Wood separation inside the trunk

[astra25]

I got my hands on some pippy oak 3 logs from the same tree and there it some sort of separation that has somehow happened at some point in its life anyone have a clue what can cause this to happen? Only thing I can think of is a lighting strike but I have no clue. I'm not upset about it a was aware of it and I chose to mill around it and still got plenty of decent wood from it. Thanks

[Will C]

Included union?

[Squaredy]

It is called ring shake.  Not common in oak thankfully.  Can be a huge problem in sweet chestnut.  Also had it in elm.

 

It is not fully understood what causes it, but in chestnut is much more prevalent in older trees.

[Johnsond]

2 hours ago, Squaredy said:

It is called ring shake.  Not common in oak thankfully.  Can be a huge problem in sweet chestnut.  Also had it in elm.

 

It is not fully understood what causes it, but in chestnut is much more prevalent in older trees.

Every day is a learning day, I’ve come across it a couple of times in Elm and had zero idea what causes it or what it was called. 👍

[astra25]

Some areas had also gone rotten where the ring were like the tree had died. Iv milled quite a few elms now never seen it before and only one large sweet chestnut.

[trigger_andy]

I see a lot of ring shake in Oak. If I was asked before seeing this post Id have thought it was one of the most common species to get it. Never seen it in Elm, or at least the Elm Ive milled and Im yet to mill Sweet Chestnut in any meaningful quantities. 

 

Ive a mate who is a Timber Framer and worked with Oak since he was 15 and see's ring shake all the time, its the first thing he checks for when selecting an Oak Log. Star shake is another issue but not as common as ring shake (from my own experiences) 

[openspaceman]

Star shake in oak seems more common on the poorer sandy soils, I was told it was   an adaptation to drought. It doesn't seem to be present on young vigorous trees, even on our sandy heath.

 

Beams from a shook oak were still accepted for groynes on the beaches south of here.

 

Often when felling a tree with shake you get sprayed with a mixture of sawdust and tannin stained water that has collected in the shake.