Beetle in the middle of oak?

[toolsntat]

Been working on an old oak door frame and uncovered some historic worm attack down the centre of the plank.
Any ideas what's been going on as I cannot remember the last time I seen it like this?
I get the impression this was done before being turned into the door frame as some of the tunnels have been sliced through.
It's the same on both jambs and is likely to be the same plank.
Oh, and a shot of the head just cause it's luvverly....
And the screws are temporary
Cheers Andy

 

[Cabinetman]

I’m so glad you said the screws were temporary haha, they look like new cast-iron butts, was it you had a post on them on here? You’ve done a nice job repairing where the old hinges were BTW. The holes in the doorjamb don’t look like woodworm holes to me, panelpin holes from when you were repairing?
Yes it’s unusual to see woodworm in the heartwood of Oak, it’s difficult to tell from photos but where they are looks to be like a lighter stripe on the edge of that board before they were glued together and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a little bit of Sapwood. Ian

 

[Doug B]

From what I understand about woodworm they eat into sapwood as it’s nutritionally rich but if no sapwood is available they will happily infest heartwood.
Apparently the lack of nutrients in the heartwood restricts their ability to reproduce hence them wanting sapwood, I’ve a few examples of worm in heartwood Oak as well as other hardwood timber especially Beech.

 

[clogs]

you'll be glad you dont live south of the Loire in France then.....
this is what we had to deal with on a reg basis....Capricorn beetle....oh, and the picture of the grub is 1/2 size, can be as big as ur thumb before they pupate....no kidding.....

they wood (parden the pun) eat into 200 year old oak beams......I can tell u the beams can be as hard as concrete...
the grubs are so big and disgusting even our greedy chickens wouldn't eat em.....
loads'a fun.....
it got so bad one year the even 12''diameter trees would just keel over...eaten away by these monsters......

 

[Daniel2]

@frank horton ,
I have had them appearing occasionally in the workshop.
Resisting the reflex action of killing them, I put them in a dustpan and take them out to our "Wild Bit" of woodland.
It appears that they're an endangered species.

 

[toolsntat]

I’m so glad you said the screws were temporary haha, they look like new cast-iron butts, was it you had a post on them on here? You’ve done a nice job repairing where the old hinges were BTW. The holes in the doorjamb don’t look like woodworm holes to me, panelpin holes from when you were repairing?
Yes it’s unusual to see woodworm in the heartwood of Oak, it’s difficult to tell from photos but where they are looks to be like a lighter stripe on the edge of that board before they were glued together and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a little bit of Sapwood. Ian

No they're reclaimed hinges of the most excellent quality and yes that recent thread, now updated, was by me. Of the four hinges only one had a minor amount of movement along the knuckle which was overcome by turning over appropriately.
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/are-4-cast-iron-butts-no-longer-available.124548/
Yes. pin holes in the rebate from tacking a "bottoming" batten. This allows use of an old woman's tooth to give a tidy flat line to the start of the repair chop.
Even now Ian, you have made me look again and reconsider the possibility of a joint (and I'm sure I can see some) but the shot with "hinge right" distinctly shows a change in grain direction and a few medullary rays across the board. This needs more cleaning as it's not being repainted so more detail may be revealed.
Andy

 

[bjm]

Could be Pin-hole borer which can infest oak heartwood. Commonly associated with a fungus it uses for food (Ambrosia) which causes dark stains. There are also signs of fungal decay on the left of the second picture - cubic cracking of the wood. Nothing to worry about as it only thrives in moist wood - dry wood is too hard.

 

[toolsntat]

From what I understand about woodworm they eat into sapwood as it’s nutritionally rich but if no sapwood is available they will happily infest heartwood.
Apparently the lack of nutrients in the heartwood restricts their ability to reproduce hence them wanting sapwood, I’ve a few examples of worm in heartwood Oak as well as other hardwood timber especially Beech.

This may be what has happened here then Doug.
Andy

 

[toolsntat]

Could be Pin-hole borer which can infest oak heartwood. Commonly associated with a fungus it uses for food (Ambrosia) which causes dark stains. There are also signs of fungal decay on the left of the second picture - cubic cracking of the wood. Nothing to worry about as it only thrives in moist wood - dry wood is too hard.

Interesting note about the fungal decay.
This used to be an outside frame and from stripping the (painted from new) oak fanlight above it revealed it had been taking in water for many years. The odd little bit of rot along the bottom rail is evidence that if the porch hadn't been added when it was, the fanlight would have rotted too far to repair.
There are also 2 repairs to the bottom of the rotted frame jambs.
This may account for degradation of the pith behind the frame paintwork and subsequent beetle attack. It's definitely been painted/repainted with the holes there.
Andy

 

[bjm]

I meant that dry wood is too hard for the beetle to re-infest. It's more likely that the beetle attack was prior to it being made into a door frame? The stain could be due to iron (nails) leaching into the wood from the water then?

As for as the fungal decay; it does need an elevated level of moisture in the wood (around 20% mc) but it won't tolerate being too wet - you often see the decay some distance away from the source of the water - where the localised moisture content is just right for growth. It will stop where the wood is drier.

 

[toolsntat]

I meant that dry wood is too hard for the beetle to re-infest. It's more likely that the beetle attack was prior to it being made into a door frame? The stain could be due to iron (nails) leaching into the wood from the water then?

As for as the fungal decay; it does need an elevated level of moisture in the wood (around 20% mc) but it won't tolerate being too wet - you often see the decay some distance away from the source of the water - where the localised moisture content is just right for growth. It will stop where the wood is drier.

Thanks, the thought that the worm may have occurred before manufacture had crossed my mind.
Bit cheeky to use it with it, but if, as I suspect, it was a paint job from the start it was likely all filled and primed before going to site.
Those dark patches on the wood are from a previous blowtorch burn off of the paint.
Cheers Andy

 

[bjm]

.....Those dark patches on the wood are from a previous blowtorch burn off of the paint.
...

That's another explanation!!