OAK, RED

BOTANICAL NAME: Quercus spp. of the family Fagaceae (Quercus rubra is the most widely cited one, but "red oak" also includes MANY many others. Here are a few: COMMON NAMES: American red oak, black oak, blackjack oak, California live oak, Canadian red oak,cherrybark oak,eastern red oak,gray oak,laurel oak, mountain red oak, northern red oak, nuttall oak, pin oak ,scarlet oak, shumard oak,southern red oak,Spanish oak, swamp oak, water oak, willow oak

TYPE: hardwood

COLOR: heartwood is tan, frequently with a tinge of red, sometimes salmon colored or flesh colored and sapwood is whitish to grayish or pale reddish brown and usually 1 to 2 inches thick.

GRAIN: straight and open with prominent rays (slightly smaller rays than white oak)

Plainsawn lumber usually exhibits a plumed or flared grain appearance, sometimes called "cathedral" grain, while riftsawn members show a tighter grain pattern and low figuring. Quartersawn red oak boards often have a flake pattern which is sometimes referred to as tiger rays or butterflies. Grain and color variation is usually pronounced and is dependent upon the origin of the wood and the growing season in that locality. Upland red oaks, which tend to grow more slowly, generally have a more uniform grain pattern than lowland red oaks.

TEXTURE: generally coarse, but the texture depends upon the rate of growth of the tree. Red oaks grown in the north are less coarse textured than the faster-grown red oak from the southern states. Red oak rays are generally shorter, narrower and darker in color than White oak rays.

PROPERTIES / WORKABILITY: all of the woods sold as red oak are hard, tough, very stiff, and and very strong. They all machine quite well but have a tendency to chip and splinter and are somewhat difficult to work by hand because of that and because of hardness. Sharp tools are recommended. It machines and glues well and holds fasteners extremely well but tends to split when nailed, unless predrilled. Predrilling for screws is also a good idea. It bores quite well. It sands very well and turns very well and the blunting effect on cutters is only moderate despite the hardness of the wood.

DURABILITY: mechanically very durable (widely used for flooring) but has very low natural resistance to decay-causing micro-organisms and insects. It is reported to be resistant to preservative treatment despite the large open pores.

FINISH: takes a good finish, but open pores generally require a filler and the large pores tend to produce strong contrast in staining. Consistent use of a batch of either quarter sawn or flat sawn stock for a given project is recommended since prominent rays can render seams in edge-glued stock very obvious. A darker colored stain preceded by a light colored filler is reported to produce the 'lime' look, and high tannin content allows the wood to be treated with ammonia to yield a nearly black or 'Jacobean' finish.

STABILITY: moderate movement in Service

BENDING: often used for steam bending

ODOR: There is no distinctive taste or odor.

SOURCES: throughout North America and much of Europe

USES: red oak is the workhorse of the Ameican wood industry. It has both strength and beauty and that combined with its wide availablity and low price makes it suitable for a wider range of products than almost any other wood in existance. If you can make it out of wood, you can probably make it out of red oak. The graininess and open pores apparently make it relatively unsuitable for musical instruments and also for any kind of turnings where a naturally smooth surface is required, but otherwise it is used for just about everything.

It is a favorite for pallets, railroad ties, and heavy construction scaffolds because of its strength but widely used for all kinds of furniture and cabinetry because of its beauty. It is widely used for flooring because of both its beauty and durability (and of course, relatively low cost).

It is almost silly to list all the things that are made with this wood, but here are a few that I've encountered:

barrels, bedroom suites, boat building, boxes, boxes, building construction, building materials, cabin construction, cabinetmaking, cabinets (both kitchen and living room), caskets, chairs, chests, concealed parts (Furniture), construction, containers, desks, dining-room furniture, domestic flooring, dowell pins, dowells, drawer sides, drum sticks, excelsior, fine furniture. floor lamps, flooring, fuel wood, furniture, handles, hatracks, heavy construction, joinery, kitchen cabinets, lifeboats, living-room suites, millwork, mine timbers, mining timbers, office furniture, organ pipes, pallets, pallets, paneling, parquet flooring, piano keys, pianos, plywood, railroad crossties, rustic furniture, shipbuilding, ships, shop jigs, sounding boards, stools, sub-flooring, tables, tannin dyes, timber bridges, truck and trailer beds, turnery, utility furniture, veneer, violin bows, wardrobes, xylophones

Unike white oak, red oak is totally unsuitable for barrels, casks and kegs because of the open pores.

