand by) chest freezers that have nothing in them at the moment .

[Texian]

I seal with melted paraffin (just because it's on hand, left over from a previous venture). The paraffin needs to be fairly hot to get a good "bond" to the wood, not just barely melted. Obviously this can be potentially quite hazardous, so care and attention are advised. When dipping the wood, leave submerged in the wax for a couple of seconds. Then remove and drain the excess. On larger pieces an old paintbrush works well.

Edit: If one of your freezers is the self defrosting type which would remove moisture from the air as it sublimes from the wood, it would be worth a small scale test.

[Ozkaban]

Nice score :2tsup: That's a very nice load of oak there.

I picked up about 4 cubic m of Peppermint gum last weekend, but it had already been sliced and diced by the loppers :no: Lots of bits only about 20cm long. The trunk would have been maybe 800 across at the base... Lots of it ended up as firewood as it just wasn't a suitable size for chopping and drying.

I salvaged as much as I could, but a lot of it started splitting the next day. Sealed what I could with a mix of paraffin and beeswax (about 3:1 or so), and painted the bits with house paint that were too big to fit in the wax pan. Will let you know how it all goes in about 3 years :D

Cheers,
Dave