Oak wood

“ Among our most useful and valuable trees are the white oak, and its close kin, the red oak, which produce a brown-colored, hard wood of remarkable durability. The white oak is the monarch of the forest, as it lives very long and is larger and stronger than the majority of its associates. The timber is used for railroad ties, furniture, and in general construction work where tough, durable lumber is needed. Many of our wooden ships have been built of oak. The white oaks often grow as high as 100 feet and attain massive dimensions. ”

“ It supports a great weight of thick limbs, irregular and crooked. Clear up to the knotted twigs, and tough brown leaves that often hang on all winter, the oak has a stubborn look. It dares the winter winds to do their worst. And it looks so old, so wise, such a scarred hero of a thousand fights. The old Norse sea kings and the brave English once worshiped the oak tree. It gave them ship timbers that could stand the strain of wind and waves. Many ancient peoples thought dryads, or wood spirits, lived in oak trees. ”

“ Heartwood "oak" brown, sapwood lighter color. Wood heavy, strong, close-grained, durable in contact with the soil. Used in ship- and boatbuilding, all sorts of construction, interior finish of houses, cabinet work, tight cooperage, carriage and wagon work, agricultural implements, railway ties, etc., etc. One of the most valuable and most widely distributed of American oaks, 60 to 80 feet in height, and, unlike most of the other oaks, adapts itself to varying climatic conditions. It is one of the most durable woods when in contact with the soil. ”

“ You may have noticed the trunk and branches of the oak are often gnarled and knotted, and this helps to give the tree its appearance of great strength. It is just as strong as it looks, and for building-purposes it lasts longer than any other wood. Beams and rafters of oak are found in old English houses, showing among the brick-work, and many of these half-timbered houses, as they are called, were built hundreds of years ago. ”

“ They are among the most conspicuous and characteristic features of oak wood, and are known as medullary or pith rays.
Oak is cited as an example because the rays are large and prominent, but they are present in all wood, and constitute a large part of its body. They vary greatly in size. In some woods a few are visible unmagnified; but even in oak a hundred are invisible to the naked eye to one that can be seen. Some species show none until a glass is used. ”

“ Of all the hues of autumn, those of the oak are commonly the most harmonious. In an oaken wood, you see every variety of green and brown, owing either to the different exposure of the tree, the difference of the soil, or its own nature. In the beechen grove, this variety is not to be found. In early autumn, when the extremities of the trees are slightly tinged with orange, it may be partially produced; but late the eye is usually fatigued with one deep monotonous shade of orange, though perhaps it is the most beautiful among all the hues of autumn. ”

“ This plan of baring the roots might be extended to oak trees for knees, baring and pruning about a foot out from the bulb annually. By exposure to the air, the timber of the root would mature and become red wood of sufficient durability. When covered with earth, the root of the oak remains white or sap wood, and soon decays after being dug up, the matured wood of the stem scarcely extending at all underneath the surface of the ground. ”

“ Structure explains why oak is heavier, stronger, and tougher than pine; why it is harder to saw and plane, and why it is so much more difficult to season without injury. From its less porous structure alone it is evident that a piece of young and thrifty oak is stronger than the porous wood of an old or stunted tree, or that a Georgia or long-leaf pine excels white pine in weight and strength.
Keeping especially in mind the arrangement and direction of the fibres of wood, it is clear at once why knots and "cross-grain" interfere with the strength of timber. ”

“ The late wood of good oak, except for radial grayish patches of small pores, is dark colored and firm, and consists of thick-walled fibres which form one-half or more of the wood. In inferior oak, such fibre areas are much reduced both in quantity and quality. ”

“ The great oak forests, such as Sherwood, furnished an abundance of timber for all domestic purposes, and up to the seventeenth century little other wood was used for any structural or artistic purpose. Practically oak may be considered as the national wood. ”

“ Well, down in the wood yonder there's enough dead white oak, standing or on the ground, to make three thousand, nine-foot posts, and one seasoned white oak will outlast two cedars, and it is twice as strong. ”

