# What are they? Are they worth saving?



## bikeshooter (Nov 5, 2010)

There's a cutting crew clearing a right of way close by and I got permission to collect whatever I wanted. I already salvaged some spalted red maple but haven't been able to identify 2 logs that caught my eye. Any help is appreciated. What are they and are they worth saving?

......
tree #2 will be posted as a reply


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## bikeshooter (Nov 5, 2010)

*log 2*

log #2.


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## bikeshooter (Nov 5, 2010)

log #2


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## qbilder (Dec 19, 2010)

Just a stab but the first looks like a cypress or hemlock. The second i'm not sure, looks kinda like some type of fruit or nut tree. But the sunburst of bold rays on that second log make me think it's going to have some very interesting quarter sawn lumber. I seen a log like that from Florida once & I can't recall exactly what it was. I'm thinking a nut tree like almond or something. Same pattern but different color. To answer the question, yeah, i'd mill that second log just to see. The first one seems like it's going to be just a normal evergreen softwood looking lumber.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

I agree with cypress on the first one.

The second looks like Pin Oak or Naval Oak(so called because it used to be valuable for ship buildingrepair.).

George


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

#1) Cypress ?
#2) Willow oak ?

Those are just my guesses (hence the ?) but maybe a google image search of those will help you confirm them or rule them out. 


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## klr650 (Apr 4, 2010)

Tree number one looks very much like a cedar. Depends on where you are. 
Don't have a clue 'bout tree #2


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## txpaulie (Jul 21, 2010)

#1: bald cypress...
Have a bunch in the area...

#2: ?, the oaks should have nuts by now...
I'd still guess pin oak...

Neither are bad woods...:no:
Get 'em!

p


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Number 1, without a doubt and with 110% certainty - Cypress. My gut says bald. Yes, worth milling! It's beautiful. It's better flat sawn for the flame grain you'll get. It's blahh when quarter sawn. 

No 2, obviously oak... but I don't know what kind, although I would guess pen.

I'm not a Sawyer, but I work with cypress on a daily basis... Not to mention I was born and raised in the swamp :smile: ("on a bayou"

~tom ...it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt...


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## diywoodworker (Jul 27, 2011)

I have no idea about the first one, but I don't think the second is pin oak. I have a pin oak in my backyard, and the leaves don't look like that at all. This is a pin oak leaf:









Willow Oak as Daren suggested has a leaf that looks like this, from my quick google search:









To me, it looks like the leaves in the picture show the willow oak, just a bit curled over. My vote is willow oak.


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## klr650 (Apr 4, 2010)

the other possibility for tree number 2 is that it might be a dogwood - boy that's a guess though, mostly because of the bark. The leaves don't look right.
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/cofl.html


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## txpaulie (Jul 21, 2010)

> I don't think the second is pin oak.


I believe you're correct that it's not a pin oak, diy...

The problem may be all the local names for trees...
I have oaks in my yard that exactly resemble the tree mentioned in the OP, they only shed their leaves when new growth pushes the old out...
Live oaks, I believe...

The foliage also matches well...

p


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## txpaulie (Jul 21, 2010)

Oops, shoulda put pics in...:huh:


















These are from the interwebz...
I'll see if'n I can't get a pic at home this evening...
p


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## diywoodworker (Jul 27, 2011)

After looking up a few more pictures, I redact my vote for willow oak. I think it's water oak. I found an oak directory with pictures of leaves and bark samples here: http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/pages/compare-oaks.htm

The leaves in the OP look wider toward the tip than the willow oak I posted, but it looks a whole lot closer to:


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## qbilder (Dec 19, 2010)

Being oak would explain the sunburst of rays. I have never lived anywhere that oaks didn't have the typical pronged oak leaf. Learn something new every day.


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## txpaulie (Jul 21, 2010)

Here are some pics of oaks in the yard...
Two very different species, based on when their leaves fall, and tree shapes, or growth patterns...
Both within 20 yds of each other...
Number one holds its leaves through the fall, and puts off a bunch of fluff in the spring...
Number two loses them early and has less of the fluffy stuff, much less..
Both are definitely oaks.
p

1

























2



























> ...the typical pronged oak leaf.


Eric, I know of which you speak...
Growing up in Ohio, we had bunches of huge oaks with palm-sized pronged leaves...
I didn't know any different until I moved here.

p


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## ETWW (Mar 27, 2011)

The first one is undoubtably a Cypress. I believe the second one is a Live Oak. The leaves are consistent with a Live Oak as well as the bark. 

The Water Oaks I've seen have much smoother bark and the leaves cluster more as well as being shaped diferently.

Both are desirable woods. The Cypress will saw much easier, dry much easier and is a light-weight wood.

Live Oak is a much harder, heavier wood but being in the White Oak group, it is also weather resistant. It will need to be dried slowly as the safe drying rate is only 1%-3% moisture loss per day. Air drying is recommended, especially until the MC is below 20%.


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## bikeshooter (Nov 5, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies. I have quite a pile of cypress so I gonna pass on tree #1. 
I learned from this site that there are some 600 different species of oaks. The leaf pics posted are don't seem to match exactly but are very close. I think I'll call this one a 'willowpin' oak :laughing: and go ahead and collect some of it.
The photo below is what is called a live oak - at least here in north Florida. A broad , thick rather short trunk with enormous limbs that often stretch out and touch the ground. It may be known by other names in other states - dunno./


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## bikeshooter (Nov 5, 2010)

Here's a better photo with people in frame for scale of what is known 
to me as a live oak.


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## qbilder (Dec 19, 2010)

txpaulie said:


> Eric, I know of which you speak...
> Growing up in Ohio, we had bunches of huge oaks with palm-sized pronged leaves...


Yeah, the weirdest oak we had is the chesnut oak, which kinda sorta looks like chesnut leaves.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

txpaulie said:


> I believe you're correct that it's not a pin oak, diy...
> 
> The problem may be all the local names for trees...
> I have oaks in my yard that exactly resemble the tree mentioned in the OP, they only shed their leaves when new growth pushes the old out...
> ...


There are many varieties of live oak. Each of the varieties is called a live oak because it always has green leaves. Even when shedding.

George


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## greg4269ub (Sep 1, 2009)

when i lived in FL (tampa area) I had an oak tree in the yard one of the arborist from work ID the tree as a live oak. your leaf pix look like the ones from the live oak where i used to live.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

A "live oak" comes in many varieties. It is a collective name for the many species of oak that do not go through the typical yearly shed leaves and then winter dormancy. A "live oak" only sheds it's old leaves when ones push the old ones off.

George


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

They look like water oak leaves to me, and so does the bark. At least down here. 




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