Black oak milling day

Had a new local portable miller here today to cut up a nice black oak tree today. Should be 800+ bd-ft. A lot of it will go toward flooring in our home. However, we did wind up with a good number of really spectacular quartersawn boards. I'll pull these out and try to sell them separately.

 

Beautiful sawlogs!

I'm glad you saved em from the firewood hacks
That's some fine lumber!

Curious what the local Sawyers are charging....
I charge 45¢ per bf, or $70 per hour, depending on the logs and what I'm sawing.

 

Thanks,
I've been trying out different sawyers lately, some charge hourly, some by bd-ft. This guy was $60/hr, but he was new (about 3 yr milling part time) and his mill is not the fastest. I think I wound up ~$0.40/bf today.

 

That'll make some nice flooring and those quarter sawn boards are gorgeous too. Are these considered the same lumber product as regular red oak, or is black oak different enough to be in its own category?

 

Black oak is just a specific type of red oak, nothing special. It would be sold as plain old "red oak" at the lumber store. The most common species of red oaks around here are northern red oak (Q. rubra), black oak (Q. velutina) and scarlet oak (Q. coccinea). There are literally scores of red oak species in N. America and hundred worldwide. Here's a fun article about evolution of oaks: How Oak Trees Evolved to Rule the Forests of the Northern Hemisphere

 

Thanks for linking that article. That was by far one of the most comprehensive pieces I've read on the subject. I knew a little about hybridization (this summer I identified Q. Montana X Q. Alba (Saul oak) in the wild). It's amazing the Quercus story goes back as far as it does.

 

Here's the final product, ~825 bd-ft, stacked and stickered for air-drying.

 

Looks good boss!

 

Oops, here's the full sized photos. Boards are 13' long

 

Great looking boards.
Definitely has potential.

 

Nice Mike! I’d want those beautiful 1/4 sawn pieces for myself but I’m sure you can get a nice price on em.

 

Agreed, but, as you know, I have a gross excess of lumber and logs right now. Need to work on liquidating as much as possible in order to fund more toys.

 

Will you seal the end grain or no?

 

I sealed with Anchor seal as soon as I bucked the logs. It dries clear. It's definitely best to end seal as soon as possible, especially for oak taken down in warm/dry weather.