TREE: Northern red oak trees are reported to be typically smaller than White oaks. They reach an average height of about 60 to 80 feet with a trunk diameter of 12 to 36 inches. Trees of 125 feet are well known and one is on record at 145 feet

The bark from the trees is rich in tannin, which is used to tan leather.

WEIGHT: 43 to 48 lbs/cu.ft.

DRYING: shrinks considerably during drying.

Drying is reported to be generally difficult, but it is faster than in White oak. Excessive shrinkage requires that stack should be weighted down to prevent upper layers from distorting. End grain should be coated to prevent excessive checking. Some common drying defects found in both upland and lowland red oak are ring failure, honeycomb, and iron stains. Upland red oak is also prone to collapse during drying.

AVAILABILITY: widely available

COST: low

NOTES: compression oak is unbelieveably strong. I'm not exactly sure how "unbelievably" translates into numerical data, but in 40 years of woodworking I have never encountered a stronger wood than compression oak. NOTE: I say compression wood but it might well have been tension wood --- both are types of reaction wood and I don't know how to tell them apart absent seeing where they grew in the tree.

(2) Numerous reports state that fast grown oak, with wide rings, is stronger and heavier than slow grown oak with tight rings. This seems counter-intuitive to me, but I'm just reporting on what I've read.

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Red oak is also reported to be a popular export to other countries, and is one of the most popular American oaks used in Europe.

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Northern red oak (Q. rubra) and southern red oak (Q. falcata) are reported to be the primary sources of commercial American red oak, but their timber is often mixed and marketed together with that produced by other members in the red oak group without distinction. Supplies of red oak are reported to be plentiful, and the species is considered to be one of the most commonly available domestic hardwoods in the US. Oak in general, and particularly red oak, is reported to be the most popular timber for furniture, followed by cherry, pine, mahogany, ash, pecan, hard maple, and walnut.

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Anatomical differences which correspond to important botanical differences in the trees allow oaks to be separated into two main classes, red and white. Red oaks are found mainly in eastern Canada and the United States. They are made up of several very similar species which include American red oak or Northern red oak (Q. rubra ); Southern red oak (Q. falcata); Spanish oak, Swamp red oak, or Cherrybark oak (also Q. falcata); Shumard oak or Pin oak (Q. palustris); Nuttal oak (Q. nuttallii); Scarlet oak (Q. coccinea); Canyon live oak (Q. chrysolepis); and sometimes Black oak (Q. velutina). Red oak is regarded as one of the most beautiful woods to work with because of its grain pattern and character. Smaller rays give the timber a plainer figure than white oak, and its open pores make it less water-tight. Red oak is reported to be comparable to white oak in strength, and both are used in steam bending applications. Red oak is, however, less decay resistant than white oak or European oak. Also, red oak acorns are reported to be more bitter in taste than white oak acorns.

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The open grain is so pronounced that when gluing up projects it is not unusual to see glue coming out of the side of a piece and inch or even two inches from the point where the glue is applied. This can cause problems later when adding a finish because the glue will cause the stain to be absorbed differently than on the rest of the piece.

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Among the least expensive of the really strong woods, red oak frequently has a rich grain which can easily be brought out to great advantage with lindseed oil and clear finishes. Attractive enough with clear finishes that stains should be used only with due consideration. A light cherry stain can deepen the red tint of the wood to some advantage but at the same time tends to soften the attractive grain pattern; a walnut stain will heighten the grain pattern but will brown out the red tint and will, I think, detract from the natural beauty of the wood. Despite its hardness, it is an extremely porous wood; if you're trying for a really closed surface, white oak is a MUCH better choice and only slightly more expensive, but unless the porosity is an issue, I find red oak much preferable to White Oak for all projects.

