Milling Coast Live Oak - California

[csmillingnoob]

Thanks Alan and csmillingnoob!

As I understand it, ca live oak is notably different. Plus, as I’m hiring the sawyer, I’m not terribly concerned with how hard it is to mill. He has a number of photos on his site google site (https://www.google.com/search?q=out...W1H73PX3VkYFpcFKCPwGO0nVFiPtdd&viewerState=ga) of live oak slabs, so I know he can do the cutting.

My current plan is to get a few slabs out of the biggest part of the trunk, plus some 6x6 or similar out of the straight part of the trunks for landscaping timbers. That way I don’t have to worry as much if the timbers check a bit or warp, and the hardness won’t matter much either as there will be minimal cutting/drilling for my purposes. This allows me to keep the nostalgia and beauty of the tree (the slabs) and also offset cost by getting timbers I need anyway for a fraction of the cost of purchase.

Thanks!

Should be great for landscaping timbers. Bugs don't like live oak and it's fairly water resistant. Not as insect/moisture resistant as cedar, but will last many years.

I seem to remember a story about the US navy burying a supply of live oak in Virginia when they quit building wooden fighting ships. It was dug up and "reclaimed" about 100 years later despite a century of bugs and moisture.

 

[Patrick Clark]

There seems to be quite the relationship between live oak and ship building, I kinda wish I built boats!

Perhaps y’all could weigh in: I’ve read a fair amount and it seems that cedar, though good above ground to resist moisture and insects, is not good at resisting rot when in ground contact, is that correct? I have a couple (smaller) cedars they also have to come down, and would like to plan for those to be milled as well, but would like to have a plan for how to use them first so I know what size to have them milled. Thanks!

 

[TraditionalTool]

There seems to be quite the relationship between live oak and ship building, I kinda wish I built boats!

I'm not sure why, I've not heard that but I don't doubt it.

Perhaps y’all could weigh in: I’ve read a fair amount and it seems that cedar, though good above ground to resist moisture and insects, is not good at resisting rot when in ground contact, is that correct? I have a couple (smaller) cedars they also have to come down, and would like to plan for those to be milled as well, but would like to have a plan for how to use them first so I know what size to have them milled. Thanks!

No wood is good in the ground, period. That goes for redwood which people think is rot resistant in most cases, but it's really not and will rot just like other wood. My experience is that redwood will rot, it's just less likely to do it and will do it slower.

I like cedar, but be warned on it as it has a lot of silica in it which is really tough on the blades. I have 4 cedar logs sitting in my yard as I type.

BTW, I don't know what "Out of the Woods" slabbed up with live oak, I didn't see any specific on his site you linked to. I have listened to some of his YT videos, he cuts quite a bit and has a kiln, and I'm not sure what type of live oak they have growing down in TN where I believe he resides, I can tell you mostly about the live oak in California. FWIW, live oak is a part of the conifer family, as such it has leaves on it which are pointed. The leaves do not shed during the winter, so they are no deciduous. Because of this they are not very desirable around houses as the leaves do not shed during the winter. Blue oak, OTOH, is a deciduous tree which sheds it's leaves in the winter and provides more of a 4 season effect and desirable around homes. The leaves on the Blue oak have rounded tips, not pointed like the live oak.

Should be great for landscaping timbers.

I second that!

Cheers,
Alan

 

[Patrick Clark]

Thanks Alan! I should clarify a few things:
1. The photos are actually on the google “listing” and not his website. I believe that link takes you right there, and the photos have captions on them as “live oak slab” and similar. If the link doesn’t work you can google “out of the woods milling” then click the photos link on the listing. Both me and the sawyer are in the Santa Cruz, ca area.
2. Whatever I use the timbers for, they’d be surrounded by drain rock or gravel as to not be in direct contact with earth. I’m assuming that since much of the moisture issues are from dirt holding water, plus breeding bacteria and fungus, that should solve many of the issues. I don’t expect the timbers to last forever, but if I get 20+ years out of them I think that’s a win.

I’ve heard of people mentioning “pressure treated cedar” but cannot find any such product online. Is this a treatment that people do to regular cedar (type of sealer or oil)?

Speaking of wood in the ground, I harken back to the home I grew up in. It was a 100 year old Victorian in San Jose. The “foundation” was 2x10 redwood laid directly on the dirt with 3” pony wall built on top supporting the floor joists. After that 100 years my dad finally redid the exterior foundation and the wood was almost in perfect condition. I think the key was that it stayed dry. For whatever reason, me and my friends always played under the house when we were little and it was always very dusty. Now that I think about it, it’s a little weird that my parents let us play under there!

 

[csmillingnoob]

There seems to be quite the relationship between live oak and ship building, I kinda wish I built boats!

Perhaps y’all could weigh in: I’ve read a fair amount and it seems that cedar, though good above ground to resist moisture and insects, is not good at resisting rot when in ground contact, is that correct? I have a couple (smaller) cedars they also have to come down, and would like to plan for those to be milled as well, but would like to have a plan for how to use them first so I know what size to have them milled. Thanks!

The curvature of live oaks makes it great for building the ships "ribs." it is much stronger than splicing to achieve the curvature.

You will like this: (A battle of two dialects)

 

[Patrick Clark]

Well, the tree is down and the first, and largest, section had been milled into slabs. I wanted to update the thread with some photos.

It looks like really pretty wood and I’m really hoping it stays relatively straight so I can make it into some tables, bars, etc. I had the thought of using one of the slabs to make a front door for the house, but my wife isn’t huge on the idea (our current front door is basically all glass and she likes all the light that comes through, understandable). Might use one piece as a sliding barn style door inside though. We’ll also be using sections to create an outdoor staircase with thick treads out of the slabs (they’ll end up being roughly 2.25x16x72), that should end up looking nice, I think. Any recommendations on a high quality exterior sealer that won’t be slippery (I’m thinking something like a marine sealer as lots of boats have wood sections that are both sealed and not slippery)?

Anyway, I’ve anchor sealed the ends and had the idea to strap the ends of the slabs to *hopefully* prevent/limit any checking. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but the strap and screws are fairly cheap, and it didn’t take too much time, so I figured it’d be worth a shot.

In other news, the wood rounds are in pretty poor shape. Unfortunately, the anchor seal didn’t arrive until a few days after the rounds were cut, and it took another day or two for me to use the router to get them down into even rounds (the arborists cut them for me and most of them were thicker on one end then the other). I watered them every day, but one had already cracked by the time I applied the anchor seal, the other two cracked afterwards and one is cupping pretty badly.

 

[davidwyby]

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