Lets try this again

[capetrees]

I have an idea for a kitchen table. A buddy of mine makes tables and asked for any decent logs so he can slab them. I have a couple huge dead oaks, 24"-30" diameter, that need to come down for customers.

Can a dead tree be used for slabs to make a table? Does the wood get punky or no? How long will it take to dry the slabs and will they check and twist if the tree was cut when it was dead as opposed to live?

Thanks.

 

[abbott295]

If these particular trees will still be good to use for lumber, to make a table, no one can say for sure without at least seeing the trees. I know of no reason that anyone could say definitively one way or the other. If the trunks look to be straight, sound, and not twisted grain, if they haven't been standing dead for multiple years, they should be worth a try.

The wood should usually dry to something workable in about a year per inch of thickness if properly stacked, stickered, good ventilation, weighted, out of direct sunlight. Coat the ends of the logs with something to seal them such as anchorseal or several coats of latex paint; treat them again after milling them. This will help prevent checking. Also cut your logs somewhat longer than you plan to make your table to be able to cut off the ends if they check.

Good luck.

 

[capetrees]

Cool. Even if dead, two years per inch of thickness? Wow

they've been standing dead for about two years, seem a little punky on the outside bark but similar trees in the past have looked pretty solid inside.

Thanks

 

[Mad Professor]

We used a lot of standing dead red oak for firewood years back when the gypsy moths had an infestation. The sapwood would rot and bark fall off, but the heartwood was still sound. Won't have a "live edge" but the heartwood slabs would be fine, if you edged them.

 

[Bmac]

What he said^^^^^. You should have some solid heartwood with logs that big, but your sapwood always goes first. If it's white oak you will definitely be fine.

Also don't expect a lot of drying just because they are dead for a few years, and oak dries slower than other species, esp white oak. I've milled plenty of logs that have been dead or down for a few years, all of them still pretty darn wet. They may not be as wet as live logs, as there is less free water, but bound water is pretty close to the same. I dry all my wood the about the same time whether it was cut live, standing dead, or down for a few years.

 

[capetrees]

What he said^^^^^. You should have some solid heartwood with logs that big, but your sapwood always goes first. If it's white oak you will definitely be fine.

Also don't expect a lot of drying just because they are dead for a few years, and oak dries slower than other species, esp white oak. I've milled plenty of logs that have been dead or down for a few years, all of them still pretty darn wet. They may not be as wet as live logs, as there is less free water, but bound water is pretty close to the same. I dry all my wood the about the same time whether it was cut live, standing dead, or down for a few years.

both red oak

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

I've come to loathe drying red oak. My least favorite wood of what I work with here in Texas (which is mostly mesquite, a rock hard Southern elm called cedar elm, ash, hackberry, and red oak). I would agree that wood having been down awhile doesn't mean it won't still be wet. Always surprises me how wet some of it is. I milled some nice 15-18" slabs of red oak 10 feet long, stacked, stickered, and weighted them reasonably well, loosely covered by a tarp in a shady area for about a year, and the center of the heartwood cracked and bulged on all of them and in general the things were lumpy and uneven as could be for boards that were still roughly straight. Seemed like I needed a truck on top of them to keep them from moving. I guess it's because the ones I've done have been smaller red oaks with a number of limb joints that screwed up the grain structure, and huge red oak trunks would be less problematic. We're not big on trees with tall straight trunks in south Texas, so could be everything to do with my problems. The huge ash trunk slabs I've dried have come out nice. Here's the best mesquite river table I've done so far, took a side trip into metalworking the last few months to start fabbing my own steel flat bar legs and just got back to milling again today for the first time in awhile.