Shingle oak?

[Daren]

I got a call from a man who has cleared parts of a large lake lot to build a house. He was thinking ahead and stacked the decent logs up off the ground and painted the ends. He said he called the local forestry office and they worked with him on what to save and how to, so far I like the guy. Anyway, he said he has several logs (60-90 logs, they are whole trunks, some 24' that I have to buck) he wants me to have walnut, black cherry, mulberry, honey locust, osage... He said there was some shingle oak too. I am not familiar with it, I have never sawed it or used it. Any input would help me when I meet with this guy next week, I at least want to sound like I know what I am talking about.

This is a weird deal (but GOOD), he wants furniture/mantles/patio stuff... built for their future house from some of the wood once I get it dry and he is trading the logs for labor. Once all the logs are here he wants me to get a $ tally in log form like I had bought them from him (minus the labor I have in hauling). Then give him =$ credit towards future work.

I have everything else figured out, but don't know shingle oak.

[Mo-Ark]

Daren--First off, congrats on the new connection; I hope this works out well and turns into a monster score!

Shingle oaks were so named for the ease with which they could be split for shingles with a fro and mallet. They're from the red oak species, and since all the old-timers I used to know who actually used fro's and built cabins/houses from scratch are gone, now, I have no idea of how the red oak shingles held up. The cellular structure of white oak wood will turn water (barrel staves) where red oaks will absorb some, over time, so I guess they used the "shingle oak" primarily for the ease of splitting. I doubt that you'll hand split any shingles out of these logs, but being a master woodworker, you'll be interested in the working properties of the material. That said, I guess I could have shortened my reply to, "It has a long, straight grain, and should be fairly easy to work with, as far as oaks go." I've not had the opportunity to haul a shingle oak log to a sawyer, and I'm sorry to say all of mine in the past were bucked up into firewood...which split quite easily with a maul.  ;D

The book on 'em says heights of up to 60' and diameters of 3', but I've never taken one down here in Hot Springs that was larger than 24" DBH, but I'm sure they're out there. I've got an issue of the Missouri Conservationist magazine from some 15 years ago that ran an article on the oak species complete with some great color plates of bark/leaves for identifying purposes; if you're interested, I'll try to dig it up and scan off a copy. Good luck with the new project!

[Daren]

Mitch, I was setting here sending you an e-mail about this deal. I came here to get the link and saw you replied. Thanks for the info. I thought it was a red oak, but that was the end of it for me. I have not went to see the logs yet, but he said he would e-mail pics this weekend. (he is only 25 miles, but I am doing other things this weekend). I think he said the shingle oak was about 24" and he has 2 (I think), the cherry is small all less than 16" but there is alot of it, the walnut is fair, but the mulberry and osage are 24"-30". I don't have any idea of how many "logs" are there. I'm guessing only one each on the osage, but the rest are 2-4 each tree. He said 30-40 trees down now and a few more later.

[thedeeredude]

I read about red oak shingles in one of St. Roy Underhill's books.  THe split red oak was the choice for shingles because the split ran with the grain and the grain structure acted like little channels and water just ran down through and off the roof.  But if the red oak shingles were sawn, they were junk.

[Faron]

Daren, Shingle oaks in my part of the woods vary a good deal in quality.  Seems to me if they are growing in a soil type that grows red and black oak, they will be pretty good.  If they grow in soils that pin oaks predominate, they will look a lot like pin oaks, including having lots of pins.  We grade saw it for red oak if good enough, ties and farm lumber if not.