“ The woods chiefly used in the construction of cabinet work and furniture are oak, walnut, mahogany, rosewood, satin-wood, cedar, plane, sycamore.
The oak has been made the standard by which to measure all other woods for the qualities of strength, toughness, and durability. There are said to be nearly fifty species of oak known, but the common English oak possesses these qualities in a far greater degree than any other wood. ”

“ In imitating pollard oak, there are two slightly different methods of treatment, the first aiming at reproducing the general effect of the wood in a broad and natural manner on a buff oak ground, and the other aiming at a conventional appearance, the ground being made for a warm and rich final tone, such as the real wood acquires as the result of polishing and age. ”

“ A heavy block of oak-wood, generally a stump grubbed up from the ground, is fitted either into the floor of the hearth, or into a niche made for the purpose in the wall under the hook on which the kettle hangs. ”

“ Oak is not a suitable wood for exposure to trying climatic conditions, though if buried deeply, or in water, where there is no alteration in moisture or dryness, it gives satisfaction. White oak is used to great extent for railroad ties, but what these are to be made of in the future is causing much speculation, as the end of the present supply of white oak is already in sight. ”

“ The builder employs oak for sills, staircase treads,
Description of Fig. 39.—The upper one is from a rapidly-grown tree, in the open, and at a low altitude; the wood is very strong, hard, and heavy (density 0·827) , because there is a preponderance of fibers in the broad rings. The middle specimen comes from a tree growing slowly in a forest at a considerable altitude; the narrow rings have too large a proportion of vessels, whence the wood is soft (density 0·691) , porous, and weak. ”

“ White oak lumber is very high-priced. The wood of this tree we rarely see nowadays except in the most expensive oak furniture. The beautiful satiny streaks that are the chief ornament of the grain in polished table tops, are bands of fibres that radiate from the central pith to the bark. ”

“ Hardness.—Oak is neither the hardest and heaviest nor the most supple and toughest of woods, but it combines in a useful manner the average of these qualities. Good oak is hard, firm, and compact, and with a glossy surface, and varies much; young oak is often tougher, more cross-grained, and harder to work than older wood. According to Gayer, if we call the resistance which the beech offers to the saw, applied transverse to the fibers, 1, then that of freshly felled oak = 1·09. ”

“ Oak is a valuable wood in these days, and during recent years the woodman has played havoc with the fine old trees that once existed in our English parks and forests. Even great forests themselves have been cut down and the roots grubbed up within our own short recollections. In more than one spot there, indeed, we discovered marks of the woodman’s work—old stumps where the ivy was trying to hide their nakedness, and in two places we found a newly-felled beech awaiting the woodman’s drag. ”

“ The wood of some varieties of oak is so similar to the white oak that the difference cannot be distinguished after the work is finished, therefore they are all put together and sold as a medium grade of white oak for purposes where the strength of the genuine is not required. ”

“ Respecting the other woods used in the manufacture of furniture, we have nothing special to say, except of the oak—the emblem of our native land. This tree yields a most useful and durable wood, and as it not only defends our country by supplying our "wooden walls," but gives to us the floors of our houses, furnishes our good substantial tables, and comfortable arm-chairs, it will be well for us to know a few facts about this celebrated tree. It is said that there are no less than one hundred and fifty species of the oak. ”

“ In a thrifty young pine, then, the wood is heavier from the center outward, and lighter from below upward; only the wood laid on in old age falls in weight below the average. The number of brownish bands of summer-wood are a direct indication of these differences. If an old oak is cut up in the same manner, the butt cut is also found heaviest and the top lightest, but, unlike the disk of pine, the disk of oak has its firmest wood at the center, and each successive piece from the center outward is lighter than its neighbor. ”

“ This hardy tree occupies fully as wide a range, both of soil and climate, as the oak, and is generally the fastest growing, most vigorous of all our hard-wood kinds, prospering on all soils, on the dry and moist, the aluminous, the calcareous, the siliceous, provided water does not stagnate. ”

