Is Tanoak Hardwood

Tanoak or tanbark oak is not a true oak but is more closely related to the beech family.

Is tanoak hardwood.

Tanoak is sometimes used as lumber but is not currently harvested commercially. It grows in the siskiyou and coast ranges of southern oregon and northern california. The wood can be thought of as an untamed beast. Veneer flooring railroad cross ties and furniture.

Tanoak is a hard heavy wood that in many ways resembles the true oaks. The wood is heavy and hard. If you read up on tanoak tree facts you find that the tree can occupy any crown position in a hardwood forest. Except for compression perpendicular to grain the wood has roughly the same strength properties as those of eastern white oak.

Prices should be moderate for a domestic hardwood. Tanoak is a hardwood that makes excellent firewood. Tanoak is close to true oak in both appearance and workability though it s not in the quercus genus. Sapwood of tanoak is light reddish brown when first cut and turns darker with age to become almost indistinguishable from heartwood which also ages to dark reddish brown.

The wood is a light reddish brown when freshly cut but it ages to a tannish reddish brown. While it has characteristics similar to both oak and chestnut it is not truly from either of these families. Common uses of tanoak include as lumber for a variety of hardwood products including furniture flooring and firewood. Tanoak is also known as california chestnut.

It has an excellent strength to weight ratio for both mor and moe but has very high movement. Tanoak firewood burns long and hot similar to black oak. This wood species is not listed in the cites appendices or on the iucn red list of threatened species. Tanoak injured by fire is susceptible to fungal infection specifically white root rot and weeping conk though other diseases are common.

It can be the tallest in a stand or it can be an understory tree growing in the shade of loftier trees. Thus tanoak is often included in discussions about lumber from western oak species.