Wood ID...Probably Oak
- Thread starter Flute Maker
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Yep kinda sorta
Not sure its oak. From the coloring in the cut, and the amount of sap wood, it looks more like sweet gum to me. I would seal all exposed raw wood instead of just the ends.
With all the color variation, sweet gum makes some attractive items, especially turnings (in my opinion, anyway). Due to all the cross-linked grain, its a little difficult to work with, and really tough to dry into flat boards. It is also very difficult (right on the edge of impossible) to split straight with a froe, etc. If you try to split down a corner of the cut and it won't cleave off nicely, its more likely sweet gum.
I do use it for some "furniture" type work, but have mostly used it for biscuit trays, etc. Unlike red oak, though, it does make a water tight bowl.
JMTCW
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With all the color variation, sweet gum makes some attractive items, especially turnings (in my opinion, anyway). Due to all the cross-linked grain, its a little difficult to work with, and really tough to dry into flat boards. It is also very difficult (right on the edge of impossible) to split straight with a froe, etc. If you try to split down a corner of the cut and it won't cleave off nicely, its more likely sweet gum.
I do use it for some "furniture" type work, but have mostly used it for biscuit trays, etc. Unlike red oak, though, it does make a water tight bowl.
JMTCW
Go
LOL. A couple years ago or so, I slabbed out about 300bf of sweet gum, about twice that in red/white oak, about 200bf of wild black cherry, and about 1000 bf of syp with a chainsaw mill. I managed to get fairly familiar with those specific woods, and remember the sweet gum in particular because it was such an ornery wood to work with. It dulled my saw chains about twice as fast as red oak, and the cutting speed was also slower.
That said, the odds of me being wrong are higher than being correct.
Go
I cut into rough blanks for now.Is it ok to leave bark on them?I know the beetles like to get in where that bark is on some woods.t
:rotflm:
Most wood turners will immediately rough out a bowl when they get green wood. Once the bowl is roughed out, it is immediately sealed and set aside to dry. Leaving the log form as-is or even sealing the ends of the log runs a very high risk of checking and wood failure.
Roughed out bowl blanks sealed with green tinted Anchorseal, a wood sealant wax emulsion.
Roughed out bowl blanks sealed with green tinted Anchorseal, a wood sealant wax emulsion.
You can leave the bark but it's much easier to remove while the wood is green and the bark retards drying.
It's really tough to identify trees by the bark because it can look very differently depending on the age of the tree and the specific species.
My round 2 from the original pics. I think a better guess is sweet gum and not red oak.
http://www.carolinanature.com/trees/list.html
http://www.carolinanature.com/trees/quru.html
http://www.carolinanature.com/trees/list.html
http://www.carolinanature.com/trees/quru.html
Definitely gum, mostly sap wood. Probably make some nice bowls! I'd peel that bark off with a draw knife, or old chisel. Then keep them inside to dry.
It probably is sweet gum......Bunch of it around here..I could have compared it to some of the trees but didnt even think about it...Been working too much.
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