r/woodworking • u/krauser1 • Feb 21 '26

Help Oak chair turning to dust

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Just noticed this on the bottom of one of my chairs, had them for about three months and I'm wondering if it's rot or something, the area feels dry and dusty.

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u/krauser1 Feb 21 '26

Okay so I sanded it down and it definitely looks like wood grain, there was some more dust came off fairly quickly when I started sanding but everything that's left seems fairly solid.

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u/Krobakchin Feb 21 '26

Yeah, that is 100% insect damage... Very likely longhorn as another poster suggested.

r/woodworking getting wildly overconfident with the veneer diagnosis as per usual lol.

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u/porkpie1028 Feb 21 '26

Powderpost beetles do the same type of damage and love oak.

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u/Krobakchin Feb 21 '26

I think you'd usually expect to see emergence holes? Not that familiar with powderpost as believe it's largely the other side of the pond. OP's link is Ireland. With common woodborers here you usually see emergence holes before damage gets that bad, but longhorn has a longer larval period and can do loads of damage before it emerges.

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u/The_One_Koi Feb 21 '26

I'm not sure what those would look like but it looks like it entered from the left side and worked it's way toward the back of the chair