Oak Wood is medium brown-coloured, straight-grained hardwood. It is strong, hard, heavy, and dense-grained wood. Its natural properties make it the best choice for making furniture, cabinetry, and flooring.
Oak Wood is resistant to decay and moisture, So it is widely used for boatbuilding. Oaks is a versatile wood. It is used in many interior and exterior applications.
Advantages of Oak Wood
1. Excellent Durable
Oak Wood is extremely strong, durable, and stable. It is a perfect for furniture, joinery, flooring, panelling, decking, and veneers.
It can last more than 150 to 200 years with low maintenance. If it is in contact with the ground on moist soil, its life span is 50 to 60 years.
2. Attractive appearance
Generally, the color of oak wood is light brown to reddish-brown. But the color depends on the species of Oak. Its light brown color with a prominent grain looks great, adding a smooth continuity of natural materials.
Generally, Oak has a straight grain with a coarse, uneven texture. Depending on the tree’s growing conditions, there may be irregular or interlocked grain.
3. Water-Resistant
Oak wood is dense and strong. It finishes very well and is used for various outdoor projects, such as decking, boat frames, and boat building.
When exposed to moist conditions, oak is very resistant to warping and warping. Its dense grains do not absorb moisture.
In terms of water resistance, we can compare oak with teak. These woods perform very well in humidity with low maintenance.
4. Shrinking and Warping Resistant
Temperature and extreme weather do not affect oak wood. It does not shrink and warp easily. Inside the wood is a chemical (tannin) that protects it from moisture penetration and rotting.
Well-dried wood should be used, as it is more stable. Wood becomes more stable by polishing and painting.
5. Easy to Work
As we all know, hardwoods are a bit difficult to work with, as they are heavy and hard. But when we compare oak wood to any other hardwood, We find it easier to work with oak wood. Oak Wood produces good results with hand and machine tools.
Even after being tough, Oak Responds well to steam-bending. It holds the nail and screws very well.
6. Finish well
Although oak wood naturally looks beautiful, it finishes well. Wood accepts all types of stains. Stain enhances this wood’s appearance and durability. Polish gives a rich appearance.
7. Resistant to Rot
The Oak belongs to the hardwood species. Generally, Hardwoods are naturally resistant to decay and fungal attack. Due to its compact structure and long-lived nature, external elements do not affect it.
Oak Wood is a good choice for those who want to build a project that will contact the ground on moist soil.
8. Availability
Oak is a famous wood species. Its demand is very high. Some species of Oak are widely grown and available in Europe. Available in abundance in a good range of widths and thicknesses at moderate prices.
Disadvantages of Oak Wood
Oak Wood has many advantages, and it is great wood, but it also has some disadvantages. Because no wood is 100% perfect.
1. Expensive
Oak Wood is expensive because of its high demand and slow growth rate (it grows 1 to 3 feet annually throughout its lifetime). Generally, most hardwoods are expensive compared to softwood because the growth rate of hardwoods is slow.
They are long-lived and can grow over 100 to 150 feet, but most trees are harvested between 30–50 years. So trees do not produce much lumber.
The price of wood also depends on the species, size, thickness and native place.
2. Dark over time
Like many other kinds of wood, oak wood changes color over time. The wood may darken slightly over time. This process is accelerated by exposure to oxygen and UV light.
In this way, the Oak changes its color after the project is finished. This means that the color of the wood you are building the project with will not stay the same forever.
You can slow down the color change process by doing stains or polishes.
3. Hard to Identify True Oak
As we know, there are about 500 species of Oak. When we search for oak lumber for our furniture, It can be not easy to identify true and right Oak. Those people with less knowledge about the wood species have more problems identifying the true wood.
You must choose the right wood for your dream projects, and you know which species of wood you are choosing. So always buy from a trusted shop only.
4. Heavy-weight
Oak Wood is very heavy because of its high density. So Oak lumber is not easy to transport. Due to the Heavy Weight, It’s also difficult to work with at height.
5. Tannic Acid
Generally, tannic acid is present in all wood, such as walnut and mahogany. But Oak contains lots of tannic acids. Tannic acid is a basic ingredient in the chemical staining of wood.
Due to tannic, metals such as nails and screws may rust, and the wood may discolour. Tannic acid leaves a yellowish-brown stain on the surface, which looks bad.
Species of Oak
There are about 500 species of oak. But not all species can be used for lumber. Some species are used only for medicinal purposes and as ornamental trees.
The species that produce lumber are very close to each other and difficult to differentiate.
Oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family. It is Grows in the Northern Hemisphere. Some species of Oak are deciduous, and some are evergreen.
Some of the famous species of Oak are as follows.
- English Oak or European Oak( Quercus robur)
- White Oak (Quercus alba)
- Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
- Black Oak or Eastern Black Oak (Quercus velutina)
- Burr Oak or Mossycup Oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
- Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea)
- Live Oak or Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)