RED OAK, Quercus rubra 

Inventory:

Rough: 4/4 & 5/4 shorts, RW, 4-5′ ..great for small projects

Rough: 4/4 , 5/4, 6/4 & 8/4  RW  … 8′-12′ typically

D4S: 3/4″ x 1.5″, 2″, 2.5″, 3.5″, 4 9/16″, 5.5″, 7.5″ … and sometimes wider 🙂

Pricing: From $4.50 /BF +  … dressed + longer, thicker & wider makes it more $$

 

The Wood: 

Red oak is found across North America. Probably one of the most common hardwood species, at least in the Northern Ontario market. Although having said that, we import most of our red oak lumber from the Eastern Seaboard and mid states of Virginia and Ohio etc. You might wonder why?? The colour is more consistent and because they have a longer growing season the wood tends to be a little ‘less dense’. That is critical when most of our inventory is milled into casing and baseboard. Our moulding machine appreciates the softer wood especially when the moulding pattern dictates taking off a lot of wood in a small amount of space.

 

Wood is easy to stain. It has a strong open pore grain pattern, so you do have to watch for tearout, and best advised to use climb cutting with your router, at least for the initial pass. It is NOT recommended for cutting boards as the open pore structure, like ash, tends to hold onto bacteria.

 

TRIVIA: The farther south you go the ‘pinkier’ the wood becomes …. ie. Louisiana Red oak, at least in my opinion is kind of a sickly colour that clients don’t associate with traditional red oak.  Red oak from Ontario tends to be whiter… if that’s a word, but also can have quite a bit of “sapwood” that is VERY white, and not particularly appealing.