european vs american oak

[cerdeira]

Hi,

Can someone give me some hints for distinguishing euro oak from american red and american white?
In other words if you're given a lot of mixed species how would you tell the differences just by looking?

I thought I could generally distinguish euro from american oak but recently I have cut and dried a small oak branch from my father's farm just for fun. The wood looked like what i reckoned as american red oak but i'm pretty sure the species is quercus pyrenaica which is kind of spontaneous in northern Portugal.

thanks.

 

[mr]

According to the Jackson & Day Complete Woodworkers Manual American Red Oak is coarser and has a pinkish red hue which distinguishes it from American White.

I seem to recall that if you stick one end of the Red oak in a bucket of water the water will be drawn up through the whole plank very quickly, though I may be thinking of something else completely.

Cheers Mike.

 

[Wanlock Dod]

Cerdeira,

If you have pieces of all three infront of you then I think it's fairly easy to tell them apart, although I expect that it would be quite a bit harder if you just had one piece of oak and wanted to know which it was. The red oak I've seen is redder (and also softer) white oak rather paler (and harder) whereas the european tends to be a relatively pale brown.

I dismantled a table a while ago which had been stained quite dark, it turned out that this was probably because it was all oak, but contained all three varieties. I found the white oak to be the least attractive and the red oak the easiest to work.

Cheers,

Dod

 

[Gower]

Should be a different thread really but Dod's remark re. stained oak reminded me of a garden bench I made last month that was constructed from 6 different hardwoods - off cuts I saved from a friends firewood pile. My intention was to stain it so as to disguise this fact but SWMBO persuaded me to leave it as it was. I glad she did so, the different colours brought out by the oil are great. I'm still trying to identify the different species!

Gower

 

[manso]

I thought I read somewhere that European oak can be visualised as a bundle of straws, so will rapidly draw up water. In the case of American oak the "straws" are full wax/resin/???? and so are more resistant to water.
As a consequence, American oak is a better choice for outside furniture DAMHIKT,(though there are better choices still).
Regards

 

[manso]

Not so fast. I think my remarks describe the difference between American red oak - hollow straws and American white oak - filled straws.
Regards

 

[mr]

I thought I read somewhere that European oak can be visualised as a bundle of straws, so will rapidly draw up water. In the case of American oak the "straws" are full wax/resin/???? and so are more resistant to water.
As a consequence, American oak is a better choice for outside furniture DAMHIKT,(though there are better choices still).
Regards

thought I had read that somewhere.
Cheers Mike

 

[Tusses]

apart from the fact the red oak - no good in water. white oak - ok in water
american oak is usually square edged - so all usaeable. bear that in mind when pricing against waney edged english / french stuff