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All About Live Oak

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
It's not every day you hear an Englishman chatting with a veteran woodsman in Seminole County, Georgia. The contrasting pronunciations and rhythms are musical, and the contraption factor here is very high.

Topic is live oak, it's properties and requirements for shipbuilding; an endangered species? No, remarkably not.

This shipwright rebuilding Tally Ho I find to be informative and not irritating. All to taste, of course.

Both guys are all over YouTube, lest we think arcane is a personal discovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH37Dep0cvU
 

Rocinante33

Contributing Partner
Live Oaks vs. White Oaks

I’m very partial to live oaks because we have many growing here on our property. The two oldest are very large.

But when Joshua Humphreys designed and built the USS Constitution, he specified white oak. On Your you tube video, the guy said the live oak grain was tougher than white oak. Perhaps Humphreys called for white oak because the live oak is more knarly and produces shorter boards than the white oaks, and can reach up to 150’ tall. Big enough for looong planks. The white oak was said to be far superior to European red oak which was used for the English ships. It was tough enough to have the cannon balls bounce off the hull and earn the nickname, “Old Ironsides.”

Whatever species of oak you use, it’s good stuff. Here’s an article:

https://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-that-went-to-war
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Querky subject

Dunno... our white oaks tend to be hollow when they get that big. In fact, I’ve been thinning quite a few over the last few years, and even the stems that are only eight inches or so seem to have a tiny hollow forming in the center. I don’t know if it’s a characteristic of the tree or some kind of insect, or even a microbe that causes that. The squirrels and owls sure do appreciate it though. The younger oaks growing in the denser woods sure do grow tall and straight, reaching for the sunlight. You’d think they might be good for spars or something.
 
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