oak turning black/blue?

[flatyre]

hey folks rough cut this piece of oak for a customer looking for a mantle piece, tree had been down for a few years and soft wood was fairly rotten but heartwood was solid, cut the rotten outer wood off to lighten the load and brought it home for milling, went out today and noticed it has turned a blue/black colour mainly where the heartwood is exposed. Any ideas why@

 

[Mick Dempsey]

It's a chemical reaction to the metal in the chain.

[flatyre]

why did this piece of oak react? cut plenty of oak before and never seen it. And how do I mill and plane it without having the same reaction?

[NoRush]

Or there is some metal in the wood

[Mick Dempsey]

Dunno, I know that if I sharpen a saw on an oak stump the filings react with the wood to create purple/blue stains.

 

Maybe it's a sap thing.

[skyhuck]

Or there is some metal in the wood

 

This.

[Mick Dempsey]

Then why wasn't it there the night before?

[Big Beech]

Then why wasn't it there the night before?

 

Because it's been open to oxygen which has caused the reaction.

But as you stated filings can cause this too, but most likely is that somewhere at sometime there has been a foreign body within it

[skyhuck]

Because it's been open to oxygen which has caused the reaction.

But as you stated filings can cause this too, but most likely is that somewhere at sometime there has been a foreign body within it

 

This.

[Mick Dempsey]

Sure Simon, but when you cut an oak down and you ring it up, you see the purpling immediately when there's barbed wire grown in. Not overnight.