Wood gloat..maybe?

[Mike O'Reilly]

I had a neighbor drop off 60+ pieces of what he said was oak. The pieces are all 4" 6" x 5' long. They are rough so I cleaned up a couple of random pieces on the jointer and here is what I got. Looks like red oak and maybe white oak. Would white oak be lighter?

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll102/BugsandJeeps/Wood/oak2.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll102/BugsandJeeps/Wood/oak1.jpg

2 pieces compared

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll102/BugsandJeeps/Wood/oak3.jpg

Any input or verification on what it is?

Mike

[Alfred Kraemer]

Looks like red oak. White oak is sometimes lighter in color but darkens pretty quickly to a tan/brown color. Regarding weight they are similar. The immediate usefulness of the lumber depends on what you are using it for and humidity of the wood. Perhaps your neighbor could tell you how long the wood has been stored and where.
White oak has good rot resistance red oak doesn't, that's why white oak is often used in outdoor construction.

Alfred

[Jerry Miner]

Looks like red oak to me, too. The sure way to tell is by looking closely at the end grain (of a clean cut). Red oak has open cells/pores, white oak cells are closed:

Oak pic (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZzwzqqOcOIc/TPKYXPZnW3I/AAAAAAAACuc/FPb1QAr6PjU/s1600/red%252Bleft%252Bwhite%252Bright.jpg&imgrefurl=http://congadr.blogspot.com/2010/11/gon-bops-and-valje-red-and-white-oak.html&h=407&w=603&sz=84&tbnid=WI_c2Z_jPhAkpM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=120&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dred%2Boak%2Bvs.%2Bwhite%2Boak%26tbm%3 Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=red+oak+vs.+white+oak&usg=__58CdC2LKmXB245P49QA1qvkzna8=&docid=vdKq1eUBKg3ZCM&sa=X&ei=eDNWUNSeIIfxiwKL-oDIBA&ved=0CD4Q9QEwBQ&dur=438)

[Mel Fulks]

Red oak.But in the lumber industry basically all the oaks except white oak are red oak ,black oak is red oak.Some red oaks look like white oak until look at the end grain.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Mike
Nice gloat. Wish I had a neighbor that would drop off red oak for me. Tom

[Richard Coers]

Having trouble seeing any rays in that lighter colored piece. The one on the right is definitely red oak, but that other one almost looks like ash. If it has tangential rays, it may be another oak, but the early grain looks too open to be white oak.

[Scott T Smith]

Looks like red oak and possibly ash.

Based upon the dimensions of the lumber, it appears to be cribbing / shoring material for crane outriggers, etc. Most likely it is not kiln dried.

[Todd Burch]

I don't know if ash will turn black from being next to steel like oak does. If it does, it might be ash. Otherwise, I would suspect sapwood red oak for the piece on the left.

[ed vitanovec]

That looks like Red Oak, I think Red Oak is more porus than White Oak? You can take a Pen Blank size piece and place on end in water and blow from the other, if you make bubbles it is....Red Oak.