1.Distinguishing Red and White Oak - Linyi Liyong Rotary Cut Veneer Factory

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1.Distinguishing Red and White Oak

Distinguishing Red and White Oak

by Eric Meier

The typical smart-aleck response might be: "well, red oak is red, and white oak is white. . ."

Not so fast. There are all sorts of color variations seen in oak lumber, depending not only on the exact species of oak, but also from the growing conditions from tree to tree. From first glance, just going by color, (especially if the wood has a stain applied to it), it can be difficult to tell the two apart.

Red Oak (Quercus rubra)

White Oak (Quercus alba)

So, how do you tell the two apart, and why would you want to?

First I'll cover a few quick ways to tell the two groups apart, and then I'll describe the working properties and characteristics of each group. But before we start, let's take a look at the two groups, and which oaks fall into which groups:

Red Oak Group	White Oak Group
Red Oak (Quercus rubra) Black Oak (Q. velutina) California Black Oak (Q. kelloggii) Cherrybark Oak (Q. pagoda) Laurel Oak (Q. laurifolia) Pin Oak (Q. palustris) Scarlet Oak (Q. coccinea) Shumard Oak (Q. shumardii) Southern Red Oak (Q. falcata) Water Oak (Q. nigra) Willow Oak (Q. phellos)	White Oak (Quercus alba) Bur Oak (Q. macrocarpa) Chestnut Oak (Q. prinus) English Oak (Q. robur) Holm Oak (Q. ilex) Oregon White Oak (Q. garryana) Overcup Oak (Q. lyrata) Post Oak (Q. stellata) Sessile Oak (Q. petraea) Swamp Chestnut Oak (Q. michauxii) Swamp White Oak (Q. bicolor)

While there is one specific wood species (Quercus alba) that is commonly considered the "White Oak," and there is one specific species (Quercus rubra) that is considered the "Red Oak;" the truth of the matter is, when you buy oak lumber, oftentimes you will not actually be buying these two exact species, but most likely instead you'll be buying one of the oaks contained within the two broad red and white groupings found in the table above. Basically, you're buying characteristics found in an oak group, and not necessarily an exact species.

Now that we've got a general overview of the species involved, let's take a look at different ways that will reliably enable you to tell the two groups of oak apart:

1. Look at the Endgrain

A quick and fairly reliable way to tell the two oaks apart is simply by looking at the endgrain. In order for this to work, the ends of the board can't be painted, sealed, or rough-sawn. A freshly cut oak board should be easy to distinguish:

Red Oak (endgrain)	White Oak (endgrain)
Red Oak (endgrain 10x)	White Oak (endgrain 10x)

The pores found in the growth rings on red oak are very open and porous, and should be easily identifiable. White oak, however, has its pores plugged with tyloses, which help make white oak suitable for water-tight vessels, and give it increased resistance to rot and decay. The presence of tyloses is perhaps the best and most reliable way to distinguish the two oaks, but it comes with a few caveats:

1.) Make sure that you've cleaned up the endgrain enough to see the pores clearly, and blown out any dust from the pores. You don't want a "false-positive" and mistake sawdust clogged in the pores for tyloses.

2.) Make sure that you've viewing a heartwood section of the board in question. While white oak has abundant tyloses in the heartwood, it is frequently lacking in the sapwood section.

Notice the absence of tyloses in the sapwood (top)

One related test regarding porosity is to take a short section of oak and try to blow air through the pores. If you are able to blow anything through it at all, it's probably red oak. Take a look at this video, where a red oak dowel was used to blow bubbles in a glass of water:

One exception to this rule is Chestnut Oak, which is still considered to be in the white oak group, even though its pores are large and open like red oaks.

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