Advice on Oak for turning?

[James K Peterson]

I have a live oak and a couple of water oaks, that I have to take down and I wondered if it was worth it to try and save some for turning?

It would cost me less to buy lumber from my local sawer/mill than bring him the logs to slab for flatwork. I was thinking I might try and turn it, but I've not seen much info on turning oak. Is it a bad wood to turn?

Thanks for any advice
James

[charlie knighton]

oak tends to check or crack

i suggest putting blanks in cardboard barrels or boxes the day the tree is cut down, age at least 6 months then turn

some of the blanks will check and crack even with this method

advantages are not many people turn it, and you can have large blanks to work with

[Dennis Ford]

Live oak is the better of the two for turning. I recommend turning it to final thickness while wet. It will move a lot but cracking will be less of a problem if it is thin. Also live oak is very hard when dry. Many woods can be dried quickly when thin, oak will do better with a slower drying rate.

[Bill Bolen]

Great advice so far. I enjoy turning Oak. Gives a great finish and turns well. You do need to take your time with drying (many methods out there) as oak will check before you know it. The results are well worth the effort though...Bill..

[Frank Van Atta]

I've turned a lot of Oak, and I like it. The open grain presents a lot of opportunities for coloring. The checked pieces also make great glue blocks, etc.

[Mark Burge]

I have also enjoyed turning oak (I'm not sure what variety I got). It is nice to turn green and I have had several thick walled pieces that did not check or crack. I like to use it when I want to accent the vertical or horizontal grain in a piece. It takes to liming processes well for that. Try it, it's only wood. It grows on trees.

[Frank Drew]

James,

If you want the wood for faceplate turning (bowls, platters, etc.) then you don't need to have it cut at a sawmill; just crosscut some pieces a bit overlength and then cut, or split, the chunks down the middle. End coat the pieces ASAP to minimize checking. Store them out of the sun.

I've had very good results, meaning almost no losses, by rough turning bowls (say an inch+ thick wall, depending of the bowl's diameter), coating the whole thing with green wood sealer, then waiting a half year or so before remounting for final turning.

I like both red and white oak for bowl work but I've never tried live oak or water oak.

[GLENN THOMAS]

Ive turned a lot of oak also and it does split easy, Just a few months age I rough turned about 100 oak bowl blanks and sealed the end grain with Ancorseal. So far I've only lost about 10 or so. In the past without sealing them I would lose as much as half. If your blanks have knots in them It seems like there is always some checking around the kots. To me Oak is a little harder to cut and get a really clean surface right off the tool, but if you get to where you can make good cuts on oak then making good cuts on a lot of other woods is a piece of cake.

Not sure what kind of oak is in pics but both bowls are from the same tree. I just ebonized one. If anyone knows plaes let me know.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have turned quite a bit of oak. I have tried the DNA method and sealing the whole bowl with anchorseal. I lost half the bowls using DNA and only one out of 20 using anchorseal coating the whole bowl.