Quote Originally Posted by johnny_angel View Post
An odd thing - last year I forgot my axe chopped into a red oak stump. I went back a day later (18 hours?) and the thing was completely BLACK where it was buried in the stump. It didn't clean up completely even on the wire wheel. Maybe the wood has to be green and in pressured contact with the steel to have an effect?

It sure wrecked the axe blade in no time but appears to have no effect on a razor resting on it.
Fresh oak is extremely high on tannic acid, which is a very strong oxidizer for iron. If you ever saw a stack of fresh oak lumber resting at the lumber mill, you have probably noticed they have sprinklers on it. One of the ideas behind that is to wash the tannic acid out of the wood. In the old days they used to "water" wood like oak in a pond. It is said that oak gained extra hardness from such a treatment, but I am not entirely sure if that's a scientific truth, but out of experience with working with 200 years old oak, I can testify that is is considerably harder than new oak.
If seasoned oak is kept dry, the tannic acid is inactive.