Tree Lean versus Reaction Wood

[Endless Pursuit]

I've spent quite a bit of time searching for info online and looked in a few books I have and cannot find the answer I'm looking for, so I'm hoping someone here knows more about reaction wood than I've been able to find.

I have several very nice trees on my property that I plan to harvest for lumber to support my addiction. Some of the candidates are leaning to varying degrees (3 to 20 degrees) and I'm looking for guidance as to how much lean a tree can have without it forming reaction wood to a degree that would make it unuseable.

The trees in question are either Red oak or Beech. The poplars and white oaks are straight as an arrow so I'm not concerned with them at all. Just wondering where I should draw the line in deciding which ones to harvest.

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[CrealBilly]

I've spent quite a bit of time searching for info online and looked in a few books I have and cannot find the answer I'm looking for, so I'm hoping someone here knows more about reaction wood than I've been able to find.

I have several very nice trees on my property that I plan to harvest for lumber to support my addiction. Some of the candidates are leaning to varying degrees (3 to 20 degrees) and I'm looking for guidance as to how much lean a tree can have without it forming reaction wood to a degree that would make it unuseable.

The trees in question are either Red oak or Beech. The poplars and white oaks are straight as an arrow so I'm not concerned with them at all. Just wondering where I should draw the line in deciding which ones to harvest.

Any info would be appreciated.

My experience only.

No tree is perfectly straight - I don't think you'll ever find one. They may look straight but when you get them on the sawmill you learn otherwise.

Excessive lean is mainly caused by wind. If the tree is cut for lumber within a few months of the wind causing it to lean you "may" have success with drying the lumber or you may not... It depends on how much "new" wood it has put on after it started to lean. If it first leaned in the winter you may be OK if felled and bucked before it put on new growth in the spring.

Not sure what kind of wood lot you have but the best lumber comes from trees deep in the forest where they are more protected from wind shake. Wind shook trees exhibit ring separation during drying... The amount ring separation may or may not be bad enough to cull the lumber but you generally don't know until the lumber dries.

Poplar and cherry are notorious for exhibiting ring shake during drying. Oaks and hickories not so much. I haven't cut and dried much beach but what I have I really liked.

The best advise I can give you is try and see what happens - even if you have to cull some its better than not trying at all.

 

[mayszs]

I had a walnut tree that was leaning at least 25-30 degrees off vertical.
I milled the boards and had absolutely no problems with stability.
If you're that worried about it mill it thicker than you need so you can flatten any twists or bends after it dries.
If I were you I'd quartersaw the Beech

 

[scsmith42]

Jeff, you should be fine with a 3 degree lean, not so fine with a 20 degree lean. Unfortunately you can't make a good determination until the trees are felled and bucked, and you can measure how far offcenter the pith is. You don't want pith that is more than 15% or so off center though the bulk of the log. As an example, if you have a 20" diameter log in a perfect world the pith should be 10" from all sides of the tree. 15% of 10" is 1.5", so if the pith is much more than 1.5" off center then you may have some problems with the reaction wood.

This should not be confused with offcenter piths caused by forks or branches (which can compress the pith in a specific location in the log. The larger concern is where the pith is consistently offcenter the entire length of the log.

Zack, although sometimes the boards from offcenter pith logs will move as your milling, the large problem is after they are dried and are face joint / planed. The inconsistent stresses on the wood cells can cause the dry boards to move excessively after planing, rendering them useless for woodworking. That's why branch and limb wood is not milled for lumber.

BTW - good advice re QS'ing the beech!

 

[mayszs]

Jeff, you should be fine with a 3 degree lean, not so fine with a 20 degree lean. Unfortunately you can't make a good determination until the trees are felled and bucked, and you can measure how far offcenter the pith is. You don't want pith that is more than 15% or so off center though the bulk of the log. As an example, if you have a 20" diameter log in a perfect world the pith should be 10" from all sides of the tree. 15% of 10" is 1.5", so if the pith is much more than 1.5" off center then you may have some problems with the reaction wood.

This should not be confused with offcenter piths caused by forks or branches (which can compress the pith in a specific location in the log. The larger concern is where the pith is consistently offcenter the entire length of the log.

Zack, although sometimes the boards from offcenter pith logs will move as your milling, the large problem is after they are dried and are face joint / planed. The inconsistent stresses on the wood cells can cause the dry boards to move excessively after planing, rendering them useless for woodworking. That's why branch and limb wood is not milled for lumber.

BTW - good advice re QS'ing the beech!

Scott,
That's totally new info for me, learn something new everyday.
I've milled a bunch of larger branches (10"-18") before but always ended up using the lumber to make turning blanks because the train patterns and color variety were outstanding.

Endless
If you do cut down and quartersaw some Beech I'd love to get a couple to 3"-4" thick pieces from you for building hand planes.

 

[scsmith42]

Scott,
That's totally new info for me, learn something new everyday.
I've milled a bunch of larger branches (10"-18") before but always ended up using the lumber to make turning blanks because the train patterns and color variety were outstanding.

Endless
If you do cut down and quartersaw some Beech I'd love to get a couple to 3"-4" thick pieces from you for building hand planes.

Zack, I've gotcha covered re some QS beech for hand plane stock (if you're ok with spalted beech that is).

 

[mayszs]

Zack, I've gotcha covered re some QS beech for hand plane stock (if you're ok with spalted beech that is).

Scott,
Only if you twist my arm, #### the bad luck!!