Which Oak for Mission Furniture

Re: Which Oak for Mission Furniture

Jim G

>I can't say what it was made of, but I just finished a mission futon from rift cut red oak. Looks very nice.

HTH

Re: Which Oak for Mission Furniture

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>The wood that is currently most-associated with so-called Mission furniture is north american white oak. However, Gustav Stickley is believed to have sold Craftsman furniture made of maple, mahogany and chestnut.

It may not be authentic, but I am fond of quarter-sawn red oak for Craftsman/Stickley/Mission-style furniture.

Re: Which Oak for Mission Furniture

William R. Duffield on the Cohansey

>The answer is, "it depends..."

Both kinds are used, and even cherry, mahogany, etc., by some builders.

I prefer quartersawn white oak, especially for wide panels and for massive legs on Morris style chairs and sofas. The ray fleck of white oak is more distinctive, because the rays are much wider. However, some of the original builders of Mission furniture, for example, Gustav Stickley, often fumed the oak with ammonia. This process tended to darken the ray fleck to almost the same shade as the rest of the wood, thus hiding the beautiful patterns. For that style of Mission or A&C, quarter sawing the oak would have been mostly to increase the stability of the furniture, and red oak would serve as well.

Re: Which Oak for Mission Furniture

Alan Hamilton

>Sanford,

As others have already said, fumed white oak is the wood most commonly associated with mission/prairie/craftsman furniture. But in addition, it is quarter-sawn white oak. On most all the furniture and plans I've seen, the designers and makers went to extraordinary lengths to have nothing but quarter-sawn showing; for example, making up a "post" from four pieces of quarter-sawn oak around a core of lesser wood.

Alan

Re: Which Oak for Mission Furniture

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>FYI, FWIW, according to Cathers, Gustav may have had his finishing department just brush on the aqueous ammonia solution, rather than just let the fumes work. He also bought a great deal of analine dyes.

Re: Which Oak for Mission Furniture

Steve S, coastal Georgia

>As I understand it, red oak has open cells along the ring structure, white oak has closed cells. In other words, you can cut a small piece of red oak and blow air through it. With white oak you can't. Because of this, the grain patterns in red oak look coarser, especially when they take up stain. Most of the time you can tell the difference, but not always. The coarser grain patterns in quartersawn red oak also seem to overwhelm the ray flecks. In white oak they stand out a little better.

White oak is considered prime boatbuilding wood because of this - it won't wick water along the grain and is much more rot resistant. Red oak is generally avoided in boatbuilding.

I think Stickley pretty much stuck to quartersawn white oak if he was using oak. Personally, I'd spring for the quartersawn white oak if you're building a nice piece.

Steve

All the above and Ash were used

Todd Nebel

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Which Oak for Mission Furniture

Sanford Levy

>Thanks guys. All the old mission and craftsmen furniture I have seen has been quartersawn oak, which I thought might have been white oak, though I was never sure. It is interesting to hear that other wood was used too. I think I will try quartersawn white for my first project. Thanks again. Sanford