Red Oak question....Asking for a friend...

Re: Red Oak question....Asking for a friend...

Dick Coers

My opinion, before the virus slammed everything, you could sell a dog turd if you called it a natural edge slab. Right now, I don't know anyone selling handmade anything except cloth face masks. With millions applying for unemployment each week, and some predicting 25+% unemployment rates, selling anything that's not essential is going to be a challenge!

Oh yeah, red oak slabs are just fine.

Re: Red Oak question....Asking for a friend...

David Yoho

I don't know the answer to your question, Barry. What I can relate is my experience back when I first started building cabinetry ( 80's). I loved red oak and used it quite a lot. However, I experienced a negative situation due to the place in town I was getting it charging different prices for it in an upward sliding scale depending on width for 4/4 stock. White oak was much cheaper then. So was birch and maple. Not having an alternative source at the time, I soon switched to other hardwoods for projects.

I once had a friend who said red oak grew like a weed around here and why would anyone pay more for something that's so easy to find. After thinking about it, I had to agree. Red oak is plentiful in this part of the country. I became tired of the look of it and soon found I liked other woods better. The only time I built with red oak after that was when the customer demanded it. I still have a small quantity of red oak that's still sitting in storage. I doubt it will be used any time soon.

Re: Red Oak question....Asking for a friend...

Mark Nowicki

To make is the easy part.

After the make you want to; try to sell (I did not say for a profit), give away, surprise a loved one?

Personally, I have painted over our oak cabinet doors. I would throw them out but don't have the heart to replace solid wood with a mixture of cow piss and sawdust.

You could not pay me enough to have an oak slab table, I would curse every time I had to move it.

In any case, my wife keeps all our tables covered with layers of tablecloths, vases, flower pots and fruit bowls.

To get an idea of what sells and pricing take a look at wayfair.ca.

wholesale market distressed

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Judging from the wholesale price of red oak lumber I would conclude demand is not what it used to be.

Given how hard it is to dry red oak without downgrade the KD product will always have some premium all else being equal. For example 4/4 poplar saw to KD, as little as 4 days. Oak, at least 30.

You got that Right....

Barry Irby

When they were sawing and stacking these one of them was slightly out of position, I grabbed it an tugged on it,....Nothing happened....I was too little and too weak.

Re: wholesale market distressed

Barry Irby

This stuff has been stickered and stacked in an open shed for almost a year. I went by a month or two ago and the straps were loose, so I tightened them. The plan is to leave them for a year and then have them kiln dried.

Part of the problem is that as they were getting lighter, I was getting older.

Oddly, another problem may be that these are too perfect. Generally these are clear and nearly all heart. It seems the people wanting single slab tables prefer ragged knotty stuff.

The guy that gave me the logs was baffled when I asked what he did with the next on where all the limbs were. He threw it away because real sawmills are not interested.

Re: wholesale market distressed

Mark Nowicki

I am not being facetious, but the best way to get any value of that pile, given your (and my) age, is to burn it next heating season.

For the most part, outside of woodworking forums, the paying world does not care

about wood, the grain pattern or if it came from the crotch or the polar opposite.

I would not waste time, effort, energy or money getting it kiln dried.

A plan based on knowledge

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

around here there are several places that sell large slabs, Asheville Hardware for example. North of Louisville across the river in Indiana is a business that specializes in slabs (Skaggs will know the name). Likely where you live there is some business that specializes in slabs. Maybe check Herne (not spelled right) Hardwoods in PA.

Find a place that markets lots of slabs and ask them. It is possible one of these places will buy what you have. If a place that sells slabs has no interest that will provide market data.

I'm skeptical.....I have only seen one mill that could saw a 48" wide board. It was in CA redwood country. Where did you find a mill that could saw 48", or is that a stretch?

The slabs could always be resawed into useful lumber thicknesses.

Re: A plan based on knowledge

Barry Irby

They sawed them with what I believe was a Lucas Mill. This was a huge tree. The butt cut log was 67" wide at he flare and the small end was 51" and just over 94" long. I got three logs, starting at 67" tapering to about 40" 28' up. They cut one log 94" and one 9' and almost 11'.

The Lucas Mill was interesting. Four pipes about an inch in diameter vertical on the corners, two aluminum rails about 2" by 8" and maybe 18' long and two stretchers across the ends. They set the rig up around the log and install a chainsaw with an 8' bar and what looked like a small car engine. Each vertical had a winch with a ratchet. They would level it up parallel to the pith of the log and take a slab off the top. Used a tract loader with forks to move the slabs.

Produced what looked like a pickup truck load of sawdust.

Good idea on selling the slabs.

Big Saw Mills

William Duffield

Hearne Hardwoods has a vertical bandsaw that will saw a 67" log. It was converted from a ship's saw that is almost a century old from the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

I have a friend, Dave Peregmon (a member of Central Jersey Woodworkers Association) who has a mobile bandsaw mill (similar to a WoodMizer) that will saw a 4' log.

Bailey's Wood Products in Kempton, PA used to have a 4' capacity vertical bandsaw before their mill burnt down in a fire, but now has a portable bandsaw mill that will only cut 3' logs.

Re: Another

William Duffield

Willard Brothers Woodcutters in Trenton NJ sells slabs up to 4' wide, so I assume their saw will cut a log that wide.