Anyone interested in an English (Burr) Oak tree?
I live in the city of Chicago and have watched many good trees, felled by storm or a homeowner tired of trimming them, go to the chipper. I recently got a lead from my arbor about a homeowner who needs to remove a large tree. It was hit by lighting twice over the past two years, and the second strike severed the top causing significant damage to the tree and several garages. So he wants it down but is trying to defray the cost.
I’ve read every post of the past two years on harvesting your own lumber, and have read Sam Sherrill’s “harvesting urban timber”. I think it meets most of the criteria for salvaging but I would like to hear from experienced woodworkers. I’m eager to see if there is any interest in getting this tree down and turned it into beautiful furniture.
Specifics:
– The led came from the company that trims my tree and both he and the owner are confident this is English (burr) Oak.
– it’s over 40’ to the crotch or where the lighting took off top
– the homeowner has lived at this location for 40 plus years and only recalls one screw in the tree (that is visible)
– the base of the tree has a circumference of 14’ (six ft from the bottom, the circumference is 11’)
– the tape measure in one of the pictures is extended to 10′
– the owner was told it would be roughly $5,000 to have it cut and removed
– the adjacent lot is available to stage any equipment associated with bringing it down and sawing the lumber
– we are aware of the city services that would need to be brought in to have electrical lines removed
My first question, is it worth the effort? If anyone is interested; has a plan, wants some of this lumber, is or knows a sawyer, by all means let me know.
Thanks,
Kendall
Replies
Sorry about the pictures. I'll try to resize them shortly.
Kendall
My experience with trees that have been struck by lightning is that it is fit for nothing but firewood. And it is so hard that you will have a very hard time splitting it.
Harry
I would agree that the tree definately needs to come down. Personally, I don't like trees that size anywhere near my house. I took down 3 HUGE white pines a couple years ago for the same reason -- too close, too dangerous. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like there is some rot about midway up the trunk, which means the tree probably wont be worth milling. Too bad, because a tree that tall and straight would be a gem otherwise.
If it is indeed English oak it's sure worth looking into for lumber. This link shows what it may look like:
http://www.hearnehardwoods.com/flitch/english.oak/9704.english.oak.burl/flitch.html
The lightning strike won't affect the lumber except in the immediate area of the hit. If it's going to come down anyway, might as well try to recoup something from it. When the trunk section comes down you'll be able to check the soundness of the interior.
A search on "sawmills" in your area should pull up some ppl with portable mills. Your lucky to have a staging area for any on site sawing. Even local tree services should have a line on people with portable mills.
BD, That does look like it would be a good tree for someone like me who has a mill, and likes to get urban trees. The best way to keep it from going to the landfill, or firewood, is for the owner to have an up-front agreement with the tree-service to take it down with a crane, and set it onto my trailer. Otherwise, they will cut it into smaller more easily handled size sections.
As for the lightning strike, it has almost healed from that strike. You can see where the scar tissue has come together healing the wound. It would not have hurt the wood inside of it.
None of the branches that I can see are showing anything to make me think it would be hollow, except maybe a little one right on the top edge of the photo. Unless you can see into the one about four feet down from the top on the left side. It looks like it was cut off after the last storm, which if it was at the same time as the large branch to the lower right, this was recent enough for it to allow the rot to advance enough.
As for the tree being a burr oak, I can't see the leaves well enough to help give a positive ID, but if it were a burr oak, the acorns should make it obvious what type it is.
Since you measured the cir. at 11', that would be a 42" diameter log, which would make an excellent candidate for quarter sawing. I usually have to rip them with my chainsaw when they are this large, before I can get put them on my woodmizer. That is a bit of a pain to begin with, but worth the reward when those ~20" QS boards start coming off in sequence. If the work didn't get the heart pumping, seeing lumber like that will.
There is nothing showing in the bark pattern which would indicate the kind of grain pattern like what is shown in the above link. It will just be plain white oak.
Everyone,
Thanks for the responses. I will continue to try to locate a local sawmill to gage the interest in this.
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