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Better late than never.
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2026
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That is not late. Oaks are slow growing trees, a timeline of 200 years is expected for them.
Think about how long it took to grow when carving wood. Then you fuck it up and ruin it. A tree older than the oldest relative you can remember died for this and you ruined it.
At some point I do want to buy some proper wood rather than using broken fence panels, but then it costs money.
Wait till you spend a hundred bucks on a small piece of rosewood to build a guitar bridge and cock it up.
This seems oddly specific. Someone you know?
or so I'm told ...
This is why I only use fast-growing, purpose-harvested pine.
This, and the "costs money" part. You either have an entire lumber mill in your garage, or you buy the expensive, pre-milled stuff. There's no way wood furniture is cheap. It's like if they can't sell us the finished furniture, they're going to get their profit from the materials to build it.
Fuck Capitalism, and the billionaires who leech from us.
Technically you can mill and shape lumber by hand with handsaws and like a jack plane. It does take awhile, though
Given I want to make small things I have wondered about using firewood. Probably a lot of work to saw it down though and often has cracks from drying quickly.
There are some fallen trees in the park. Could I just take them?
That's highly variable depending on country and local law. Usually no that wouldn't be legal.
In places like National parks or conservation areas I'd encourage you to leave them alone. A dead tree is part of the natural cycle.
A city park where they will mulch it up tomorrow definitely ecologically fine to take. Check local legality
You also need to let the wood cure.
i think this is also why conifers are so popular for timber these days, grows much faster. AFAIK something like pine takes maybe 40 years until it can be harvested.
Check out “daisugi,” a Japanese pollarding technique that produces usable timber even faster (basically having one rootstock grow multiple main trunks). IIRC in the 1700’s they were harvesting pine every 25 years
However, it ain’t no replacement for oak. Does smell a lot better, though
40 year mature conifers also have completely different properties and is subpar for the things oak is great for. A conifer won't work as a mast for example. Fast grown confiers will rot like crazy.
They work well enough for situations where they are protected from the elements, which is why they are used in construction. But an old house made from slow growth, espicially a lot of hardwoods, won't instantly rot when water gets in.
Acorn to Arabella made their mast from spruce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGac8Xa-i8A (skip to 1:53)
I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I think an oak mast is more likely to break in a storm because it's stiffer.
I should have said for warships to be extra clear as if you make something small enough even balsa wood works. Also, oak holds up better in a wet and salty environment.
They used oak because it was proven to work across centuries. They took down sails during storms to avoid damage to the mast, which would happen no matter what wood is used.
Douglas fir are historically popular for masts as well because they grow so straight and tall.
Spruce is a great material for masts because it’s light and strong. Fir might be appropriate, too. Avoid pine, it’s knotty and rots faster.
It's late if you want to build a warship out of them. Environmentally though, it's fantastic.
"I know not which weapons will be used to fight WWIII, but it'll be sticks and stones in WWIV" to misquote whoever that was. Maybe it's still a little early. heh
The original quote was Einstein, btw
— Abraham Lincoln, probably
And thank you. I'd forgotten the source, only remembered it through Cards Against Humanity. hehe