Gnarly Grain, Dude...

[Hasufel]

I spent the weekend splitting some red oak and noticed something strange. Some of the rounds were immune to the X27 so I blasted them apart with my Fiskars maul and found that the grain was really gnarly in spots. It reminded me of ramen noodles. The rest of the grain was nice and straight like it should be. Anybody encounter something like this before and/or have any ideas what causes this?



And FWIW, here's my pile from this weekend. Had to give up when the rain moved in.

 

[xman23]

Don't know, but it is cool

 

[Dantheman300z]

I have some hard maple that has done that. Almost too bad it is firewood, would make beautiful furniture.

 

[blacktail]

That's neat looking stuff.

 

[Tar12]

I cut a lot of mature oaks both red and white and find this often. I find it a lot in crotchy pieces. It often weighs more than a comparable straight grain piece. Its very dense and takes forever to season but when it does it seems to burn forever...sometimes I will encounter a large section grained like you pictured and its very hard to split.I will take the saw and square up some nice chunks and rat hole them back for bitter cold nights...

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

Yes beautiful for woodworkers. My dad used to always keep an eye out for quality wood like that. It is caused by uneven weight distribution in the tree and it essentially produces super dense and curly compression wood to support the imbalance. He always has me save stuff like that or quilted or spalted maple for him. He's a luthier. Nice pile. Will be working up my red oak soon.

 

[Jay106n]

Wow, that is mesmerizing.

 

[D8Chumley]

Very cool, I've not seen grain like that before. Thanks for sharing

 

[Jags]

I find wavy grain like that from yard trees, or wind blown trees (edge of tree line, fence row, etc). It is almost like mother natures re-bar. It can make for some tough splitting.

 

[Johnny_Fiv3]

That is really cool looking.


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[peakbagger]

I have a new jointer head coming so I can handle this type of wood.https://shelixheads.com/. With normal blades, the grain tears out.

 

[Hasufel]

I cut a lot of mature oaks both red and white and find this often. I find it a lot in crotchy pieces. It often weighs more than a comparable straight grain piece. Its very dense and takes forever to season but when it does it seems to burn forever...sometimes I will encounter a large section grained like you pictured and its very hard to split.I will take the saw and square up some nice chunks and rat hole them back for bitter cold nights...

Yes, this stuff is super dense. The whole tree has been a bear to split. I finally resorted to noodling and sledging & wedging to break the rounds up into manageable chunks. They were so heavy I could hardly budge them.

It is caused by uneven weight distribution in the tree and it essentially produces super dense and curly compression wood to support the imbalance.

That makes sense because this tree was a real leaner. Considering the angle, I'm surprised it held out for so long...I counted 120 rings near the base. It finally uprooted but was still quite healthy and probably could have lasted many more years.

 

[Hasufel]

I have a new jointer head coming so I can handle this type of wood.https://shelixheads.com/. With normal blades, the grain tears out.

That's interesting! I might have to invest in something like that once I have time to do more woodworking.

Almost too bad it is firewood, would make beautiful furniture.

Yeah, the problem is that the grain is like that only in places and I didn't realize it until well after I bucked the tree and started splitting it. But now i'm thinking I might try to salvage some chunks for small items, like a pen holder or desk set.

 

[Tar12]

I have seen some very beautiful furniture made out of this wood.

 

[pyroheater]

I have some Oak that has similar grain, usually found around the joints where the branches meet. I will try and find some pictures, but one round I threw in lasted all night and left lots of coals still burning in the morning. Great for those chilly nights

 

[pyroheater]

Here is a screenshot of the Oak I have with the gnarly looking grain. Also have a link to a youtube video I made of one of my stashes...

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[pernox]

I haven't seen it in oak, but have caught it several times in maple - always makes me wish for more woodworking tools and time to turn it into something other than firewood.

 

[CheapBassTurd]

Came across some of that a few weeks back. Ashes now................

 

[peakbagger]

One of my coworkers years ago had a neighbor that was a sawyer for Ethan Allen furniture. He ran the cutter head in the sawmill and would select the ideal cuts from every log. At the time Ethan Allen made straight grain production furniture so every board with figured grain would get rejected and sent to boiler. As hobby he carved spoons and would occasionally take home figured boards and throw them in his old chicken coop. My friend mentioned it and I went to visit one weekend and he sold me pile of curly maple boards and a couple pieces of birdseye. Its great stuff and I have used it for various detail pieces on boats I have built. Given the hassle it is to work with it without grain tearout I have the greatest respect for those who can build entire pieces of furniture.