value of red oak?

[marc]

I was wondering what the value of red oak is I know it depends on a lot of things but lets put it this way I am walking on a friends land and there is a red oak log just lying on the ground it is 15" wide and 8' long about how much is it worth?

[Jeff]

Log diameter in inches:15
Log length in feet: 8


Doyle:50 B.F.  Scribner: 61B.F.
International: 68 B.F.

If it is a defect free red oak log I would say as much as $30 its to small for veneer. and as low as firewood value.

Ron? Ron? we need a Ron Marc...

[Ron Wenrich]

They are buying veneer down to 14" in my neck of the woods.  But, that is fresh cut and delivered.  Prices vary but are about $1.50/bf, which would make it worth $75, if it was veneer.

Since it is "just lying on the ground", it has probably been cut for a while.  The first thing to go is the sapwood.  This usually gets sap stain, especially if it has been cut during summer months and left to lay.

The outer section of the log has the most clear materail.   As you work back through the log, more defects show, and the lumber isn't worth as much.

The $30 may be pretty close, but that is delivered to a sawmill.

[Ron Scott]

Here locally in Michigan, assuming its a grade log it would be worth approximately $.31/board foot or $20.40 on the stump by the International scale.

[Bibbyman]

Is it really a true red oak?  There are about a dozen sub-species of red oak in our woods and the loggers we have apparently don’t know the difference.   Most just call them all black oak.

Some types are good enough to pass for red oak and some will never make better than pallet and blocking or firewood. :-/

[Tom]

Hey Bibbeyman.  You should try to communicate with many of the loggers (?) we have around here.  They classify wood in three catagories Cypress, Pine and hardwood.  One old pulpwooder I had given some water oak to last year cut up all my cherry and took it to the pulp mill.  I found it difficult to get angry but, we had a lesson on species.

[Bibbyman]

My brother-in-law came over late this morning and got a 50-gallon trashcan of red cedar sawdust to put in his chicken house.  We talked about 10 minutes on how he wanted to improve his 15-acre woodlot.  He had to hurry back as he had some firewood cutters coming over to cut up some tree tops,  take out some dead trees and some under story so he could promote the good trees.

About 3:00,  two men we hadn’t met pulled in with a PU load of cherry logs.  The biggest was about 10” at 10’.   They wanted it cut up into lumber and my brother-in-law told them we had a mill.  Up shot is,  these were trees that the brother-in-law had picked to clean out.  Probably to make room for post oak!  

These guys were just firewood cutter but at least they know that they had to pay $3.00/bf for #3 cherry KD lumber.

[Ron Scott]

One needs to value their woodlot by species and should know their highest market value and manage the woodlot accordingly. A timber appraisal might be worthwhile.

[woodmills1]

i have cut red oak logs that were up to three years old.  they were not rotted even with ground contact.  the wood does look different than that which is cut fresh.

[Ron Wenrich]

Logs that are cut in the fall and winter oft times won't rot.  I figure the sapwood has a chance to dry out and stain doesn't develop.

I've cut logs that have been standing dead for several years due to gypsy moth.  Some lumber buyers won't touch it.  I think it screws up their kiln schedules.  It also doesn't match well with "live" trees.

[marc]

 So I take it that fall or winter would be the best time to cut.

Another thing last year I cut some red oak left is in the woods for about 3 or 4 days before getting it milled and when I did there were little wholes in some of the wood it looked like someone drilled wholes in it with a drill, does anyone know what kind of bug (I take it was a bug) that did it.

[L. Wakefield]

   As we walk thru the woods, my husband has been telling me which of the trees he thinks are red oak. I haven't made the walk yet with tree books in hand- but the 'red oaks' have a reddish tint to the inner bark between the vertical grooving of the bark contour. It would seem reasonable to have named a tree with this characteristic 'red oak'. I'm wondering if the color of the leafage in fall aso is characteristic- you know, red maple is flame red.. Oaks up here seem to go from a brownish tan through a golden color to a russt and to a purple. (Not all on the same tree). So is the red oak the one with the reddest fall foliage- and if so, what are the others? Esp the one that goes almost to purple?   lw

[CHARLIE]

So...LW (pause for affect)......why did they name Hickory, Hickory?  What is a Hickory anyway? Why didn't they name it.....uhhhhhhhhhhh.....Hammerwood,........or uhhhhhh...........Handlewood? Huh? Huh?  

[Tom]

Charlie,

I think it has something to do with Marine construction.  They used to build docks In Charlston and Savannah where the slave boats were unloading and there was a lot of bargaining and dickering and shopping that went on there.  I figure that some hick was looking for a rhyming catch-phrase for his business and named his Landing Hick's Dickering Dock and over time it became Hickory Dickery Dock and folks, not understanding the history, figured that the Dickering dock was made from some new world tree called Hickory.  They went to the woods to find this new tree and found everything named.  There was Live Oak and Red Oak and maple and then they happened up on this big tall straight tree that had bark two inches thiick and lo 'n behold it was out in the sticks with the hicks so...naturally...it became...Hickory from that day forward.

Just North of Folkston is this little town called Hickox.   Back in the 1800's  cypress was pulled from the Satilla River Basin with Oxen and if you talked to anybody in Race Pond about the logging operation there they would tell you that only the hicks worked in the woods,  I just think a lot of things get named this way.

[Ron Wenrich]

LW

Pretty safe bet that if you see an oak in Maine, its either a red oak or a white oak.  You guys are just too far north for most other oak species.  Might get a few more oaks down around Bath.

Got me on the purple leaves.  If you think of it, take some pics and post.  You'll get a better ID then.  

[Jeff]

A deep purple would be common for red oak, but more common would be just brown. Red oak fall foliage is never red red like maple can be.

[L. Wakefield]

So...LW (pause for affect)......why did they name Hickory, Hickory?  What is a Hickory anyway? Why didn't they name it.....uhhhhhhhhhhh.....Hammerwood,........or uhhhhhh...........Handlewood? Huh? Huh?  

  YO, Charley- it wasn't the 'oak' part of the name I was asking about- it was the use of color of bark or leafage to tell a red oak from other oaks. You may recall we recently had a thread with 20 posts or so on identifying (oak!) tree type from leaf shape. I don't see why my question here seems so different to you. I'm interested in learning more about trees.
lw

[Tom]

Kinda makes you wonder where they came up with the "Oak" part of the name, Doesn't it?

What we need on the forum now is an Etymologist, or whatever you call those English majors that figure out where words come from.

[L. Wakefield]

   Yes- and when, where, how, and why of the Latin as well. Oak is Quercus, right?  lw

[Tom]

Yep, do you know what Quercus means?