Water Oak

[Larry Nall]

What's the opposite of a gloat?

The good news is I'm making sawdust - lots of it.
The bad news is that it's with a chainsaw.

A little storm came through and a tornado or microburst or some such weather demon knocked down eight large water oaks in my yard. No damage to any buildings but the yard is a mess.

Checking on-line, one source said the best use was for firewood and pulp. Another said it could be used for lumber.

Has anyone ever used water oak? Just wondering if it would be worth the time to have some milled.

The real groaner is that I have the new shop completely sheathed and ready to roof. Now I've got a few weeks of chainsawing to get done before I can work on it again. :(

[Greg Crawford]

I tried some red oak in the Houston area several years ago, and there was rotted, pithy wood throughout. This was two trees in a row. I checked with a local timber man, and he said most oak in SE Texas goes for pulp, and at best is turned into pallets. From what I understand a water oak is a cross between a red and white oak, with many varients. Since FL is about the same climate as this area of TX, the wood may only be good for fires or pulp, just as you were told.

Sorry about the loss and the extra work.

Greg

[Steve Clardy]

Here in Missouri water oak is used for firewood.

ABout ten years ago when I had my woodmizer, I milled a large good looking water oak log for a guy. It fell apart within two days.

So I wouldn't suggest having it milled

[Chuck Jones]

I agree with all the above. I work with a volunteer disaster response team and have spent too much time on the gulf coast the past couple years. I was not familiar with what they call water oak down there (like all trees the names vary from place to place). I was having a hissy fit seeing all those beautiful oak logs going to the burn pile until a local farmer/woodworker told me how useless they are. His information tracked with what's been said above.

We were cutting up flawless logs 30"+ in diameter into small enough pieces that we could get them to the street for pick-up. It doesn't show in this picture but there was actually water running out of the ends of these logs.

These were not what we call Willow Oak, Water Oak, Pin Oak around Tennessee. These were what is listed in the books as Water Oak with small elongated leaves with usually two lobes at the bottom end.