Cut some fire wood today. Not the biggest oak we have ever cut up but might be the oldest. Top broke off 2 years ago. It was the smallest oak in a group of 4 trees. Some of the tightest rings as well. It's a red oak.

It was 19 inch diameter

Some excellent firewood. What would you estimate the age to be?

160 years old

I counted rings on a Garryana oak in western Oregon that was 280 years old.

That's a beauty dakids

It is almost a shame to cut that into firewood. Then again, what do you do with a bunch of Oak 1x12's?

The big oak in the back of the lumber piles is actually two can't see the other one behind the first. They are the oldest on my property about 30inches across at waist high. I am guessing around 250 years old. I am tempted to buy an increment borer and find out.

It's amazing how much $ oak saw logs are worth. I thought I had a bunch on my property, but a lot of it had too many cracks/holes in it that were't noticed until the logger cut the tree down.

Many years ago I had "Oneeyedtrapper" saw some Red Oak for me. Beautiful stuff! I strip piled it in the pole barn for a few years and tried to sell it. No one was interested. I had someone plane it on 4 sides and tried to sell it for a few more years. I finally put it on an auction and it brought less than what I paid to have it sawn, let alone planed.

I used to own some bottom land that was 60% covered in Garryana oak. I had the logging records from a thinning done 80 years before and the stumps were still rock solid.

Around here there's a market w/ the amish.

Aje I haven't cut any oak in 15 years on my property because it is not worth any money here in ontario so I keep growing them for the grandchildren. Only have about 40 mature ones but about 400 in the 5 to 12 inch diameter class. It is a bit of an obsession for me to grow as many as I can on this property in my life. Always tending and pruning in the summer months.

Agreed
Growing/improving oaks is fun. We don't prune in the summer due to wilt.

I thought this would show a better picture of the oak but only a cast iron pot.

I don't prune the oaks themselves until late October but do a lot of brushing around them and some white pine I have been able to establish over the last 20 years. I have about 25 acres of suger maple I'm going to try to do an understory thinning in this summer if I can find a few helpers. It is a big job. I have removed all of the large logs and firewood in that area and only have 15 inch dbh and down but the regeneration is too thick and needs to be thined and spaced for it to really take off and thrive. I have been working on a area of yellow birch for the last couple of years.

I'll have White Oak sawn occasionally for lumber.
When I have mine sawn up I have whats locally called by knowledgeable saw operators as Ray sawn.
Most saw operators don't know or most likely don't want to saw a log this way.
You get alot more waste but you get the best boards both from a stability and appearance stand point.



Every cut thru the log leaves one side of the board with a cut that is perpendicular to the growth rings. Or if the log was whole it would go straight thru the pith.
So you get 2 boards then you have to move (usually Rotating) the log and saw 2 more then rotate again and so on.
As you cut the log up you get smaller and smaller wedges till in the end you end up with small wedge pieces that are scrap.
You'll find that wood workers will call it quarter sawn but if you go to most saw operators and ask for a log to be quarter sawn you will get very few of these highly figured desirable boards.

DirtyD I think ray sawn and quarter sawn are a bit different in the way they are sawn. I might be mistaken but I'm not sure?