Question about this Oak

[ribwizzard]

I could smell the red when splitting, the live oak has no smell ( to me at least )

 

[ribwizzard]

AKhap

I cant speak for everyone, but I myself would much appriciate any info you could add on identifying types of oak,

It would be nice to put names to what I generally clasify as Live oak.

I have surfed the web some, but usually they identify trees by the leaves, which does not help someone looking at a pile of splits.

 

[mountainhawg]

AKhap

I cant speak for everyone, but I myself would much appriciate any info you could add on identifying types of oak,

It would be nice to put names to what I generally clasify as Live oak.

I have surfed the web some, but usually they identify trees by the leaves, which does not help someone looking at a pile of splits.

Try This:

http://www.state.sc.us/forest/tidlob.htm

Dooes not have live oak though. Live oak is very tough wood. Great for wood fires.

 

[akhap]

It is tough to distill the huge body of information it takes to ID wood from a photo with any reasonable degree of certainty... So you have to look at clues that jump out at you. Everyone that hangs around woods knows blackjack oak is a small tree and you started off calling it a huge oak. That made me look a little closer.

Blackjack is loved for burning because it is hated for lumber and has a lot of BTUs.

Blackjack bark is deeply furrowed as the external layers hang on and are never shed except by mechanical damage. The opposite of say madrone which has deciduous bark (gets shed every year) and as a result the tree splits the bark as it grows. It also cross-checks to form square plates. In the picture there is no hint of that type bark. Rather, it has bark like several other red oaks. The lichens growing on some pieces show the bark is intact and nothing like blackjack.

With live oaks the first test is obviously specific gravity as it is literally 33% heavier than most oaks. Of course wet red oak can easily weigh as much as dry live oak.

White oaks have very long longitudinal bands of parenchyma tissue forming rays coming from the center of the tree out. In Mission style furniture the tissue looks like glossy plates up to 4" long. Reds have the same tissue but the rays are far shorter at 1 1/2" tops. This is a dead giveaway between the two sects. When splitting you have likely noticed them as the wood splits a little rough around them.

Live oak is smaller yet on the ray tissue, but there are more of them and they are much thicker than reds or whites. Live oak also produces a lot of very interlocked grain. Reds produce little and whites produce some... That would translate to splitters' nightmares.

There are simply too many species for anyone to be able to nail them all without a ton of focused study.
art

 

[ribwizzard]

No, thats very informative.  I have always judged the quality of the Oak I've used for smoking by the weight. and density.   Just going by experience and gut feeling.     Now that I know that Live Oak actually is that much heavier, I understand more about why and what it is Im looking for. Somewhat.

Thanks