ls southern oak as good as northern?

This is the second of a mini-series on oak written by Gage McKinney, a contributing editor who has considerable knowledge of hardwoods-ed.

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I have tended to unjustly classify the southern red oaks as inferior to the northern. Actually some of the southern species cannot be surpassed for workability and beauty, although the precise location where a stand of timber grows plays a crucial role in the quality of the lumber. The true southern red oak (Quercus falcata) growing upon rolling hillsides, yields excellent lumber. Cherrybark red oak (Quercus falcata var. pagodadfofta), for another example, yields a bright-pink, eventextured lumber of the best quality when grown upon the uplands of the Deep South.

Problems develop in red oak growing in the low country or swamps of the south. Swamp red oak yields hardtextured, difficult+o-dry, sometimes brashy lumber which is prone to splitting. Purple to brown mineral streaks mar its otherwise pinkish heartwood, and the sapwood often shows a distinct, dingy gray color. Such swamp oak weighs about 100 pounds per thousand board feet more than the northern or Appalachian oaks, an indication of its harder texture. Furniture plants using high powered machinery and finishing their products with a dark stain often prefer this type of southern oak because it sells for less than the northern stock. But for the amateur craftsperson or custom woodworker, a small savings doesn't justify the purchase of hard, mineralstained lumber. Excessive splitting is a tell-tale sign of hard,lowland oak that consumers should recognize.

Usually consumers are anxious to know how to distinguish the red oaks, the most widely used American hardwood, from the white oaks. Color provides a rapid, although not always reliable, means of distinction. Red

Story at a Glance

Location crucial to characteris. tics of oak. .. some problems found in lumber originating in swamp areas.. ways to identi. fy different species.

oaks usually have a reddish tinge, especially near the knots. White oaks tend towards a grayish-brown tinge, although occasionally they also show a reddish cast. For more accurate identification, examine the pores of the wood along the end of a board. In white oak the pores are considerably larger in the wood formed during the spring, and decrease in size towards the summerwood. The large pores in the springwood of the white oak are usually plugged up with a frothlike growth called tyloses. Pores in the red oak, on the other hand, are open. Also, when seen through a hand lens the pores in the summerwood of the white oak will be too numerous to count, while red oak has far fewer pores in its summerwood.

Like the red oaks, one can distinguish the various species of white oak only under a microscope. Various regional names have been applied to the white oaks with the best known including white oak, bur oak, forked leafoak, post oak, cow oak, chestnut oak, chinkapin oak, swamp white oak, overcup oak and live oak. White oaks grow throughout southern Canada and the eastern United States, all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico, and as far west as Texas. Some commercial species of white oak growin California and Oregon, but these cannot compare to the Eastern species.