How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

Re: How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

Martin S.

White oak has plugged tyloses.

Red oak does not.

Look at a cross section (end grain) that has been cut with a sharp knife.

If the vessels are open, red oak. If they are closed, white oak.

This is why wine barrels, and ships, are made from white oak, not red.

Red oak would leak.

Re: How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

ron kanter

Thanks Martin.

That's exactly what I needed.

Ron

Re: How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

Martin S.

Happy to help.

Another way, same yet different....

Barry Irby

Take piece of it maybe six inches long and put one end in your mouth and blow through it into water. (you have to have a good fit/seal, you need to be able to apply pressure) You can blow bubbles through red oak but not through white oak. For the same reasons mentioned. The tyloces in white oak are plugged.

My understating is there are about eighty species of oak but when they go to market they are broken into red and white.

Re: Another way, same yet different....

Mark Nowicki

I am not sure if this falls in the "serious question"

or " I can take it " category.

side by side

John K Jordan

To add to Martin's description:

End grain photos from the Wood Database

Re: Parlor Trick

William Duffield

But first, a caviat: The tyloses in live oak do not "activate" until it converts the wood from sap to heart. Therefore, neither this trick nor others involving the tyloses works on sap live oak.

I tell people I can taste the difference. I put the end of the sample in my mouth and try to blow through it. No glass of water is needed.Try not to puff out your cheeks or turn your face red. With a little practice, you can detect the difference in the small amout of air that will slowly flow through the red oak, while the white oak will feel like a solid, impervious block. There is not as much difference as between a Snickers bar and a Vanilla Wafer, but you can detect it. Do not eat the oak.

Re: How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

Dave Bair

Red Oak shavings smell slightly like puke.

Re: How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

Martin

And the white oak smell when cutting reminds me of my tour through the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee. Where I lived in Alabama it was, I think, an hour drive to Lynchburg. A dry county too.

I like it

Yonak

I'll try it if I ever get the opportunity.

Re: How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

johannaj

It's easy for me - white oak is hard to find and far more expensive than red oak!

Re: How to distinguish White Qak from Red Oak

paul in AZ

A smell test: When I lived in New England the locals referred to freshly cut red oak as "piss oak".

The reason white oak is expensive

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

In a word- booze. There is a huge demand for whiskey/bourbon barrels. White oak used to be cheaper than red because it was less useful in furniture. Then the oak furniture fashion tanked and bamboo became preferred for floors. But white oak is going nuts. I see logs piled everywhere awaiting shipment to stave mills. (The best logs go to veneer which remains popular)

There was great demand for chestnut oak until last year. It is between white and red. Never learned the market for it. I don't see it piled up for shipment any more.

Re: The reason white oak is expensive

Johanna Johanson

Actually, Bill, all hardwoods are expensive here (New Mexico) because there are no hardwood forests in the Southwest. I do like your explanation that white oak is used for whisky barrels. This past spring I was at a distillery in Scotland (Glenkinchie). They like to get bourbon barrels and re-use them for Scotch.