Driftwood - Is Oak OK for DIY

**ddavis1979** · 12-31-2012, 04:14 PM

I have some good driftwood right behind my house but it seems to all be oak.

Does anyone here have experience with Oak specifically and safety in using in your tank.

I know to scrub and boil and soak and all that stuff, but oak has some pretty serious tanins as well, so I wanted to probe the community to see if anyone had actually used it and had success.

I think its either Silver or Red Oak local to Virginia, Central East Coast.

**KevinVA** · 12-31-2012, 05:10 PM

Oak (and most hard wood) is fine for driftwood, as long as it's been weathered and you clean it well. De-bark, clean it well and boil or just soak if you want to remove tannins.

**dmagerl** · 12-31-2012, 08:02 PM

From a woodworking point of view, White oak with its closed cell structure is a very rot resistant wood. Red oak with its open cell structure, not so much. White oaks may be harder to sink, again because of its closed cell structure.

White oaks tend to have rounded leaf tips. Red oaks have pointy leafs. All oaks fall into one of those two categories.

So depending on species, it may last a long time, or it may rot away rather quickly.