California Valley Oak

[Chris Fontana]

I am in northern California. We have several kinds of oaks from higher elevation black oaks, blue oaks or scrub oaks in the foothills and valley oak or what we call water oak in the Sacramento Valley. The valley oaks are usually near water and can have diameters of up to 6 feet. However, when I have cut them for firewood (years ago) the grain was twisted and they were not fun to split. I have a chance to pickup several pieces of one of these large oaks. Has anyone every worked with this stuff???? or should I just give to someone who has a woodstove?? I also can pickup almond and plum (prune) wood has anyone worked with this.

 

[Michaels]

Hey Chris - I'm not a fan of our local oaks simply due to the tannin / insta-rust effect. I swear, I've never seen Cast Iron rust so quickly in my life. Brillo and WD40 after the session is a requirement or you'll end up w/ quite an ugly mess.

Free wood is a good price, but the other woods available encourage me to stay away from it.

michael

 

[Royce Wallace]

twisted oak

Heck, if it is wood, & free, get it, turn it, and burn it. My point being if it doen't work out then burn it. I have recently turned a custom piece out of burr oak badly twisted, wet as well as a bit of burl. Keep the bed rails clean & waxed -- no problem with rust, let the shavings stand & then there will be surface rust easily remove with almost any type of scratch pad& paste wax.
The plum will try to split right away like most fruit woods, so make provision for quick baging with shavings, etc. Don't know about the almond, but would love to try some, none in my local on the flat lands.Go for it.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

i have never turned valley oak, but have turned red oak and white oak

day you cut tree down, cut into blanks, put in cardboard barells or cardboard boxes for 5 or 6 months, this will take out the check or splitting in some blanks, the larger the blank the more chance of still has some check in it

i normally do hf 6 to 8 inches tall with the width up to 6 inches

being in the cardboard barells also takes away the rust effect of oak on your tools and ways

i do wear those blue gloves when hollowing, seems the high tanin effects my hands if i get a nick and then clearing the debis inside the hf, infection between fingers is no fun

i have heard that water oak from the east coast hold moisture for a long time, water oak sounds very close to your twisted valley oak

i usually only take one crosscut section of oak at a time usually 8 or 9 inches tall and then split into blanks, and put up and turn end grain

good luck and i would like to see some valley oak turned so please post next march

 

[Hugh]

I have had very little luck with Valley Oak. I have tried it a few times. In all my turnings, I have produced one nice Valley Oak vessel. I turned it wet and then dried it slowly and it went oblong, but came out pretty good. A bit of hand sanding and it got better and after about 10 coats of lacquer and then polishing that - it ended up a nice vessel.

I roughed out a bunch of wet Valley Oak bowls and sealed them with Anchor seal and let them dry. They cracked and twisted. Could not get a good bowl out of them. I tried boiling out the roughed bowl blanks. Did not work. After all the time and effort I have put into turning Valley Oak, I vowed to never waste my time turning it again.

Black Oak - I love it.
Hugh

 

[MichaelMouse]

I am in northern California. We have several kinds of oaks from higher elevation black oaks, blue oaks or scrub oaks in the foothills and valley oak or what we call water oak in the Sacramento Valley.

Lots of branching makes for lots of weird loads and grain changes, as you noted. That's what makes them difficult to predict , but it's also what makes them lovely when you succeed. Mind the tannin problem. That means covering every piece of iron in the shop, because one neglected curl falling from your shirt onto the jointer can be a permanent mark. DAMHIKT

It's pretty dry out there now, so you'll want to play with wraps, coatings or containment to slow the rate of loss from the outside. I like a bag - paper, not plastic - dry shavings for a buffer, or a cardboard box. You can get mildew on it, so change a wet container or shavings. Did mine in an old plywood crate out in Marysville.