# Anyone ever use post oak lumber?



## Jake (Jan 20, 2008)

Has anyone ever made a project using post oak lumber? How did it come out? Did you stain it or just use clear finish?


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## coffeetime (Dec 28, 2006)

I have been using it for turning a lot lately as I have 40 acres of it. Here is a picture of a small bowl I made from a piece of it. It is finished in a friction polish, no stain.










All of mine is from dead falls. The trick is finding some that is not laying on the ground full of bugs.

Mike


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## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

*I need educating*

I just figured out I didnt know as much as I Thought. I have heard the term POST OAK all my life and thought in came from old used fence post. (I Know dont laugh). so someone explain what a post oak is, besides a tree. And be yee kind.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/LandownerFactsheets/detail.cfm?Genus=Quercus&Species=stellata

There is more info in this thread http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=2598 . It is a white oak, rot resistant, closed pour. Oak is a coin toss, a "crappy" species can make good lumber in the right tree. The same is true on the reverse, the most desired species (and there are only like 180 in North America) can be crap ? If you have have some good lumber, go for it.


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## Jake (Jan 20, 2008)

Post oak has a brown tint, more like gray brown to the wood. I see it is marketed as White Oak lumber, according to my little tree book. They use it, around here for cross-ties. The Post Oak has lots of limbs with very few straight clean trunks. Lot of knots when cut into lumber. Once and a while you see a semi clean trunk. I asked the question above to see how a project turned out after finish had been applied. I was thinking with the gray brown tint to the wood it would make a rustic looking mantel clock. I have never been good at finishing wood or picking out colors. Daren; that sight on wood is fantastic!


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## solidwoods (Apr 26, 2007)

Perfectly fine wood.
Also Black Oak for rustic work, Live Oak for extremely hard Oak, Chestnut Oak for a red oak lookalike.
jim


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## chippy (Jan 24, 2008)

*Oak*



Jake said:


> Has anyone ever made a project using post oak lumber? How did it come out? Did you stain it or just use clear finish?


Hi Jake

The Oak we use at Surrey Carpentry and Developments on a large scale is for Elizabethan and Tudor timber framed buildings,Churches and now we seem to get a lot of replica work where they pay through the noses to have English Oak.

I have built a few kitchens in oak and its a great wood to work with,but so B****Y expensive.

As far as staining or varnishing I am a great believer in using only the best oils as this releases the smell of oak and looks GREAT. 

Chris.

:thumbsup:


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## coffeetime (Dec 28, 2006)

Well now you got me wondering. When I moved here ten + years ago the locals told me this was "post oak" around here. The reason is because it grows very straight with few limbs, therefor making great fence post. This is mainly because they grow very close to each other. This has a brown center turning white towards the bark. Now this don't sound anything like your "post oak". So I'm guessing my post oak is just a local lingo label. Which means I really don't know what the heck I got here.
Sorry if there was any confusion.

Mike


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

coffeetime said:


> The reason is because it grows very straight with few limbs, therefor making great fence post. This is mainly because they grow very close to each other. This has a brown center turning white towards the bark.


I don't think you are off. If they are planted close together, they grow straight up to get their share of the sun. Trees grow to suit their environment and survive, some times nontypically. Darker heart and light sap is not uncommon in white oaks. Oaks have 2 _general _classifications red/white there are MANY subspecies. Basically the white oaks are naturally rot resistant (used for fence posts, wine barrels, RR ties...) Red oaks are open pour and are not good for exterior use.


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## chippy (Jan 24, 2008)

*Graet Oaks*

Some of the Great Oaks in the UK grow to a massive size,not tall like the big Reds of the North Americas but broad and stout.
So most of the long timbers come off the first 20-30 feet with huge sections coming off the boughs that are pretty irregular.
Its getting very hard for Surrey Carpentry and Developments to source UK Oaks as they are coming more under the Goverment and local council presevation schemes so sourcing is easier abroad but some of the distinct qualities of the Great UK Oaks are lost.
:smile:


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## Jake (Jan 20, 2008)

_*Quercus stellata*_ (*Post oak*) is an oak in the white oak group. It is a small tree, typically 10–15 m tall and 30–60 cm trunk diameter, though occasional specimens reach 30 m tall and 140 cm diameter. It is native to the eastern United States, from Massachusetts in the northeast, west to southern Iowa, southwest to central Texas, and southeast to northern Florida. It is one of the most common oaks in the southern part of the eastern prairies.
The leaves have a very distinctive shape, with three perpendicular terminal lobes, shaped much like a Maltese Cross. They are leathery, and tomentose (densely short-hairy) beneath. The branching pattern of this tree often gives it a rugged appearance. The acorns are 1.5–2 cm long, and are mature in their first summer.
The name refers to the use of the wood of this tree for fence posts. Its wood, like that of the other white oaks, is hard, tough and rot-resistant. This tree tends to be smaller than most other members of the group, with lower, more diffuse branching, largely reflecting its tendency to grow in the open on poor sites, so its wood is of relatively low value as sawn lumberto be smaller than most other members of the group, with lower, more diffuse branching, largely reflecting its tendency to grow in the open on poor sites, so its wood is of relatively low value as sawn lumber

Diffuse branching is what we see around here. Not like the tree we call White oak and Red oak that will have long straight clear trunks. Most of the Post Oak lumber I have found here will be loaded with knots, very hard to find clear lumber.


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## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

Live oak and post oak are both pretty common in these parts. I haven't had an opportunity to use it yet, but I have a friend that this weekend is felling 2 or 3 good sized post oaks from his property, and taking them in to be milled, then kiln dried. One of those trees is going to me, so I will be working with it soon...


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## Jake (Jan 20, 2008)

dbhost, I would love to see some pictures of the projects you make with the wood. I see you are in League City. I lived in Alta Loma and worked for HL&P at the Webster plant for nine years, back in the seventies.


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## PeteTx (May 29, 2008)

I know this is an old post, but I have 2 post oak logs (really the trunk). They are about 20 to 25 feet long and 18" - 24" in diameter at the base. You can have them if you come and get them. I'm south of San Antonio near Poteet. Just send a PM.


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## LITLHOF (Nov 18, 2007)

Jake: I've never used "post oak," but I've used right smart of white oak. A couple of years ago a widow gave us here at the Sevier County, TN Senior center a large shed full of white oak that had been sitting in a shed for about 35 years. If you are familiar with Gatlinburg, just as you enter town,from the north, there's a road running east that goes up on the mountain at CarterTown. I'm here to tell you that oak is some hard stuff. It's beautiful, but it is hard and it is heavy. This lumber was hauled down here to Tennessee from somewhere up in Michigan about 1970. Best regards, 
Walt Rollison/Litlhof.


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## dirtclod (May 7, 2008)

Like others on here I used to think post oak didn't get very big and allways had poor form. Then I started milling and a customer had a big log he called post oak. I said "no way." He took me to the stump and pointed out several standing trees around it that were bigger than the one he cut down.

So I started paying attention. Here's a larger one that is typical of open-grown post oak around here:








It's the tree on the right - behind the mill head. 

When open-grown they will have a short bole. I know the picture doesn't show it but the bole ends just out of view. When you're there in person the tree looks like it's mostly limbs. They are good firewood trees.

We have a large one laying at another site. It's 44" at the butt. I'm going to quarter saw it.


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