I was watching one of our public TV programs about the USS Constitution. A large battle ship over 150 years old, docked in Massachusetts. I was fortunate enough to personally tour that ship in the 70s. Anyway, they said it was made of White Oak and Live Oak.  I had never heard of "Live Oak" I have used all sorts of Exotic woods, but not Live Oak. Google took me to the south where I discovered that it was those  huge, beautiful  low limb trees with moss hanging from them, that I always admired.  The largest on record is nearly 12 feet in Dia.

 Since I have never seen that wood for sale, is it protected or called by another name?

I saw one of those down in a small park in Miami a few years back, had no idea what it was.  That one was close to 6' wide at the base.

That is  a lot of info, however it still didn't answer why it isn't used for woodworking any more. Being super hard, I'd think it would make some nice turning projects.

Lewis Kauffman said:

Here is some information:

 

Live Oak

 

Lew

When it comes to live oak , you just need to be consistently smarter than the species you are working with .

I also might add that I was fortunate enough to attend second grade in school outside of London, England in the early 1960's. We were required to write a formal report, which I still have, on ships knees preparation of oak trees as they did historically centuries earlier. I had no inkling at the time how this bit of obscure knowledge would affect what I do today. LOL!

Some live oak -sub agrifolia .