Thread: Sheoak

You are a brave man Hughie... even so it looks good.

Jim

I have this vague memory of a conversation I had with an old bush-worker up here many years ago about she/forest oak. It was a popular fuel for baker's ovens back when he was younger and there is some vague recollection that you stored freshly cut oak under (running ?) water for a while to stop it splitting. Now, this could be right and it could be wrong but I will put it out there if someone wants to try it. Perhaps the water washed something out of the timber or just slowed the drying/shrinking process, I don't know. But he had some nice timber in his little hut in the bush.

Originally Posted by Old Hilly

I have this vague memory of a conversation I had with an old bush-worker up here many years ago about she/forest oak. It was a popular fuel for baker's ovens back when he was younger and there is some vague recollection that you stored freshly cut oak under (running ?) water for a while to stop it splitting. Now, this could be right and it could be wrong but I will put it out there if someone wants to try it. Perhaps the water washed something out of the timber or just slowed the drying/shrinking process, I don't know. But he had some nice timber in his little hut in the bush.

Yeah that rings a bell albeit rather distant I was also told they grow Sheoak in Europe for fire wood now which variety your would be as good as mine

Originally Posted by powderpost

You are a brave man Hughie... even so it looks good.

Jim

Jim, I actually like turning the difficult stuff, the more difficult the bigger the challenge.

Originally Posted by Old Hilly

I have this vague memory of a conversation I had with an old bush-worker up here many years ago about she/forest oak. It was a popular fuel for baker's ovens back when he was younger and there is some vague recollection that you stored freshly cut oak under (running ?) water for a while to stop it splitting. Now, this could be right and it could be wrong but I will put it out there if someone wants to try it. Perhaps the water washed something out of the timber or just slowed the drying/shrinking process, I don't know. But he had some nice timber in his little hut in the bush.

It wluld stop the drying and therefore shrinking process, sawmillers down here will run sprinklers on their log piles to stop them drying and cracking before milling. Soaking may have other effects as well, dont know. A friend gave me a length of Eucalyptus ? that he found buried in the mud in the bottom of a farm dam when it was being cleaned out. It had likely been there for many tens of years. It split quite a bit when exposed to air.

Tony,I don't really know what variety of forest oak we have here near Wauchope but when Timbertown was working (about 40 years ago) they had a bloke splitting shingles and there was a bakery there that used forest oak for the bread oven. Apparently it burned hotter and cleaner than anything else available. As for the soaking, perhaps it was to slow down the drying and cracking just long enough to cut a few boards out of a log. About the only thing I have seen made out of the stuff recently is small boxes and pens. River oak is similar but the grain and character is a bit more bland but it still splits as it dries but perhaps not as badly.

Originally Posted by Old Hilly

I don't really know what variety of forest oak we have here near Wauchope

My mother (long gone) spent her childhood in a pioneer house at Wauchope roofed with those shingles. She said they continued to split on the roof all by themselves and to let more and more rain in!

Originally Posted by NeilS

My mother (long gone) spent her childhood in a pioneer house at Wauchope roofed with those shingles. She said they continued to split on the roof all by themselves and to let more and more rain in!

I never could understand why people used the darn things but if you had no money but you had forest oak (rather than the oaks by the river) then that was what you used. If you were good with a broad axe and a maul and wedges then you made the rest of the house out of what was nearby. Those were hard times and I thank the Good Lord that I missed them. There is a little burial ground at Ellenborough. The inscriptions on the headstones make enlightening reading.

Originally Posted by hughie

Jim, I actually like turning the difficult stuff, the more difficult the bigger the challenge.

I lost the urge to turn "difficult" stuff, some time back. I get my kicks from cutting up "plain", coloured, stuff and playing with a glue bottle.

Jim

Originally Posted by powderpost

I lost the urge to turn "difficult" stuff, some time back. I get my kicks from cutting up "plain", coloured, stuff and playing with a glue bottle.

Jim

Sounds like it might be the glue bottle that's the problem. Just kiddin.
That's the sort of turning that Jerry in Tucson likes doing, real sphincter tightening challenges.
Rgds,
Crocy.

Originally Posted by powderpost

I lost the urge to turn "difficult" stuff, some time back. I get my kicks from cutting up "plain", coloured, stuff and playing with a glue bottle.

And a good thing it is that we get our jollies from working in different ways... vive la différence!

I could no more do what you do Jim, or for that matter Hughie, than pick up my lathe and throw it out the door of my workshop...

But, through our differences the world gets to have more variety in woodturned pieces to enjoy!

Originally Posted by Old Hilly

I have this vague memory of a conversation I had with an old bush-worker up here many years ago about she/forest oak. It was a popular fuel for baker's ovens back when he was younger and there is some vague recollection that you stored freshly cut oak under (running ?) water for a while to stop it splitting. Now, this could be right and it could be wrong but I will put it out there if someone wants to try it. Perhaps the water washed something out of the timber or just slowed the drying/shrinking process, I don't know. But he had some nice timber in his little hut in the bush.

Some of the best Sheoak I`ve come across have been from trees that have fallen a fair while, more than the 40 years we`ve been here and covered in moss and general forest litter, so the longer and I would say cooler the drying process and the larger the piece the better outcome.Keeping it stored in water or constantly wet is great for storing it in a stable condition, but you have to dry it out sometime, you will alway get splitting but far less in the old dead stuff.As for a great firewood we can definitely vouch for that, our woodfired oven is going all winter.