Thread: English Oak

Nice work Phil.

IME it's pretty stable in drying, esp rough-turned bowls. Just take the normal precautions. Insert the normal caveats about when the timber was felled, how the blank is oriented in the log etc etc.

Be prepared for it to last a few hundred years. Spent five years near Norwich in the UK and the cathedral shop was selling items turned from the old roof timbers (600 years old) - napkin rings, handles on cheese knives etc.

Originally Posted by rsser

IME it's pretty stable in drying, esp rough-turned bowls. Just take the normal precautions. Insert the normal caveats about when the timber was felled, how the blank is oriented in the log etc etc.

And, IME too.

Does readily split along medullary ray lines, so needs to be rough turned ASAP, and careful drying from there.

The lips tend to undulate up and down more so than the blank going out of round. More of an issue with platters and low form bowls than deep bowls. e.g.

Keeps relatively round
Quercus robur - top view.jpg

But here is the same blank in profile
Quercus robur - side view.jpg

Less of an issue for bowls
Quercus robur - nest of bowls.jpg

Also takes a black stain from contact with steel/iron.

What would we do without tannin in Oak?

Drink beer ? Thanks for the useful advice. Few bowls planned, mostly grinders and boxes, spindle work, so a long wait.

I wonder if it takes a thread, maybe too coarse.

It will be interesting in a few hundred years to see how some of our Eucalypts last out of the weather ?

Phil,

i played with staining English oak years ago, thought you might like to give it a try.

I turned a bowl and stained it with a solution made from steel wool soaked in vinegar (make this well in advance), it turned a gorgeous black after a few coats and being left to dry for a few days. I put a coat or two of sealer on it. Then I used a gold coloured shoe cream (meltonian brand) to fill the surface texture, left it to dry, polished it with clear wax and wire wool until the only gold was in the surface.

It looked great, - gave it to a girlfriend and have wanted to create another like it ever since !!(bowl not girlfriend,lol) ( errr, hang on, she did have some advantages !!)

Cam

The briefing I got in Lincoln UK on Oak as a medieval building material was interesting: the half timbered houses there had the Oak beams cut green as the steel wasn't up to working the stuff dry. And that's why you see the wonky angles as the stuff dried.

Thank heavens for HSS.

I don't like the stuff much for bowls but that's based on only one load. Rough-turned green and then finish turned. The colour veered twds grey and the pores opened. Wet sanding would've dealt with the pores but I gave my work to friends as fruit bowls.

Re sapwood, I can't comment. If I get good size lumps of anything I get rid of it.

Originally Posted by rsser

The briefing I got in Lincoln UK on Oak as a medieval building material was interesting: the half timbered houses there had the Oak beams cut green as the steel wasn't up to working the stuff dry. And that's why you see the wonky angles as the stuff dried.

On Grand Designs they'd show them working green oak as if it were cheese.
It's the same here really, or was. Framing with OB which was easy to work and nail while green. A few months later and you couldn't drive a nail in.

Originally Posted by rsser

What would we do without tannin in Oak?

Yeah, we would have to drink white...

How much would u expect to pay for English oak? There's a guy near me who's selling:

2.06mx330mmx35mm
2.5mx240mmx 35mm
2.08mx220mmx35mm
5 pieces between800mm and 1100m all 35mm

But he wants $400...sounds a bit pricey to me?

Originally Posted by johnredl

But he wants $400...sounds a bit pricey to me?

See here for prices in UK Pounds.

Right...twice as much if my sums are right. Thanks for ur help Neil