question on white vs red oak

charges (for 4/4 S2S) $3.75 for WO and $3.59 for RO. QSWO goes for $5.78 and QSRO gets $5.55.

todd

-snip-

Get the free "Finishing Touch" CD from the Hardwood Council at

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

there. Most of it can also be found on the website also, but

Tom, Thanks for the link, very useful.

Bernard R

JGS responds:

QS red oak also shows rays, for those who are interested.

Charlie Self "Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure." Ambrose Bierce

Ed

Thanks for the info guys, I just assumed that white oak would be more expensive then read. If I used QS or regular cut white oak would white oak ply look ok with it?

that depends on how the veneers on the plywood are cut. What you need to remember is the different way of slicing up a log yields a different look to the grain on a board or veneer.

Ed Pawlowski asks:

Much better.

Charlie Self "Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure." Ambrose Bierce

I think that is why it is used for wooden boat frames and transoms.

Location has more to do with it. In SE Texas, Red Oak is cheaper than White Oak.

Prices vary for place to place. I happen to like white oak more than red oak, but that's me. Whatever is in higher demand gets a higher price. White oak is closed grain and (unlike red oak) is a very good outdoor wood.

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

The pores of white oak are filled with deposits called tyloses, which makes it impervious to water and therefore good for barrels and such. Red oak doesn't have them, and won't hold water.

Take a board of red oak a foot long and put one end in water. Try to blow through it like you would a soda straw. You'll see lots of bubbles. None with white oak.

John Martin

"mel" wrote in news:24vgc.8854$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr24.news.prodigy.com:

regarding the plywood questions:

IMO, the best investment you can make is to find yourself a good hardwood dealer, at a slow time of the week, and spend maybe twenty minutes with one of the folks who has spent a good part of their career in the business. See what they offer, listen, and then buy a sheet of what looks best to you. Take it home, and make a couple of small, unimportant projects, learning how to cut it, color it, finish it, fasten it. Just play with it.

It should cost you maybe, between $50 and $85 or so, for decent quality goods, and be a cheap education, even if all of it ends up in the burn bin.

And when you need to go back and buy that big stack of goods for the project SWMBO wants you to do, you won't feel like such a rookie. You'll get closer to what you want the project to look like, and you're less likely to make a really expensive mistake.

Patriarch