My work has a few of these heavier duty pallets. Are they made of oak? The sides are very roughly saw cut so i can only get an idea by the end grain. If it is Oak can you tell by these pictures if its red or white?
[OP]
Member
My work has a few of these heavier duty pallets. Are they made of oak? The sides are very roughly saw cut so i can only get an idea by the end grain. If it is Oak can you tell by these pictures if its red or white?
Contributor
Doubtful it's either......or at the least, a version of the red family that can be used for much of anything except firewood.
This --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Quercus_species shows you some of the ~ 600 different species of "oak".
Around my parts - North East Ohio - we have a whole bunch of "pin oak". It related to the red oak, but, it's ---ugly----the grains is sort of, a mess... and it has a whole bunch of tiny knots.
Pallet woods are generally like that. Little to no character - some version of oak - and worth more as a heating fuel than a source of woodworking wood.
HAVING said that.....
Sometimes you can find some real gems. Just like finding a pearl in a ton of oysters.
You won't know until you clean it up --exactly what you got.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
Moderator
Lucas,Originally Posted by Lucas Elef
The rays certainly look like oak to me. Red or white I can't tell from the pictures. You can probably tell with the right stuff - a razor blade and a little magnifier!
Cut off a piece and split it into a tiny block maybe 1/2-3/4" square.
Use a single-edged razor blade to slice a small smooth area of the freshly cut end grain. If the wood is too hard to slice, soak it in water first.
Use something like a 10x magnifier to look at the end grain, especially the large pores of the early-wood.
Wood classified as "red oak" will generally have open pores that look like empty soda straws. Species known collectively as "white oak" will generally have the pores filled with "tyloses" that look kind of like sparkly membranes. (The tyloses are what keeps liquids from draining through the pores in whiskey barrels and such.)
red_white_oak.jpg
More info on how to examine end grain for wood ID is here: http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...ication-guide/ Look at section 7.
Regardless, cut up the pallets (watch out for nails) and try using it! I found some wonderful wood in pallets used for shipping motorcycles, tractor parts, and granite slabs for counter tops. These wood were "exotics" to us, some had beautiful color, figure, and properties, at least for woodturning.
JKJ
Member
The one caveat with pallet wood is that often pallets are used to ship things like toxic chemicals and pesticides...buyer beware...
[OP]
Member
These were used to ship steel products to our manufacturing plant. Unless they were recycled previously, i think they're fine.
Contributor
Pallets and dunnage in general is also often treated to prevent transport of insects especially those used for international shipments. Check to see if it is marked with the letters HT, if so it is heat treated not chemically treated so it should be safe to use.
Member
I would still be careful with pallet wood because of their unknown origin. They may be fine for building shelves or furniture. It's not worth the risk to build a cutting board if it turns out to be white oak.
Steve
Contributor
Really depends upon where the pallet was made. I know live oak gets used quite often for pallets down south.
Member
Take it in the shop and turn off the lights. If it doesn't glow in the dark your probably ok.
Lumber mills cut boards off of a log and the core is usually used for dunnage, pallets, fence posts, etc. You can see that from the grain pattern. They don't sell that as lumber, I think, because it is prone to warping and splitting. It looks like white oak, hard to tell. I brought some white oak dunnage home from work and dulled a brand new carbide bandsaw blade. The wood was dirty and wet. Like the man said,"watch out for nails". If you don't ruin your saw blades you could probably make something really nice from it.
Last edited by marty fretheim; 10-30-2017 at 9:57 PM.
[OP]
Member
I wasn't planning on using it for a cutting board, but why is white oak not a good choice for a cutting board?
I took a few pallets home and the bigger sections were some decent wood. I got a few really nice sections of 2"x3"x12" that would be good for a woodturner. Too much work for me as i don't have a bandsaw and jointer to clean it all up quickly.
Member
White oak is OK for a cutting board if it does not come from a pallet of unknown origin.
Steve
Member
Oak in general is too open grain and meat juices, blood etc seeps deep into the pores of both red and white oak. Hard to get it back out or to keep it out without a sealer and other treatment. The finer the grain the wood the better, which is why maple is one of the better cutting board woods. I suppose you could treat oak with many coats of mineral oil to let the wood fill up with oil, but I would avoid oak because of the open grain. I made a cutting board in High school shop class from birch. A little soft, but 50 years later still in service.
Member
I found some 4x8 pallets near me, the have almost 4x4 oak for the frame, I turned some into transitions for my tile in kitchen to the lower wood floor in living room. it is gorgeous wood, just a pain getting nails out of oak.
[OP]
Member
I found one or two pallets with 4x4 oak runners, but most of them are a little smaller like 3x3. I hand planed one of them down and its a great looking piece, but after cutting out the nailed portions and the knots you don't get a lot of usable wood. If i had a jointer and table saw i'd take home more of it since i'd be able to clean it up quickly.
Moderator
To get oak wood cheap (although not free) there might be another option: a large local commercial sawmill saws a huge amount of wood which is graded and sorted. They sell "pallet" grade in random widths at an incredibly cheap price. These may have splits and knots but what I bought for barn siding had plenty of high quality wood between the defects. Some was beautifully quartersawn.
This wood is green, of course, but can be easily stickered and dried.
JKJ
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