Age of Oak wood.

[Marischal Ellis]

I have not been viewing for ages but would like to ask a question of you all of the possible age of wood. I would like to make something for my family now in USA. As old age objects are not always so common over there.
I have bits of oak salvaged (10mm oak door panel) from a family grandfather clock bought about 1890 probably second hand belonging to what would be the families great, great maternal grandparents. I also have by chance, bits (oak drawer sides from a Scottish (design) chest of drawers of what would be great, great maternal or was paternal grand parents. The clock came from Stirling and the dresser from Edinburgh probably. The remaining wood was infested but this wood was and is clean.
So both about the same era of 1890ish or 1900 so what age would wood or tree be, allowing for tree planting (natural seedling possibly) growth, seasoning, felling and letting it rest/ convert, and the making of the furniture. My idea is I have just enough material to make three small trays for present family. So probably not European or English which would have relied heavily on the railways so probably Scottish wood. So the question is how old could it possibly be? I like to be able to put a good guess on it as I have absolutely no idea at what age trees were felled.
Your help would be most appreciated.

 

[alex robinson]

It is possible to make an estimate of the youngest the tree could possibly have been. Find the section that has the most growth rings - if there is a piece that is close to being quarter sawn, that would give you not only the easiest rings to count, but also the largest number of rings for the given sized piece of wood. Allow a minimum of 3 years for seasoning. This is likely to be a massive underestimate, as you won't have a very large portion of the tree.

Next option would be to make reasonable assumptions. Again, 3 years seems the minimum time for post felling seasoning and processing. Current management for oak forestry would suggest a rotation period of around 120 - 150 years (https://www.confor.org.uk/media/246706/life-of-a-tree-2-forest-august-17.pdf, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21513732.2015.1120780).

Someone on here who is an expert on historical buildings will be able to say with more confidence what the management practices would have been in the 19th century, but pressure on oak woodlands will likely have been low given the drop off in demand for warship construction. There is no guarantee as timber can be sourced from smaller trees.

A lot of firewood or construction oak would have been grown on a 20-25 year coppice cycle, so small manufacturers could have used that. Does the wood count as the age of the bit of the tree that was harvested, or the age of the whole tree?

Either way, I think you can be reasonably confident that it was planted pre independence (I assume this would be a major bragging point!)

Finally, you could use dendrochronology to work out the exact years each ring was laid down, but that would be expensive and a lot of work. https://historicengland.org.uk/imag...rochronology-guidelines/dendrochronology-pdf/. DIY analysis would appear to be possible (you would probably have to send a lot of hopeful emails to get access to a reference dataset to compare with, but unless you are a serious photography enthusiast expensive. This paper boasts that the costs would be no more than 1500 euros... https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/2041-210X.13847

 

[Terry - Somerset]

If you can see the end grain on the end of the door panel you may be able to deduce the size of tree from which it was cut - the diameter would have some link to approximate age, but would probably vary due to climatic norms where it is grown.

From a profit perspective I assume wider boards tend to be more valuable which a sawmill would seek to maximise from any given piece of timber. Wide boards can always be further cut down, narrow boards once cut cannot be easily re-joined.

Assume simplistically the cross section (rings) are concentric circles.

• If the grain direction at the ends is parallel it would suggest it is quarter sawn.
• If the grain from the centre of the board is a mirror image it is likely the door was cut from the full tree diameter (which would also include sapwood).
• If the grain does not appear to mirror itself it is likely the radius of the trunk - 2x the diameter
• If the grain at either end is at an angle to each other it should be possible to guesstimate (or calculate with basic geometry) the minimum size of trunk from which it was cut.
• Where the ring growth is close to parallel with the width of the door I would expect the diameter of the trunk to be large - an older tree. Less likely with a wider panel as it would have a tendency to cup.
• Where the ring growth is at (say) 45% to the width suggests a tree of intermediate size.

 

[niall Y]

Oak is one of those timbers, along with Redwood and Fir that has been continuously imported, from the continent over the centuries. The chief sources were once from ports such as Danzig and Riga. Therefore one cannot guarantee that it is necessarily home grown. In fact if it is nice straight grained timber without knots and used for furniture, it could well be imported stock, via a port such as Leith.

 

[profchris]

Oak is one of those timbers, along with Redwood and Fir that has been continuously imported, from the continent over the centuries. The chief sources were once from ports such as Danzig and Riga. Therefore one cannot guarantee that it is necessarily home grown. In fact if it is nice straight grained timber without knots and used for furniture, it could well be imported stock, via a port such as Leith.

Agreed. English grown oak tends not to be tall and straight, whilst oaks from Continental forests were and are.

English hedgerow oak was in demand for shipbuilding because of the crooked timbers for stem, stern etc. Oaks from woods were mainly used for house frames. Oliver Rackham's History of the English Countryside is a good read on this, and debunks the myth that forests were cut down for shipbuilding.