Oak Wood

[Bernie Weishapl]

A guy I work with went back to Missouri Thanksgiving. He brought me back 5 white oak logs. Ranging from 6" to 10" in diameter and all about 18" long. There is already some checking as it had been cut down a couple of weeks ago. Should I just seal it as is or cut the ends off and seal it? Yea I know no pix's didn't happen. So my question is if it were to happen sometime what would you do? Thanks.

[Scott Conners]

If you have time, cutting and sealing is much better. Checking tends to beget more cracking, even sealed. Also, cutting the pith out will help a lot with cracking in many woods, I'm not sure about white oak.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bernie - I would trim the ends and seal everything. Looking forward to seeing what you turn out of it!

[Maylon Harvey]

Bernie,
Scott and Steve have it right. Every time I've tried to seal wood that has started to check, I was just wasting my time and sealer. I use Anchor Seal. I have even tried to force extra sealer into the cracks. They look OK for awhile but soon the checks just open up again. And being white oak, it is even worse. I cut up a big white oak limb that fell off my cousins tree in a wind storm this past fall for fire wood. When I was splitting it there was one piece that had some real curly grain that I saved. I band sawed it into a block about 3x7x14 to make a couple of small bowls and sealed it immediately. It is still stating to check once I brought it into the warm shop. If I don't get it roughed out soon, I'm going to loose it. Should have left it out in the cold until just a couple of days before I was ready to rough it. Cut back to no checks and seal and I think you'll be further ahead.

[Jon Lanier]

I'd trim the ends and cut the piths out of them... then slap some wax on the ends.

[Richard Madison]

Agree with Jon. Remove a bit of pith, or at least split in half. Besides the ends, seal a couple inches down the cut surfaces. I love the oak, but it can be a challenge.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ok will cut back and seal. Two or three of them I would like to leave whole as I was looking at maybe some HF's because they are only about 6" or 7" in diameter. The others are 10" and 12" so will cut them in half and try to get the pith out for bowls. I have never turned oak so this will be a learning experience for me. He is a great kid (only 26 yrs. old) and one of my employee's. He said well I knew you turned so threw some logs from my brother wood pile that he had just cut about 3 weeks before. The nice thing is they are about 20" long so have some room to work. Thanks for the advice.

[Jeff Nicol]

Bernie, I have turned a lot of white oak and I would leave it in as large of pieces you can until you can get them cut and rough turned. Cutting off the checking is a good Idea as everyone has said. I have only had one crack after rough turning and it had some qnarly grain and a knot. But the crotch grain is spectacular and the rays in the quarter sawn areas have great depth. I have about 1200 bd feet of 1/4 sawn waiting to be made into a dining room set, but the flat work has been put on the back burner as I love the spinning wood!!

Good luck and let us see your finished pieces!

Jeff

[steven carter]

Bernie,

My suggestion is to get them roughed out as soon as possible, you really want to turn oak green. After roughing and drying, prepare for light cuts and sharp tools, as it has a tendancy to chip out. I think it is well worth the trouble for the fininshed product, but takes a little extra patience.

Best of luck!

Steve

[Bernie Weishapl]

Thanks again. I appreciate the info.

[charlie knighton]

Bernie, if you get any fresh cut oak put it up in cardboard barrrels with some dry shavings for about a year, not sure you can do anything with oak that has started to check, i can not seem to uplaod some pictures of this

upload pictures works better in the morning, less traffic i guess

[charlie knighton]

i glued cardboard to the inside top and bottom

I learned of this method form Chester Lane, he gave me a bowl blank he said was about a year old, it was still moist and did warp but never did crack

all blanks will not survive the year wait, but if they have not cracked by that time you should be ok :D

[Barry Stratton]

Keep your lathe bed and tools waxed too.......unless you like stained/rusted tools:D