Aged oak

[Roy Lindberry]

This past weekend I had the opportunity of staying at a Bed and Breakfast which was furnished with many European antique pieces, and I was surprised to note how many were made of oak. Another thing I noticed was the consistent dark, rich color of all of these oak pieces which is far darker than any oak I've worked with.

So here's my question: Is this dark, reddish brown color the natural color of oak as it ages for 100 years, or did they stain their woods back then? Do you have any recommended reading on this? Also, was red oak or white oak the more common wood to use, or were they both used? Is there a way to tell from casual observation?

Thanks,

Roy

[Kent A Bathurst]

Well.....if they are, in fact, of European manufacture, you may well be looking at neither white nor red oak.

Go to the Talarico Hardwoods site. Click on the European button at the top left, and scroll around. English brown oak, French brown oak, fumed "smoked" spessart oak. All are brown. In fact, for what it's worth, under the English brown oak, Sam has some comments, ending with: "The "brown oak" that results from it's growth in oaks has traditionally been the only sort of oak used in fine European furniture."

Beats me....all that stuff of his is out of my league....but I've drooled over those photos many, many times. In fact, I've even stopped by his place once, and buy QSWO and QS sycamore from him, but the European stuff...........likely just a dream.

[george wilson]

I am no expert on oaks,but when we were at the Tower of London some years ago,the entire interior woodwork was English brown oak. A huge quantity was used there,and I wondered where they got it all. The stairs were made of 2" x 12",or close to that. All the interior of the roofs were made of heavy oak timbers. There was a large building which was in use as a cafeteria which had a roof made of very large oak timbers.

This was all recent woodwork(more recent than the original Tower-it had burned sometime in the past and the wood work had been rebuilt). I need to Google it and see when the Tower had been rebuilt.

This oak wasn't the old black color you might see on real old oak,but was the medium brown color that English oak naturally has.

I noticed that on the ship Victory,apparently they couldn't get the oak,or hadn't the budget,because the replanked hull was something like pine. I know they have a tight budget on that ship,because they said they had only 1 cannon flintlock that still worked.Repro cannon locks can be had for about $450.00 from what I saw on a web site.

[Roy Lindberry]

Well.....if they are, in fact, of European manufacture, you may well be looking at neither white nor red oak.

Go to the Talarico Hardwoods site. Click on the European button at the top left, and scroll around. English brown oak, French brown oak, fumed "smoked" spessart oak. All are brown. In fact, for what it's worth, under the English brown oak, Sam has some comments, ending with: "The "brown oak" that results from it's growth in oaks has traditionally been the only sort of oak used in fine European furniture."

Beats me....all that stuff of his is out of my league....but I've drooled over those photos many, many times. In fact, I've even stopped by his place once, and buy QSWO and QS sycamore from him, but the European stuff...........likely just a dream.


Wow. I wasn't even aware of the existence of English Brown Oak, which shows how little I get out. After doing some looking on the web, I think you and George are exactly correct. It appears to be about the right color, though the hue of the pieces at the B&B were a bit darker presumably due to age. They were stunning pieces of furniture, but I'm used to seeing American stuff in mahogany and walnut etc. So seeing so many in oak (not in the mission style) was a surprise to me. That's when I was informed that the former owner had gone to Europe to furnish the place.

I'm not normally a fan of oak furniture, but the deep richness of this was amazing! Maybe someday I'll get my hands on a plank or two to see if it works as well as it looks.

Thank you guys!

[Tony Shea]

English Brown Oak is awesome stuff. I am also not a fan of red and white oaks from this area, just seems over used and too common. Once in a while I'll get ahold of a peice of real nice white oak that I don't mind too much. But the English brown oak is a different animal. Can really be stunning stuff if used correctly. I've worked a couple peices and it can be difficult to work depending on the specific peice. Not too far from working with some of our oaks.

[Mike Henderson]

If you look at medieval European furniture, it's always oak. And a lot of it was carved, especially the chests we'd call a blanket chest. My guess is that oak was the most available, lowest cost wood in that area, at that time.

Mike

[Kent A Bathurst]

Mike....slipped my mind until your post.

Made a few trips to England. Went in many cathedrals....I particularly remember a smallish one from the 1400s.....they let you walk all around and touch stuff :eek: including the intricately carved pews in the choir.....definitely oak. And, after the odd half-millenium or so, the color had aged nicely.

[george wilson]

The English made most furniture from oak and walnut before trade with the New World became available. At first,logs of exotic woods were cut and put into ship's holds as ballast on the way back from tropical regions. It was thrown up on the docks as unwanted before some cabinet maker discovered the new,colorful woods like mahogany. This changed lumber into a valuable commodity to bring back and sell.

The colorful Cuban mahogany was highly prized and made redder sometimes by using red brick dust as a wood filler during finishing. They do that in Williamsburg.

At first only the stump portions were taken due to the figure in them. 50 years later,when the Cuban mahogany became harder to get,they went back and got the main part of the trees,still good after laying in the jungle for all those years.

[Georg Zudoff]

Hello Roy,

The first is right - this is natural oak color obtained by age (aged).
I'm from Ukraine and oak is main priced wood used for priced furniture. Common for our country. Even finished oak will darken after the furniture was made. The color darken with the age.
Of course here on use the fumed oak, but this is not uncommon.

And here exist a great but highly overpriced kind of oak - oak which have been over hundreds year in the water. This oak has a almost black or black-brown dark color. But such oak is very difficult for seasoning and further woodworking. And overpriced too.

So it seems to me that you were saw the natural color of oak which darken with age.