turning white oak

[joe zarnitz]

is white oak good to turn---tks,joe

[Christopher K. Hartley]

is white oak good to turn---tks,joe

Joe, some will say that no oak is good to turn; however, others including myself will take issue with that. Red Oak does crack and warp easily and some varieties will beat you to death if you don't round the blank first. Some Oak also has a tendency to leave a black residue on your equipment and will also dye your hands black. With all that said I highly recommend turning Oak of any variety. It is beautiful in it's appearance and if you learn to turn it well, most other woods are a breeze.
My very favorite of all the oaks is Live Oak. It is by far the hardest that I have found to turn but the grain is fantastic! I have turned numerous varieties of oak including white oak and enjoyed them all. Go for it!!!
P.S. Some will chuckle at this since they have fondly named me "Oak Man". I'm not sure I deserve that title but I'm appreciative of it.

[Bob Opsitos]

I've turned on peice of oak before, I think it was a peice of red oak. I recall it was a pain to turn, kind of stringy, but it finshed out ok. It was an earlier peice, in my turning life, so I'm betting it wouldn't be so bad now.

Anyway, I turned it specifically with intention of burning the outside. Burn it and then scrub it with a wire brush. The summer growth is softer and burns more readily, leaving you with a textured look. I think it turned out nice. I should have roughed it and dryed it prior to hitting it with the torch, though. Flash drying like that made it move all over the place. Finshed with a little BLO.


Bob

[Bill Boehme]

I am also one of your ilk. Post Oak produces beautiful grain and it is easy to find wood with lots of character. Green live oak is a well kept secret -- it turns wonderfully and I have not encountered a cracking problem with it because of its interlocking grain. Once dry, it is as hard as a rock. The wood polishes nicely using Micromesh and no finish is really needed although I do like to use an oil finish to pop the grain. The best part of live oak is wood from the base of the tree at the ground line where the root system begins -- there is some very beautiful grain to be found there.

Bill

[Frank Fusco]

Red and white oaks are what we have in my area more than anything else. Except for flat work, it is considered firewood. Same with hickory.

[Bill Boehme]

Red and white oaks are what we have in my area more than anything else. Except for flat work, it is considered firewood. Same with hickory.

Hickory is my next favorite wood to turn. If you haven't tried green hickory, cut one in April when the tree is greening out. It will be so juicy that you can slip the bark off by hand after using a screwdriver to start a tear down one side. Turning dripping wet hickory is fun and you get a free shower to boot! You can turn it down to finished dimensions and then microwave dry it following the instructions on the Woodturners of North Texas web site tutorial section. Microwaving hickory produces a wonderful aroma -- almost smells like baking bread -- no wonder it is so good for barbeque wood. Wet hickory turns like butter, but after it is completely dry, it is probably as hard as live oak if not harder.

All of my life, I have cut hickory and post oak (a white oak that is also known as cross oak in parts of the Mississippi valley) for firewood. Now, I look at those trees and think about what I can turn out of them -- sometimes they wind up going back to the firewood pile.

Bill

[Frank Kobilsek]

Joe,
Here in Illinois I can't support Bill's nomination for Oak, any kind, for turning wood of the year but I will second his nomination of Hickory in at least the top 10. I collected several blanks of Bitternut Hickory from a construction site last spring and those chunks that were roughed within a couple weeks are drying nicely but blanks left whole cracked into firewood. Previous to that I picked-up a slab of hichkory from the scrap pile at a freinds sawmill and made several nice small bowls from it. (Early hollowform work shown, maybe Dec. '04) It had been buried in the sawdust outside and spalted a little.

Oak wants to flake on the straight grain and the end grain is like the craters of the moon (IMHO). If you want grain pattern look of oak find some nice Ash.

Frank

[John Shuk]

I turned a little weedpot from white oak taken on my property. It is HARD! It looks nice but I'd say I would probably go for something a little easier to work with.

[Jim Becker]

You can turn very nice things with this hard wood and similar. Turning green is usually the best idea...much easier, but it's still hard! If it's dry...you really have your work cut out for you! Personally, I think that oak is great for the "right piece", but I wouldn't prefer to work it a lot...

[Richard Jones]

I actually enjoy turning oak, white more than red, as it's finer grained. Very plentiful, good to practice with, and in this area, treated like an old friend...........

I will admit to never having turned green oak, all mine has been dry.

Keep a sharp gouge and a light touch with a scraper.

My $.02.................

[Wilbur Pan]

I've only turned two things so far. The first was a bowl from a piece of dried white oak.

The second was a platter made from basswood. After I did that, I was informed that basswood was too soft to turn, and then I learned that oak has issues with turning. Good thing I'm still ignorant.