This strange-looking white oak is on my to-do list; probably not until after Xmas though. As I was splitting it, it cracked right along a growth-ring. I eventually busted part of it into quarters. and there it sits. It’s about 30″ in diameter, and somewhere around 5 feet long.
Today my friend Rick McKee & I were talking about this log, & he decided to split the next length of this tree.
It splits quite easily, really. Might be because the juvenile wood is taken out of the equation. No crossed fibers to speak of. Here, Rick has driven his wedges in, and it just needs a slight snip with an axe.
I have the easier task ahead of me. I am making wainscot chairs from my section, Rick has to make an oak door for a repro house. We wondered what did this to this tree, maybe lightning, but later I guessed fire.
Not the best log, but there’s a lot of oak in it. We expect to get some good stuff from these, and some firewood and other secondary stuff…I’ll show more of it as we work it, but not til 2011.
PETER FOLLANSBEE: JOINER’S NOTES 
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Interesting cross section. Could it, perhaps, be where a tree has grown around an existing sapling? It certainly happens with fence posts and the like and I’m sure that I have seen examples in the woods here in Wales. We have mixed Sessile Oak and Larch growing around here.
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Howard
in this case, it is certainly one log – I didn’t get a detail enough shot, but you can see the growth rings running right as they should.
We have some oaks that were burned, then resprouted, that may be on their way to some of that action. The fire was in 1991, so we only have another 50 or 60 years to wait to find out!
Where did that tree come from?
Paula
OK, call me in 50 years & maybe I’ll come over and we can open one up…
I forget where we got the oak, but it’s one place or another. Gurney’s or Ripley, I’d say. Local for sure, within what, 40 miles?
You could count the rings from the outside in to see how long ago it happened and then check if there where any forest fires around that time.
Agrees, one weird log. Amazing how something tramatic happened to this tree (i go with the fire theory) yet it repaired itself and continued to grow. Trees are wonderful, no doubt.
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Your log has ring-shake. This is quite common in other species especialy Yew trees. The tree has been subjected to high winds and the trunk has whipped severly enough to fracture along the growth rings. After the gale the tree continues growing but the damage remains forever When you see these circular shakes in the end grain you should reduce the value of the entire tree.
I found the same thing in a length of firewood in the round. The log was about 12″ diam, and when I split it, out popped a perfect froe handle about 1 1/4″ diameter. Smooth, too.
I can’t see how fire would damage under the bark and leave the cambium intact to let the tree continue growing. Probably ring shake, as Rodney says. Lightning does weird things too, sometimes.
Another question, particularly about Rick’s section. There appears to be a fair amount of twist. Won’t that cause a problem down the road for his door? Or is this the best you can hope for as far as raw stock these days?