oak, misc

open main page for all woods open page 2 for articles

OAK, MISC

Quercus spp.

Quercus spp. of the family Fagaceae. Even if you totally discount the woods that have oak in one or more of their common names, but are NOT of the genus Quercus, there are, depending on who you listen to, between 300 and 900 varities of oak. I have the species name for 300 of them. Many of the differences are surely small and of interest mainly to botanists, but even so there are still a huge number of varieties that are of interest to woodworkers. Many varieties are posted on the Internet without sufficient information and those I put on this page. Also, some "trade names" or "marketing names" do not specify white or red or English Brown, or any of the normal categories, but instead focus on grain type ("ropey"). Those also end up on this page. Also, there are some well identified species for which I do not have enough samples to warrent their own page and they end up here as well.

my samples:
NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K)
colors will vary under other lighting conditions

both sides of a sample plank of chestnut leaf oak / Quercus castaneifolia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This species grows in Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean region and is also known as Persian oak and as far as I know it does not grow in (or at least certainly is not native to) North America.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of chestnut leaf oak / Quercus castaneifolia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The pics do not even begin to do justice to the ray flakes. This species grows in Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean region and is also known as Persian oak and as far as I know it does not grow in (or at least certainly is not native to) North America.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of bluejack oak / Quercus incana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of Caucasian oak / Quercus macranthera --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of Caucasian oak / Quercus macranthera --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

first face and the end grain of a sample listed as "Grand Island" oak. I don't know if that is where the sample was collected or was back then a common name for a particular species of oak. None of my reference show it and all I can tell from the end grain characteristics is that this is not a live oak. I'm pretty sure that I see tyloses in the pores which would make it a white oak, but I'm not 100% on that. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION B

the second face, before and after slicing off 1/8" showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above.

first face and the end grain of a sample of swamp oak / Quercus spp. --- This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION C

the second face, before and after slicing off 1/8" showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

first face and the end grain of a sample of yellow oak / Quercus spp. --- This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION G. It is possible that this is black oak (aka Eastern black oak) / Quercus velutina in which case it should be on the black oak page, but since I can't be sure, I've left it here on the misc oak page.

the second face, before and after sanding it down a bit, showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

NOT a raw wood color
a closeup of a finished slab table top, shot in a furniture store because of the interesting wavy grain. The pic was badly focused, unfortunately, so there are no enlargements. The color is yellowish because of the finish

two little cut-offs of ambrosia oak contributed to the site by Rob Mathison whom I thank for this and other contributions. On both these pics and on the pics below, HUGE enlargements are present.

both faces of one of the pieces

end grain closeups of the pieces directly above

small piece and end grain. I got this piece before I knew much about wood and for some reason, clearly based entirely on ignorance, I had it as eucalyptus and it was on the site that way for years. I now know that it's an oak and based on the end grain it looks exactly like a piece of laurel oak that I have (which is a red oak) but I can't say for sure that that's what it is. I have no idea where I got it.

end grain and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly

both sides of a piece of oak that has lots of SOMETHING (adventitious buds, embedded tiny branches, I don't know what) and whatever they are they take the form of enlarged, resinous rays that show up as dark spots on the face grain. This piece and the one directly below are from the same tree and were contributed to the site by Rob Mathison whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

face grain and side grain closeups of the piece directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

both sides of a piece of oak that has lots of SOMETHING (adventitious buds, embedded tiny branches, I don't know what) and is from the same tree as the piece directly above.

closeup of the face grain of the piece

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

oak strips contributed to the site by Garry Painter, whom I thank. Gary got these off of a boat that he was reworking. The darker colored pieces are from the inside of the boat, where oxygen was more present and thus those pieces are more badly degraded than the dark pieces which ran along the bottom (outside) of the keel. Because these were used on a boat I assume that they are white oak, but since I did not verify the presence of tyloses in the pores, I've put them here on the misc page.

the end grain of the pieces and a closeup of a sanded face grain of one piece from each set

probably red oak but could be white. This is the butt end of a bunch of planks that have been glued together as part of a large bench in the Exchange Place PATH station in Jersey City, NJ --- this is the arm rest. Obviously treated with some finishing agent, this set of end grain shots really shows clearly how it is that the ray flakes occur in oak when the cut goes parallel to those light colored ray lines. It also shows clearly how the ray lines (very light color) are perpendicular to the grain lines (very dark color); this shows up even better in the enlargement.

The Wood Book pics

flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
MacDonald oak (Quercus macdonaldi, which is a misspelling of Quercus macdonaldii) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views. I don't know if this is a red oak or a white oak, so it's here with the miscellaneous oaks.

web pics:

misc oak by figure (or just Quercus spp.)

holly oak (Quercus ilex)

MISC OAK BY FIGURE NOT SPECIES
(OR BY UNKNOWN SPECIES, JUST "OAK")

oak end grain with black-line spalting in the sapwood

rift cut plank with wet and dry sections, just listed as Quercus spp.

cluster burl

pippy planks

burl plank moistened for the pic

burl planks

two views of an oak burl ... GIGANTIC enlargments are present and really show the burl eyes very nicely

oak burl plank with spalting and moistened for the pic

oak burl scales

wormy oak planks ... that second one looks like ambrosia beetle stains

spalted oak plank

three bole end grains from sections of seriously spalted logs of Chinese cork oak / Quercus variabilis harvested in Taiwan and photographed by Byron Barker who owns them

flat cut veneer

rift cut veneer

quartersawn veneer

curly veneer

cluster burl veneer

pippy veneer

pippy veneer all from the same vendor (remember, "pippy", for some oak means "burl") --- the color is too pink, but that's typical of this vendor

"pippy" (= "burl") sheet closeup with both enlargements

ropey veneer

burl veneer

very nicely done end grain knife handle

burl oak goblet with captive ring and a spalted oak bottle stopper

spalted oak, planks and bowl, no idea what species

bowl listed as oak burl

three views of a spalted (white rot) oak bowl

oak bowl showing black line spalting, white rot, and mineral stain

oak burl bowls, some with natural edge

oak, burl vase

feather crotch oak platter shot at a wood shot. The finish was listed as antique oil. HUGE enlargements are present, nicely showing off the feather crotch.