Fallen oak in field - advice please!

[CathB]

Ah thanks! I'm pretty sure there's a low chance for any of these as it is one of 7/8 open field trees & not near any boundaries/ fences etc but as you say, never know... 

[Steven P]

You'd be surprised!

 

(last tree I took down, by a burn, no obvous fenceline in that field, 1' length exactly where I wanted to cut full of old nails with nothing obvious to show they were there)

[Mark Bolam]

I doubt there is much more than firewood value in that butt looking at it.

It would be nice to recover at least a few posts and boards, but you won’t know until it’s cut off the rootplate and delimbed.

 

If it was near me I MAY do it wood for work depending on access, but don’t expect to make money from it.

 

Sorry!

[scbk]

I don't know are you planning to do the work yourselves or not? Another thing would be, do have a use there for any big lumps of oak timber you could mill out of this? Oak mantlepieces/posts/stuff for your house?

Even if just for the novelty of finding a permanent use for bits of this tree.

[openspaceman]

12 hours ago, CathB said:

 

ps.. must admit I didn't understand this from Vet Member from Surrey!? "The only worry would be shake and pinholes and as it is a farm field ink stain and staples." - new language to me!! 

@peds  has answered this; the iron in staples react with tannin in the sap and this then carries the blue stain up and down the vessels staining the wood Quink blue, that is how ink was made from iron filings and oak galls.

 

Once a tree is compromised or felled boring insects dive into it, after a couple of years they get into the heartwood, the valuable bit of an oak.

 

On some soils oak trees develop internal cracks, shakes, which also devalue the timber. They cannot be seen (though can sometimes be predicted from the look of the bark) until the butt is cross cut.

 

Thirty years ago I would have taken the job on if it were local to me and paid the owner for the butt whilst keeping the second lengths and firewood for myself.

 

The second length would make knotty tiebeams or sole plates on the woodmiser.

 

About 40 years ago my felling partner and brother  had the job of providing roof shingles for the local church steeple, they had to buy clean butts like this to cut and split so even single butts were used.

 

Generally forestry counts in large amounts so you need lorry loads (27 tonnes nowadays) of the same quality for the best prices. You are far north of the sawmill in Ferriby I used to supply but there must be other homegrown mills nearer you who would send a buyer to look.

The bu

[peds]

37 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

 the iron in staples react with tannin in the sap and this then carries the blue stain up and down the vessels staining the wood Quink blue, that is how ink was made from iron filings and oak galls.

 

That's mental. I'll have to look into the process a little more, I wonder why galls specifically. You'd be awfully dependent on the whims of nature for your ink harvest... I suppose ink was priced accordingly. 

Ah, that must be why printer ink is so expensive!  They still use traditional oak gall production methods!

[Stere]

Cheaper than printer ink!

 

OAK GALL INK. 50ml. HANDMADE IN WALES FROM TRADITIONAL INGREDIENTS.

WWW.EBAY.CO.UK

---

This ink behaves in exactly the way that should be expected of traditionally prepared oak gall ink. It writes in a 'washed'...

 

[GarethM]

And that my boy is why you always use stainless steel screws in oak, unless you're old school and use dowel joints.

[openspaceman]

45 minutes ago, peds said:

I wonder why galls specifically.

I wonder if it is an effect of the oak reacting to the insect by increasing tannin production? we see this in lammas growth where a tree has been partially defoliated by tortrix caterpillars in spring and the replacement leaves contain more tannin.

[peds]

Sounds logical enough, I choose to believe it as gospel truth.