This Old Red Oak Slab will Surprise You

Every now and then a log comes along that doesn’t look like much when you start cutting it.

Several weeks ago I was running some logs through our AC-44 sawmill, and one of them was an old red oak that had been standing dead at my place for a while. It wasn’t a pretty log by any means. It was knotty, had some spalting, a few powder post beetle holes, and plenty of character.

Most folks might look at a log like that and think it’s firewood.

But I’ve been around lumber long enough to know something important:

Old wood will surprise you.

When we started sawing the log, some of the boards already showed interesting color and grain. Nothing fancy yet, but enough to make me curious about what might be hiding under the surface.

So I decided to take a few of those boards and run them through the 27-inch planer we’ve got here in the shop.

That’s where things started getting interesting.

As the planer made its first pass, it began cleaning up the rough sawmill marks and leveling the surface. Every pass revealed a little more of the wood underneath.

That’s one of the things I enjoy about woodworking. You never fully know what you’re going to see until the steel touches the wood.

With each pass through the planer, the grain started popping out. The knots became more defined. The spalting patterns started showing up, and the color variations really began to stand out.

What started out as a rough, ugly board was turning into something pretty special.

That’s the beauty of working with lumber.

Sometimes the boards that look the worst at first end up becoming the most interesting pieces of wood you’ll ever work with.

This particular red oak board has the kind of character that would make a beautiful charcuterie board, cutting board, or even a small furniture piece. You could fill a knot with epoxy or putty, sand it smooth, and bring it to life with a good finish.

In fact, in a future video I may take this same piece and put some polyurethane or lacquer on it just to show how much the grain really comes alive once it's finished.

But even before finishing, you can already see the potential.

That’s one of the lessons wood teaches you if you spend enough time around it.

Don’t judge the board too early.

Give it a chance to clean up. Run it through the planer. Sand it down. Let the grain show itself.

You might be surprised by what’s hiding inside.

If you enjoy woodworking and working with real lumber, it’s hard to beat the feeling of seeing a rough board turn into something beautiful.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that process with you and let you see how well that old red oak turned out.

Sometimes the best boards start out looking like the worst logs.

And that’s part of the fun of working with wood.

If you’re interested in learning more about our sawmills or blades, give our team a call at 1-800-473-4804.

We’re always glad to help folks get the most out of their sawmills.