Live Oak 1/2" boards - availability?

[giradman]

Hi All - I've been inactive here for nearly a year - just getting back into woodworking, sorry - looks like the forum has gotten NEW software!

Lately, I have been buying some photo prints from David Shipper, a nature photographer out of Beaufort, SC and have been making my own frames - I'm considering the photo attached, i.e. Coffin Point Plantation on a barrier island east of Beaufort & Port Royal in South Carolina - since the image shows live oaks w/ Spanish moss, I was going to use quarter-sawn white oak (which I can obtain as 1/2" craft lumber from Wall Lumber up the road from me in North Carolina) - BUT, was thinking that Live Oak (Quercus Virginina) would be a great option - these trees fall down often in storms on the Carolina coast so the lumber must be available - right?  SO, my question is where can I obtain this wood - I have a nice basement workshop and can mill suitable sized boards - any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks - Dave

[AHill]

Have you worked with live oak before?  Because the tree spreads out, there's a lot of built-in stress, so the wood tends to warp and twist after milling.  It's really pretty, but it's very rare to find logs that are long enough and straight enough to merit milling for commercial sales.  Your best best is to contact an arborist in a municipality where live oak is common and make a deal to get some wood.  Or maybe post a WTB in Swap-N-Sell.

[Joel H.]

Having lived in Florida for several years, I think I remember that Live Oak is the same as Pin Oak which is a Red Oak species (which is a catch-all for oaks other than white I think).  Therefore, you could probably use local red oak and it'd be the same or very similar.

Joel

[TomFromStLouis]

woodfinder.com is my first stop when looking for hard to find species.

Oak lumber gets thrown into either red or white categories and there is more than one species in each. For example, in addition to Q. alba for the whites,  burr oak is also a white oak in lumber terms. I imagine that it would be a rare photo buyer that could tell what kind of oak you used.

Live oak and pin oak are two distinct species. They sure do not look alike as trees. I always thought the growth habit of a live oak tree looks most like a Q. alba true white oak, which of course means nothing when it comes to the wood.

[AHill]

Live oak and pin oak are two distinct species. They sure do not look alike as trees. I always thought the growth habit of a live oak tree looks most like a Q. alba true white oak, which of course means nothing when it comes to the wood.

Yep.  Pin oak is a specific species of the red oak family.  It's also known as swamp or Spanish oak.  Aaron Franklin, of BBQ brisket fame, uses pin oak when he smokes his meats.  Live oak is a generic term for any oak that is evergreen.  The pic the OP showed is more than likely southern live oak (Quercus virginiana).  There are probably 30+ different species of live oak.  Some are classified as red oaks and some as white oaks.

[giradman]

Thanks Guys for all of the excellent comments, as already stated (including in my OP), live oak is also a different species (Quercus virginiana) - I have both red oak (Quercus rubra) and white oak (Quercus alba) in my basement shop and likely will just use some quarter-sawn white oak.

We live in Piedmont North Carolina and often visit the Carolina/Georgia coast where live oaks (in part named for maintaining their leaves which are distinctly different from the other two oaks mention above) are abundant and usually covered w/ Spanish moss - a pic of mine below of a large live oak in Airlie Gardens (Wilmington, NC).  The large curved horizontal limbs were popular w/ wooden ship builders for forming the hulls - so a different tree and would have been neat to frame that pic I showed previously of a lane of live oaks on an old plantation on a barrier island near Beaufort, SC.

Thanks again for the help and comments - BTW, I sent an email to Wall Lumber in Mayodan, NC (about a 2 hr drive although I usually order using UPS shipping) - their response was that 'live oak' was not available from them - the storms that came through Georgia and the Carolinas last fall knock down a LOT of trees including live oaks and was a boom for local woodworking pros for all sorts of projects.  Dave

[Steve N]

A little reading HERE about "live" Oak. It can be either a white Oak, or a Red Oak. The live part is that it is an Oak that is live year round. IE: it doesn't drop it's leaves, and have a dormant period. Most trees like this we call "Evergreens", but they mostly have needles, and these don't. You can look at end grain pics, and tell the Reds from the White by presence or absence of tyloses. The Whites say Aye, the Reds say Ney....

Check the pics of it, and you will see it looks a lot like Oak. As others have stated it is a PIA to work with, to dry, and if humidity changes occur once finished it can pretzel up inside a home as well. If the Oak you can get from Wall is stable wood, you will likely buy at a much lower price, have an easier time working with it, find it will look almost exactly the same, and only you will know, so if you want to call it live Oak, it would take an Arborist to argue with you.

Hope the build goes well.

[clockman]

Live Oak use to be used in shipbuilding, i.e. Old Ironsides.

[Steve N]

Live Oak use to be used in shipbuilding, i.e. Old Ironsides.

Most of it is White Oak, and it has a spattering of Live Oak, but the shorty twisted trees of live oaks, even from 200 years ago would lack enough long straight stock even to make laminations.


Nice T Mac video, beginning is the tour of "Old Ironsides" as they were refurbing her. Then he uses a chunk of live oak from her to make a flag case.

[giradman]

Thanks for your further replies - I know the history of the U.S.S. Constitution quite well and have been on the ship several times - the construction is indeed impressive although w/ the multiple restorations, not sure how much of the original 'live oak' structure remains.

My photo has been shipped and I have some quarter-sawn white oak in my basement shop, so will make the picture frame from that wood - don't want to mill and fuss w/ the 'live oak' after the comments made - Dave


P.S. Lately, I've been making non-miter picture frames (a layered method from Woodsmith Mag) - attached is one from a few years ago made w/ QS White Oak - should be fine w/ my new photo.