Pin Oak

[Marcus Ward]

Does anyone ever use pin oak for woodworking? I've been told it's a red oak, but the Amish guy who cuts my wood says it's kind of ugly. I've got a buddy with a 30' straight pin oak on his property, probably 2' thick we were thinking of cutting but I wanted to hear if anyone had used this before. Anyone got any pictures? Thanks.

[Ian Abraham]

From what the sawing guys tell me it is a species of red oak, and the wood is fine for woodworking.. BUT... Due to the way the tree grows (lots of branches) the logs may not yield a lot of good grade timber.

If it's a particularly good pin oak log then it would probably be worth sawing, but dont expect as much clear wood as a normal red oak of similar size.

Ian

[Marcus Ward]

Ah well the first 30' are branchless so maybe it's not a pin oak. We're reviewing our identification. I think he'd like to cut it up and make cabinets out of it for his new house. Thanks for the info.

[Philip Duffy]

'round here it is considered junk wood suitible for fire and nothing else.

[Homer Faucett]

Pin oak checks so much when drying that it is usually not considered usable for anything but making pallets. However, as noted above, pin oaks usually have an awful lot of small branches closer to the ground than what you are describing. I'd double check the identification, as there are several species of oak around here.

[Bill Simmeth]

We milled a couple of pin oaks a few years back that were clear 20-30 ft and straight as arrows. A lot of nice lumber came out of them. I'll see if I can dig out a pic. It was on my BIL's property.

[Jim Dunn]

According to the aborists in this area there are about 120 species of oak. Pin oak is just another of these. Usually have a large amount of small branches all over. Normally just the first 10' feet may be limb free.

[Homer Faucett]

Well, I'm getting conflicting information when I look this up online. The Missouri conservation website says the following about pin oak:

"Pin oak is not a commercially valuable tree although the straight trunks do make good poles and pilings in limited quantities. Only limited use is made of pin oak lumber because the many small branches on the tree cause lumber to be knotty. Some use is made of the lumber for pallets and construction."

While the Oklahoma University conservation website says this about pin oak:

"The species is an important source of red oak lumber. Quercus is the ancient classical name for the European oaks; palustris means "of marshes" and refers to its wetland habitat."

We planted 10,000 trees on our property three years ago. When we attended the state arborist meetings, we were encouraged to stay away from pin oak as a harvestable species, as its value was not considered to be high. We were told it had increased checking as it dried, and substantial knot holes in it, making it undesirable for quality lumber. We planted mostly black walnut, black cherry, and then some red and white oaks, along with a few persimmon and butternut trees.

So, based upon what I am reading, and the direct experience of some creekers around here, I don't know what I'd do. Good luck!

[Mac McAtee]

Marcus,
I'd step back a ways and get a positive ID on the tree. If there are dead leaves on a branch or two or enough around the bottom to get one that you know came off that tree, get one or two. If there are acorns on the ground under the tree get a couple of those, if they have the caps on them all the better. With those two things you can positively ID the tree.

Could be that what a local person calls a pin oak is not what is known as a pin oak.

Red oak leaves have a sharp point on the end or ends of the leaf. White oak doesn't, the ends are rounded and don't have points. The red oak points are like needles in some cases. Perhaps someone got stuck by one of those leaves and named your tree pin oak when it really isn't.