Live Oak 1/2" boards - availability?

[Gary G™]

You might try contacting Robert Ross, the owner/operator for this sawmill:
http://wc-hardwoods-sawmill.blogspot.com
Great guy. He did his spare bathroom in Live Oak; who knows what's in his inventory.
If not Robert, other smaller locally owned north central Florida sawmills may have some.

It's tough to find someone to mill the big Live Oaks; I lost two fairly straight 16' butts (32-36" diameter) because I couldn't get a sawyer to come and mill them.

[Pirate]

Live oaks. I love them/hate them. I have 4 in my back yard and they provide great shade for the house, but drop leaves all year! Small, hard to collect leaves.

I read a story of "Live Oakers". Boat builders of yesteryear, who, if you wanted a boat built, would come to your property and cut the live oaks down, and build your boat, on site.
Not sure who got the boat to the water!

[giradman]

Live oaks. I love them/hate them. I have 4 in my back yard and they provide great shade for the house, but drop leaves all year! Small, hard to collect leaves.

I read a story of "Live Oakers". Boat builders of yesteryear, who, if you wanted a boat built, would come to your property and cut the live oaks down, and build your boat, on site.
Not sure who got the boat to the water!

Great story! 
  Just finished building the frame from QS white oak and about to visit a frame shop to purchased a glass or plastic insert - Dave

[Robert Adams]

Live oaks. I love them/hate them. I have 4 in my back yard and they provide great shade for the house, but drop leaves all year! Small, hard to collect leaves.

I read a story of "Live Oakers". Boat builders of yesteryear, who, if you wanted a boat built, would come to your property and cut the live oaks down, and build your boat, on site.
Not sure who got the boat to the water!

Most are a white oak. 

     And yeah they are are nuisance tree. They drop those small leaves year round and drop little acorns that burrow into the grass. They are right up at at the top of my bounty  list of trees to get rid of along with cottonwood and crapmyrtles that spit sap everywhere.

     It's usually gnarly grain and moves allot. Best for firewood for the smoker along with some mesquite.

[Bob10]

I don't know if it is the same thing as what you are looking for but we have what they call live oak all over the place out here.  I don't think I have heard of anyone doing much more than using it for firewood.  I have one growing directly next to my foundation must by over 3' across.  I know a few have fallen in the last week locally I will have to look into getting some to see what it does after being sliced up.  I poured an extra yard of concrete in the area of that tree to keep the root from changing direction

[Bob10]

Took a look around and might have found what you are looking for 

http://www.fogcitysawyer.com/#/oak/

[giradman]

I don't know if it is the same thing as what you are looking for but we have what they call live oak all over the place out here.  I don't think I have heard of anyone doing much more than using it for firewood.  I have one growing directly next to my foundation must by over 3' across.  I know a few have fallen in the last week locally I will have to look into getting some to see what it does after being sliced up.  I poured an extra yard of concrete in the area of that tree to keep the root from changing direction

Hi Bob - thanks for your comments and searching efforts - as mentioned a few posts back, I decided just to use QS White Oak and have already built the frame - will be doing the finishing this weekend.  Dave

[Axehandle]

I could probably get you some if you really really wanted it still. One or two months ago you could have had as much as you wanted and if it was really important, I could have gotten it from Beaufort.

I was eyeballing some of the live oak to salvage but I knew it was going to be a task setting it up on my chainsaw mill and then I've never heard anyone say anything too nice about working with it. There was plenty of cedar and hickory so I let the live oaks go. It is a great strong tree though and very few took damage during the storm. They bend before they break and have a strong root system. Now a hurricane is a strong storm and more than a few lost branches and some (but not many) did fall right over. In general though, live oaks stay up where hickories and scrubby Laurel and water oaks uproot.

[giradman]

I could probably get you some if you really really wanted it still.  One or two months ago you could have had as much as you wanted and if it was really important, I could have gotten it from Beaufort.  

I was eyeballing some of the live oak to salvage but I knew it was going to be a task setting it up on my chainsaw mill and then I've never heard anyone say anything too nice about working with it. There was plenty of cedar and hickory so I let the live oaks go.  It is a great strong tree though and very few took damage during the storm.   They bend before they break and have a strong root system.  Now a hurricane is a strong storm and more than a few lost branches and some (but not many) did fall right over.  In general though, live oaks stay up where hickories and scrubby Laurel and water oaks uproot.

Thanks for the offer - I swayed away from the 'live oak' because of the comments on difficulty working w/ the wood, plus fresh cut would mean 'drying and aging' - so I made a frame from SQ white oak (bought as a craft 1/2" bundle from Wall Lumber in Mayodan, NC, just a couple of hours up the road from me near the VA border) - bought some museum glass from a local frame shop - the photo is on a metallic finish paper - a few days ago, hung the pic in one of the bedrooms - pic below that really does not do justice to the photo, but my best shot - thanks again to all who have contributed to the thread.  Dave

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