American white oak

American white oak wood has more varied grain figure

The American white oak is a hardwood timber that is commercially available in America. Although not as much as red oak, white oak is also found abundantly in this country. Wood working industries in the United separate the white oak with red oak, even though both have very similar properties. Simply the red oak is differed with the white oak, since it has open pores while the white oak is close pores wood. The other properties, such as: the grain pattern, base color, hardness and other properties also little bit difference. The white oak has a more wide grain pattern and more varied figure than the red oak. This timber has a varied base color ranging from white in the sap wood to greenish brown in the heartwood.

The American white oak has more similar properties with the oak wood that is available in other country such as the European oak and Asian oak.
 
The properties of American white oak.
 
The white oak is considered as hard and heavy wood; the shorten white oak is faster in grown and tend to have wide growth rings. This wood dries slowly and tends to split and check when the drying process is not properly done.  He has high shrinkage  volume, make it not suitable for uses in a tight construction.
White oak wood is widely used in the woodworking industry for various purposes such as: furniture, flooring, architectural joinery, door, kitchen cabinets, paneling, bridge, coffin, etc. This wood is also much uses for manufacturing of oak veneer. The oak veneer mostly made from white oak.

The white oak is preferred for the manufacture of furniture and paneling because the color is more even and its interesting grain pattern and figure. Most of the white oak wood and veneer is exported to Asian countries such as: China, Indonesia and Vietnam to be used as raw material for furniture.

Here are the properties of white oak.
 
Specific gravity (12% MC)                                        :    0.68
Average weight                                                          : 769 kg/m3
Average volumetric shrinkage (green to 6% MC)  : 12.6%
Modulus of elasticity:                                                 :12.273 MPa
Hardness                                                                    : 6049 N
Data is taken from: www.americanhardwood.org

the oak wood with two color finish

Finishing for white oak.
 
Although its name is white oak, but it doesn't meant that the wood is always has white color. Its base color varies ranging from white to greenish brown, and even sometime red color is also found in this timber. The white oak has a strong grain character with unique pattern; in general, this wood has open pores and grains, although not as big as the red oak.
The finishing with transparent colors are the best choice for this wood. A natural  finish or transparent finish with light color is the mostly found. A simple finish with application of wax or oil can produce an interesting finishing looked as well as natural color with a sealer and top coat application. The transparent colors with dark color can also be used and producing a nice and interesting appearance. Since it has varied base color, the equalizer stain and sap stain application is recommended to produce even color appearance.
Though it is considered as close pore wood but it still have pores and grain. The filer application is still needed to make close pores finish. One time filler application usually is enough to fill its pores and grains to produce a close finish pores.
The white oak wood can also be finished with solid color (paint finish). The solid color finishes which is still showing its grains and pores structure is mostly found. Antic solid colors with the use of glaze to fill in and coloring inside the wood grains and pores will produce interesting finish looked.
This wood can also be finished with antique models. Variety of antic finishing are lot found to make antique reproduction furniture products.