15 year dead standing oak

[MattyF]

I have no idea but the death of an oak tree will usually be a slow one and give it plenty of time if that is the case to develop and it won't rot as badly on the stump as a lot of species

[Ollie]

Be interested to hear about your experiences with the slabber. I got one with my 2nd hand Lucas but not used it yet. Even setting the bar up with the chain on is quite challenging. Saw some oak milled at the weekend, all the sapwood long gone, lovely brown sound timber inside.

[muttley9050]

Ok I collected it yesterday. Looks like a nice brown oak but unfortunately it is infested with pin hole borer so it maybe firewood yet. Will play around with it later in the week and get some pictures up. It may be a rather large log for firewood pile.

does pin hole borer reduces strength significantly. Might just rip it up into fencing material if the infestation is too bad?

[se7enthdevil]

if it's nice brown oak then a few holes may not be a problem, furniture made with that sort of stuff would be opk but you need someone who will want to use it.

 

don't firewood the whole thing...

 

any pics of the extent of the worm?

[mendiplogs]

i've often heard that oaks can be left for decades and they are usually ok but 15 years does sound a long time.

 

perhaps in this case you should wait till it's down? if it doesn't explode when it hits the deck it should be fine...

 

Hi MATE we had a oak here on the ground for 30years it was solid outside 2 " rotten but good inside thanks John

[muttley9050]

Pics to come tomorrow.

[wills-mill]

Brown Oak won't last particularly well as fencing exposed posts unfortunately. I'm not sure I'd trust it for beams as well, it definitely loses strength as the colour increases.

 

It's a bit of a gamble on big old dead lumps, probably 50/50 that I've tinkered with are hit hard with pinhole borer. They can get right to the centre, but sometimes only chew chew into one segment of the tree, so often there are clean sections....

[SteveA]

Brown Oak won't last particularly well as fencing exposed posts unfortunately. I'm not sure I'd trust it for beams as well, it definitely loses strength as the colour increases.

 

It's a bit of a gamble on big old dead lumps, probably 50/50 that I've tinkered with are hit hard with pinhole borer. They can get right to the centre, but sometimes only chew chew into one segment of the tree, so often there are clean sections....

 

When you say 'Brown Oak' does that refer to any species of oak that has been lying on the ground for a while and turned brown as it starts to rot?.... or is it from a variety of oak? cheers, steve

[sandspider]

Thought it was to do with a specific fungus in the tree?

[wills-mill]

Sand Spider is right, it's just normal Oak (pedunculate/ English) that has been partially digested by beefsteak fungus. It seems to be abundant in certain areas and pretty rare in others. It's verra nice.