Quercus spp. of the family Fagaceae. Even if you totally discount the woods that have oak in one or more of their common names, but are NOT of the genus Quercus, there are, depending on who you listen to, between 300 and 900 varities of oak. I have the species name for 300 of them. Many of the differences are surely small and of interests mainly to botanists, but even so there are still a huge number of varieties that are of interest to woodworkers. Many varieties are posted on the Internet without sufficient information and those I put on this page. Also, some "trade names" or "marketing names" do not specify white or red or English Brown, or any of the normal categories, but instead focus on grain type ("ropey"). Those also end up on this page. Also, there are some well identified species for which I do not have enough samples to warrent their own page and they end up here as well.
It could also happen that I don't have enough pictures of a variety to bother with a page of their own, so they also end up here.
my samples:
plank (and end grain pic) of cork oak (Quercus suber) that was donated to the site by Ira Matheny, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
quartersawn figured English oak veneer --- colors are pretty accurate but missing a hint of gold color (contrast to the sample below, which is from the same lot)
both sides of a single piece of quartersawn figured English oak veneer. One side looks like the samples above this set, but lighter, and the other side is quite different and begins to look like English brown oak --- the color in these pics is just a shade too red and missing the gold color of the actual wood, which shows up nicely in the web pic directly below.
the web pics that were posted by the vendor that sold me the veneer lot from which the samples directly above were taken --- except for a slight shininess that the real wood doesn't have, these pics are quite accurate. The color is more accurate than my pics.
probably red oak but could be white. This is the butt end of a bunch of planks that have been glued together as part of a large bench in the Exchange Place PATH station in Jersey City, NJ --- this is the arm rest. Obviously treated with some finishing agent, this set of end grain shots really shows clearly how it is that the ray flakes occur in oak when the cut goes parallel to those light colored ray lines. It also shows clearly how the ray lines (very light color) are perpendicular to the grain lines (very dark color); this shows up even better in the enlargement.
Southern red oak (Q. falcata) sample plank and end grain --- this is a sample plank from the IWCS and was not listed as spalted, although it obviously is, and so is not representative of Southern red oak. This lack of representativeness was common in the samples I got from the IWCS. I emailed them about it but never got a reply.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
Chestnut oak sample plank and end grain --- this sample from the IWCS does not seem to me to be oak at all. It has none of the large rays that are typical of oak and as far as I can tell it is identical in every respect to sassafras. Although the samples I obtained from the IWCS tended to be shoddy, actual misidentification of a wood by that organization would be odd, so perhaps I'm wrong.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
blackjack oak (Q. marilandica) sample plank and end grain --- the end grain shot is too dark --- the shoddy quality of this wood sample was not unusual in the samples that I got from the IWCS
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of post oak / Quercus stellata
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
NOTE: it is likely that some, or even all, of these pics from the
Wood Book belong with the red oak group or the white oak group,
but I don't know which so have lumped them all here in "misc oak"
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
chestnut oak (Quercus prinus, also listed as rock oak)from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
post oak (Quercus obtusiloba, also listed as iron oak) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
pin oak (Quercus palustris, also listed as swamp Spanish oak and water oak) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
water oak (quercus aquatica, also listed as duck oak, possum oak, and punk oak) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
chestnut oak (Quercus densiflora, also listed as tanbark oak) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
California black oak (Quercus californica, which is just a syn. for Q. kelloggii, also listed as mountain black oak and Kellogg's oak) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
blue oak (Quercus douglasii, also listed as California rock oak) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
MacDonald oak (Quercus macdonaldi, which is a misspelling of Quercus macdonaldii) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
Arizona black oak (Quercus emoryi, also listed as emory oak) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
white-leaf oak (Quercus hypoleuca, which is just a syn. for Quercus hypoleucoides) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
web pics
rift cut plank with wet and dry sections, just listed as Quercus spp.
cluster burl
"black" oak burl cut into bookmatched planks --- I'm not sure about this "black" designation --- I'll check it out
planks listed as black oak ... on the left is dry and on the right is a set that has been moistened for the pics
chestnut oak burls --- I am very doubtful about the colors here
burl veneer
cluster burl veneer
curly veneer
European knotty veneer
European oak veneer
quartersawn European oak veneer
curly European oak veneer
figured European veneer
quartersawn flaky English veneer
English oak burl veneer
listed as "blistered" English oak burl veneer
listed as "white English oak burl veneer". I do not remember ever otherwise seeing any reference to "white" English oak, it's always just English oak.
pippy european oak
pippy planks
pippy veneer
pippy veneer all from the same vendor (remember, "pippy", for some oak means "burl") --- the color is too pink, but that's typical of this vendor
"pippy" (= "burl") sheet closeup with both enlargements
ropey veneer
silky oak veneer
listed only as "wavy veneer", this looks to me to be identical to my own samples (see the top of this page) of quartersawn figured English oak
French oak plank
French oak veneer
quartersawn fiddleback French veneer
Northern red oak
pin oak planks both dry (left pic) and wet (right pic, with the planks showing the other side)
figured chinkapin oak pen blanks
Argentine oak --- looks like an area around where a branch comes in
spalted oak, planks and bowl, no idea what species
finished bowl of chestnut oak burl, submitted by Bill Mudry
