I can usually tell the difference but not this time.
This is tongue and groove oak flooring, and best I can tell, was installed in 1939, about 7/8″ thick, 2.5″ wide and pieces up to 16 feet in length. Dead straight.
I need some white oak for boat building – but red oak would be a disaster. This is quite pale, but… I’m not positive.
Anyone with a good – definitive – way to tell the difference ?
Many thanks,
Gavin
Gavin Pitchford
“Sail fast – live slow” (build even slower)
Replies
Take a razor blade and cut a clean thin slice off the end grain. Look at the end grain with a hand lens or magnifying glass. In red oak, the large earlywood pores will be open, like the end of a straw. In white oak, the pores are completely filled with a crystalline substance called tyloses. If the pores are open, usually the red oak group(there are a couple of exceptions like swamp chestnut oak sometimes)and if they are completely filled, it is the white oak group.
You must make a very clean cut with a razor blade to see the pores clearly.
Edited 8/30/2008 10:33 pm ET by DHAM
Many thanks, Gentlemen
Definitely white -end grain solid, no bubbles, and once I cut it fresh and scraped it (can you believe I didn't do that initially) it was pretty obvious. Duh....
Nothing stamped on the back (think these boards pre-date stamps ;-) and possibly ink )
No sapwood here. I need to check with the forum on Wooden Boat, but I think these will be fine for steam bent ribs, assuming they don't crack during the bending process. Did an experimental piece just to try and it went very well.
Thanks for the tips.
Gavin Pitchford
"Sail fast - live slow" (build even slower)
Cut yourself a piece on the order of 3/8 x3/8 and 6" long. You will be able to blow bubbles through it if it is red oak, not if white.
For boat building don't you also need to sort out the sapwood?
If you can machine cut and /or sand a piece they smell completely different. Weird , I know , but how I would be able to tell for sure.
-Paul
Cut off a piece and smell the fresh-cut wood.
White oak will smell like scotch whisky (American whiskey is spelled with the "e").
Scotch whisky is aged in white oak barrels, which give it its distinct smell and flavor.
kreuzie
Just about all Scotch whisky is stored in oak barrels, including grain whisky, made in the Lowlands, which has hardly any flavour, much like vodka. It's mixed with Highland Malt whisky to make proprietary blends such as Teachers. Unblended single malt whiskies have acquired much of their flavour before they reach the vat, from the peat in the water, from the peat fires that heat the barley, from the processing of the barley itself. They were traditionally aged in oak barrels which had previously contained sherry, which imparted flavour and colour to the whisky. At one time a five-year Glen Grant was almost colourless, a 10 year yellow, a 20 year brown, since all the colour came naturally from the sherry cask. Nowadays whisky is such big business that you can't trust the colour in many brands. In any case, the oak was impregnated with sherry so that raw oak wasn't the flavour imparted. Nowadays new oak is used for some of the whisky in a brand such as Glenfiddich -- a comparative newcomer -- and a solera for the rest, though how you can call the resulting concoction a single malt beats me.
I'd sign off slainte, but I think that's already copyrighted ;^)
Jim
Gosh your killing me, I haven't had a good single malt in a couple of years! All I've been getting lately is blended and these gifts can't be refused!
I'm on a tight budget so free is good for my wallet.
Chaim
I'm killing myself. I'm not supposed to drink the stuff these days, so every now and then I pop the cork on the Glenmorangie and inhale deeply. Aaaaaah.....
Jim
You know what they say "a dram a day keeps the doctor away... and sometimes permanently!"
Chaim
Doctor told me to stop drinking! I now sip all day long to follow his orders....
Sodium nitirite solution is a infallible. It turns black on white oak and doesn't react to red oak.
Rick - I like it - great idea. Any suggestions for locations to acquire sodium nitrate - or - if distant high school memories serve, is that just table salt?
Gavin Pitchford
"Sail fast - live slow" (build even slower)
Chemical supply source...it's not table salt. Do a google search. I pay around $50 for 1,000 grams. You only need a few tea spoons in 12 oz of water. Apply a squirt to the oak in questioon and wait and hour or so to see if it turns black for white oak. Do a golge search on sodium nitrite. You don't need the the high grade stuff. Lab grade will work fine. Don't confuse it with sodium nitrate. ]
Google
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/is-it-red-or-white-oak.pdf
http://www.woodwiseproducts.com/msds/whiteoak.html
Awesome, thanks.Gavin Pitchford
"Sail fast - live slow" (build even slower)
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