Live Oak (quercus virginianus) - Turning.

[mrGeeze]

I moved down to Hatteras Island, NC last fall. Basically I live on a sandbar 20 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. I have a small shop under the house & turn pretty frequently. I recently ran out of wood. I had been turning all the maple, walnut, cherry, I stocked up on before moving. Now I'm a beggar, scrounger.

The only thing that grows here on the island to any size is Live Oak. I got a few pieces today, Some of the pieces were pretty hard, some had some punkiness to them. I chain sawed them, band-sawed some blanks & spun them on the lathe. That's when I started to notice some things.

It seems there is a significant contrast between heartwood & sapwood in this species, especially as it decays. I've turned a little oak (red) & didn't notice before. The heartwood seems to decay very rapidly. I also experience the heartwood separating from the sapwood. This was fairly exciting as pieces did orbit. SWMBO was not impressed. Mr. Parvizian (my old cat) fled for cover.

I guess one should stay away from any but the hardest freshest pieces of this stuff. The logs I took looked pretty good. I really didn't think I'd have much of a problem with it.

Anyway, I ended up roughing 8 pieces when I figured I'd get about 20. I'm not sure what to expect when they dry.

Any folks out there who regularly turn this stuff, I'd appreciate any feedback, warning etc. I'm not a great fan of turning oak in general but I do like to turn the wood that comes from my neighborhood.

Thanks in advance

 

[Brian McInturff]

Hey, I'm down the street from you. Down in Myrtle Beach. I've turned a little Live Oak. If you look in my photo Album here in the forums I think you'll see them. All of what I've turned was spalted. I think that's the only way to go. Even what I turned did develop a couple of cracks but most of them I got to close back up by soaking in DNA. I love the look of spalted oak but man is it hard on the tools. I've got 2 big chunks about 100 0r so pounds apiece that will be turned into large vases once my captive gollowing rig gets here.

Yep, not much to choose from as far as turning wood along the coast here.

Brian

 

[Max Taylor]

live oak

dont know if this will help, but, here in mesquite country, Ft. Worth, Dallas area, we watch it as we turn. when a hairline crack appears, we douse it with thin ca glue. if a wider crack is still there close to the finishing of turning, we douse it again, then with rubber? gloves on just rub a little of the sawdust in the crack while the glue is still wet. Dont know if this will work for you but that is the way we do it.
By the way, whatcha doin way out to sea on a sandbar? looks like you will spend lots of time fighting rust on your tools, saws, etc. Just wondering, Max