seasoning Live Oak

[Geo.]

Anyone have any experience with drying Live Oak? I got some green a few years back and waxed the ends and stacked it in a wood pile with stickers. It pretty much self destructed. There are numerous large checks throughout. That being said I would like to get some more, if I can get it dried without the above occurring. It is beautiful for parts that must be hard and resist splitting and actually mills/machines very nicely.

[WDH]

Sounds like it dried too fast.  White oak is notorious for that, and live oak was once considered to be one of the white oak group.  It is very similar in characteristics to the white oaks, which are about as fickle to dry as any domestic hardwood.

Maybe member Ellmoe will chime in as I bet he has experience drying live oak.

[ellmoe]

  Dan is correst, it most likely dried too fast. You'd need to place it where there was minimum air-flow. I haven't had a mold problem on live oak in Fla., so you probably won't ,either. I've air dried then kiln dried live oak , mixed it with other oak, and made flooring, no problems. It's the sawing of it I HATE!! Kinda like Dan and hickory! ;D Also, live oak logs can be twisted, and have other problems. If you saw this kind of log use it for timbers , blocking, etc. and forget trying to make any boards of value, success will be minimal.
Mark