In Norse legend, Thor found shelter from a violent storm by sitting under a mighty oak tree. Today, people in some Nordic countries believe that acorns on the windowsill will protect a house from being hit by lightning. In parts of Great Britain, young ladies followed a custom of wearing an acorn on a string around their neck. It was believed that this was a talisman against premature aging. The Druids are believed to have held rituals in oak groves, and certainly mistletoe was to be found on oak trees. According to legend, mistletoe was indicative of the a god stopping by via a lightning strike on the tree. Certainly, oak trees seem to be more susceptible to lightning strikes than other trees, although this could be because it's often the tallest tree around. Rulers often wore crowns of oak leaves, as a symbol of their connection to the divine. After all, if one were a living god, personification of the god on earth, one had to look the part. Roman generals were presented with oak crowns upon returning victorious from battle, and the oak leaf is still used as a symbol of leadership in the military today Around the reign of King Henry VIII, oak became popular for its use in construction of homes for the wealthy. Managed oak forests in Scotland supplied thousands of pieces of timber for use in London and other English cities. The bark was used as well, to create a dye that was used in ink-making. Al
My friend’s house has oak floor joists! Man are they tough to drill through. I don’t know how they nailed them. I think it was built in the late 1940’s.
I can't imagine Oak framing...our place was built in 1940, framed with Doug Fir, I had to pre drill the studs and soap the screws to get them to go in when hanging new cabinets during the kitchen remodel...I figure Oak would be the same or worse!
We used to sell a lot of hemlock at the sawmill. That’s a tough one to drive a nail through. The farmers used hemlock for most things around the farm except fence post. The sawmill is long gone and so are most of the farmers. All in the past 30 years.
It was claimed that Brittish cannon balls bounced off the oak sides of "Old Ironsides", the USS Constitution, during a naval battle in 1812.
And that is why she is called old iron sides. Lot of good carpenters keep a small block of bees wax in their carpentry box. course that is old school, today they use power drivers. AL
Yes, but with power drivers it's just easier to twist the screw off if you don't lube it in tough wood
We had oak in the house we grew up in. My great-grandfather built in during WWII. Everything was put in green. We broke many drill bits trying to pre-drill into studs.
There is a managed stand of oak in the forest preserve on the Naval based few miles from me, that is dedicated as the source for any replacement of oak on the Constitution. The floor joists like Jack Straw mentioned is referred to as “native lumber “ around my parts.
Lots of old oak barns around here. Back in the day farmers would clear a spot of land and use whatever trees where there to build the barn timbers. I've seen them made from walnut, cherry, oak, tulip poplar, etc. The timber is hard...pre-drill, hardened nails, and a mini-sledge are required.
It was a result of a difference in technology. The US was not a wealthy nation , so we built fast ships loaded with more cannons and designed to fire over a longer range. We depended on taking out masts, sails and rigging, then raking the helpless enemy at our choosing, before closing and boarding. This made more sense since we didn't have fleets of ships as large as other nations . The English had large fleets, and had developed shorter range cannons that fired a heavier ball. The idea was to lob it up so it crashed down through the hull. In the fight that the USS Constitution got her nickname , the Yankee captain was firing from the edge of his guns range, going for the rigging, the British ship was barely able to hit back, and most shots were falling short, the few that did hit were already going much slower and falling , they hit at an angle and the solid oak planking caused a bounce . Also some of the hits were balls that had skipped off the water and lost a bunch of energy.
It probably made a great colonial battle sensationalism story. Interesting explanation that I never thought of.
The people that built my mom and dad's used lumber from the property to build the garage. They had a saw mill on site IIRC. That rough sawn oak is as hard as nails!
