RED/WHITE OAK

RED OAK

Uses: Red oak is largely cut into lumber, railroad ties, mine timbers, fence posts, veneer, pulpwood and fuel wood. It is re-manufactured into flooring, furniture, general mill work, boxes, pallets and crates, caskets, wooden ware and handles.

Red oak is not suitable for tight cooperage or exterior work. Oak is full of tannic acid and in fact the tannic acid in the bark was used for tanning animal hides for centuries. When the tannic acid mixes with the iron in our water it creates a chemical blue dye. This is why red oak stains black when water is allowed to penetrate the surface and why you must be careful not to get water on your red oak flooring. It is its closely related cousin "white oak" that we associate with exterior usage and rot resistance.

The Tree: Quercus Rubra
Northern red oak is the largest group in this family and has the broadest distribution across North America. It has great commercial significance. The trees can grow to 150' and 4'+ in diameter. There are many other varieties of red oak, Shumard, black, scarlet, water, willow, pin and nuttal oak, that grow in more select areas, but generally red oaks are broadly distributed across the United States and southeastern Canada.

Wood Description:
The sapwood is nearly white and usually one to two inches thick; the heartwood is brown with a tinge of red or pink. It seems that the farther south the wood is cut the redder and coarser it gets. Due to slower growth, wood cut in northern US and southern Canada has a finer texture, more consistent pale pink color and somewhat denser, than central or southern US oak.

Northern Oak is preferred in all turning and flooring applications. Southern oak is easier to mill, due to its softer texture, but does have more tendency to splinter and tear-out. The wood is most often straight grained, and open pored. It can be steam bent with caution. After drying properly it is one of the most dimensionally stable domestic woods, even in wider widths. It is broadly available in a good selection of widths and thicknesses. Lower grades show significant variation in color and of coarse knots.

WHITE OAK

White Oaks are separated from their cousins in the red oak family. The pores of the heartwood of white oaks are usually plugged with a membranous growth known as tyloses. This makes it impenetrable to liquids and ideally suited to the boat industry. The red oak, on the other hand, has no tylose in its cells, and thus not used in any marine based applications.