American white oak
Natural Colour
- Pale Yellow to Light Brown
Common Uses
- Furniture, Joinery, Staircases, Cabinet Making, Flooring, Linings
Alternatives (similar colour)
- Victorian Ash, Eastern States Blackbutt
Features & Benefits
- Very attractive timber for furniture making
- Accepts stains and polish well
- Internal use only
- Relatively hard and moderately heavy
- Veneers readily available
- Generally straight grained in appearance
- Reasonably consistent in colour
American White Oak
Botanical & Other Names
- Quercus alba, also known as Northern/Southern White Oak,
Origin
- North America
Certification
- Typically un-certified but very sustainably managed forests
- FSC possible but not particularly common
Grain
- It is mostly straight grained with a medium to coarse texture, and with longer rays and more figure than Red Oak. It has large distinctive growth rings and some medullary rays may be present.
Workability
- American White Oak is a hard and heavy wood, with low stiffness and medium crushing and bending strength. It also has extremely good steam bending properties. American White Oak is easy to machine, nail, glue and screw. It stains easily and can take a wide variety of colours. It is a slow-drying wood, so care needs to be taken to avoid checking. Also, given its high shrinkage rate, under variable moisture conditions it is susceptible to some movement.
Resistance
- Termite Resistance Not Resistant
- Lyctid Resistance Sapwood susceptible
- Marine Borer Resistance N/A
- Bushfire Bal 12.5 and 19, AS3959 required applications
- Fire Properties Group 3 – Slightly combustible
Stock Sizing
- Sawn thickness 25, 38 & 50mm
- Random width generally 75-300mm in 25mm increments
- Set width available in 25mm material
- Length range 0.9m to 4.2m
For finished dressed and profiled products refer to Austim sizing chart or contact us.