Reply To: Is this Oak any good?
Hi Matt,
The upper two logs and the one at front appear to be rather prominent reaction/compression wood, and so, I think, does the split piece (sapstain?). That would mean:
tension with warping that can easily go on long after you have dimensioned any boards
there’s likely to be problems with rising grain
flatsawn pieces will result in tangentially cut growth rings, which can present really difficult to plane heartwood[/ul]
the hooked parts should not be used (recommendation from local timber yard’s purchase head)
A bit speculative: I think that the greyish-brown heartwood is likely to be caused by extractives, indicating silicates, and not fungal infection.
Somewhat less speculative: Your logs seem to come from boughs. They may be infested with moulds or stains, but probably not in decay. So there might be discolouration but no rot.
Fungi don’t thrive at wood moisture levels <20% (R Bruce Hoadley: Understanding Wood), which should prevent infestion of your loft timbers.
If your loft has the space, why not saw the logs into boards, dry them, and find out if the wood is workable? The figure looks to be quite beautiful.
Sven-Olof Jansson
London, UK; Boston, MA