“ Although wood is here in great plenty, yet there is very little Variety; the bigest trees are as large or larger than our Oaks in England, and grows a good deal like them, and Yields a reddish Gum; the wood itself is heavy, hard, and black like Lignum Vitæ. Another sort that grows tall and Strait something like Pines—the wood of this is hard and Ponderous, and something of the Nature of America live Oak. These 2 are all the Timber trees I met with; there are a few sorts of Shrubs and several Palm Trees and Mangroves about the Head of the Harbour. ”

“ No other wood was as suitable as live oak, which is very strong, and it grows knees in the form desired. The crooks produced by the junction of large roots with the base of the trunk were selected, and shipbuilders with saws, broadaxes, and adzes cut them in the desired sizes and shapes. ”

“ The ground required for oak is buff colour, either light or dark, according as the age of the wood is intended to be represented. To make this light tint, a little yellow ochre, with white lead, drier, oil, and turpentine, are all that are required; while if it is very new wood, the ground should be the colour of rich cream; if old oak, the ground colour can be darkened according to taste with Roman ochre, light red, and burnt umber. ”

“ Although the oak often lingers in the growth while young, yet, after it attains to six inches or a foot in diameter, its progress is generally faster than most other kinds of hard wood, not appearing to suffer so much as others from excessive fruit-bearing. ”

“ The acorns of white oak are particularly liable to be devoured because of their sweetness, while those of red and black oak, which afford timber of comparatively little value, are allowed to sprout, and thus come to possess the land. ”

“ The sap rises slowly in the oaks, moving gradually through the minute interstices or capillary tubes of this close-grained wood; the softer timber trees are full of it long before the oak; and when the oak is putting forth its leaves, it is high spring. ”

“ Oaks constitute the greater part of the forest trees, both on the Continent and in England; great numbers are cut in France for fire-wood, and in both countries for ship-building. The roof-timbers of our old churches and halls are nearly all oak. The bark of the oak is largely used for tanning leather. ”

“ The large vessels of the spring-wood, occupying six to ten per cent of the volume of a log in very good oak, and twenty-five per cent or more in inferior and narrow-ringed timber, are a very important feature, since it is evident that the greater their share in the volume, the lighter and weaker the wood. They are smallest near the pith, and grow wider outward. They are wider in the stem than limb, and seem to be of indefinite length, forming open channels, in some cases probably as long as the tree itself. ”

“ The ground-work for oak is made by adding yellow ochre to lead till the color is deep enough. In matching the real wood a little raw umber will help to bring it to the desired color, but is better without the umber for light work. ”

“ Nowhere in England rise such oak-woods, their boughs rimed with the frostwork of lichens, and dark beech-groves with their floor of red brown leaves, on which the branches weave their own warp and woof of light and shade. ”

“ When a young oak tree has its branches lopped off, and provided that loppings take place at intervals of a few years, the wood that comes from the mature tree will show clusters of knots—gnarled and twisted grain, with intervening spaces of plainer grain—in which condition it is known as pollard oak. ”

“ CHINQUAPIN OAK or chestnut oak (Quercus muehlenbergii Engelm.) Habitat: various, prefers limestone soil, common. Leaves: similar to preceding species but more sharply notched. Bark: thick, usually silvery gray, large, loose scales on surface. Acorns: smaller than preceding and have very short stems. Branches: typically fewer, larger and more irregular than preceding. Wood: hard, strong, close-grained, durable, used for cooperage, furniture, crossties, fuel. ”

“ In some instances, where the soil is fertile and climate favorable, the yellow oak produces a large, clear trunk, with sound wood, of good color, and equal to that of red oak; but the reverse is often the case—trunks are small and rough, wood hard and brittle, color not satisfactory, and strength not up to standard. Sometimes first class yellow oak passes without question as good red oak in the finish and furniture business, but that is not its usual course. Well developed wood is heavy, hard, strong, bright brown, tinged with red, with thin, lighter colored sapwood. ”