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One thing to watch out for in buying red oak by mail order is sapwood. If you get "red oak" which is dirty- or greyish- brown, it is hard sapwood, which is strong but ugly. If it is dirty white (sometimes with yellow streaks), it is rotten sapwood which is not only ugly but also weak. In either case, it should not be accepted except for occasional very small sections at the edges of planks. Even in the best shipments, you're likely to find an edge here and there which is sapwood. Cabinet grade red oak does not contain any sapwood.

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Red oak is also one of my first two choices for making shop jigs which require stiffness since it is both inexpensive and very stiff --- plywood is a much more cost-effective material for jigs in general but oak provides a stiffness which is far superior for things such as clampling blocks and it doesn't "move" nearly as much as hard maple.

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Because of its coarse grain, red oak presents potential problems for both drilling and hand sanding. Drilling small holes on a precise center can be thwarted by the uneven density. If the center is on a hard area but very near a soft grain area, the bit may slip off into the soft grain area. With hand-held drills, this problem can be hard to overcome, but with a drill press all you have to do is move the bit slowly into the wood at first to provide a solid entry direction. I discovered this the hard way, by breaking a small bit which moved so far off of my drill press center-line that the rotational torque snapped the bit off in the wood.

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The end grain is so open that when applying many finishes, you can almost hear a slurping sound as the huge vessels just suck the finish down into the wood.

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In addition to being plentiful in the United States and Canada, red oaks are commonly found in Mexico and Central America. Mexico has more than 100 species and Guatemala about 25, according to the USDA’s handbook. The numbers diminish southward to Colombia, which has two species. The wood from the various tropical oak species is in most cases heavier than the species in the United States, but it is rarely used for cabinets or furniture due to difficulties encountered in drying of wood. The most common use for the tropical species of red oak is charcoal.

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Rift oak veneer is also a special consideration, since it is produced on a face lathe. Lengths are available up to twelve feet, but widths only in the 6"-8" category. The large pores in rift oak create another special situation. Often the light refraction on the face side of the veneer leaf can be quite different from that on the reverse side. The result is a light and dark appearance in a book matched panel. Therefore, rift oak is often slip matched.

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Oak is any of a large variety of trees or shrubs that bear acorns. There are more than 600 species of oaks, all of which grow naturally only in the Northern Hemisphere. Most species of oaks are found in tropical and warm regions. Only a few species grow in Canada and other regions that have short summers and long winters. Oaks thrive in forests throughout the continental United States except for Alaska. They also are important in forests of China, Japan, and central and southern Europe.

Oaks vary widely in size and in the way they grow. Some oaks never become taller than small shrubs. Others reach heights of more than 100 feet (30 meters). Many oaks that grow in warm climates do not lose their leaves in the autumn. They are called evergreens. But most oaks found in regions with cold winters are deciduous--that is, they shed their leaves each autumn. The leaves of many deciduous oaks turn beautiful colors, such as deep red or golden brown, in early autumn.

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Most oaks live for 200 to 400 years.

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Cork comes from the bark of a variety known as holm oak (Quercus suber)

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The Encyclopedia of Wood draws a distinction between red oak grown in the northern and southern United States. Northern red oak grows comparatively slowly and compares favorably with northern white oak, while red oak from the Southern states grows faster and produces a harder, heavier wood.

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There are more than 600 species of oaks, all of which grow naturally only in the Northern Hemisphere

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More than 300 species of oaks are native to North America. Only about 60 of these grow north of Mexico. Botanists divide oaks into two groups: (1) white oaks and (2) red oaks, sometimes called black oaks. The trees in these two groups differ chiefly in the shape of their leaves and in how long it takes their acorns to mature.

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The Latin name for oak, Quercus, means "a fine tree."

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Red oak is the most plentiful species of oak in the United States, and it is especially plentiful in the eastern half of the country. But its range extends far beyond U.S. borders and can be found as far away as Iran, where it is called Persian oak. The principal species of red oak are Quercus rubra and Quercus falcata, but Quercus velutina, known as black oak, and Quercus shumardii, known as Shumard oak, are among the related species.

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Sawed lumber of red oak cannot be separated by species on the basis of the characteristics of the wood alone. Red oak lumber can be separated from white oak by size and the arrangement of pores in latewood and because, as a rule, it lacks tyloses in the pores.