White oak furniture examples?

[Andy Fox]

My wife and I just don't like the look of red oak. It seems like it's everywhere, and the dark, sharp-angled rays make it look a little too rough for our taste. We have some cherry-stained red oak woodwork in our house already. I guess I would prefer to build everything out of cherry, and sometimes maple, but I can get white oak for 1/2 the price of cherry ($2/bf vs. $4.50/bf). White oak is also $0.50 cheaper than red oak here.

I'm considering using stained white oak to get somewhat of a cherry color and smoothness. Finish will probably be shellac. Does anyone have any photos of white oak furniture they've made?

[Mark Carlson]

Andy,

I recently posted this picture of a bookcase I made. Its quartersawn white oak with a General Warm Cherry Oil stain.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=40175&d=1149476225

~mark

[Bruce Page]

Andy,
It’s a personal taste thing but I don’t like the look of the flat or plain sawn oak, red or white. Rift sawn is a little better cut. Quarter sawn, IMHO, looks great, is very stable and is what is used in the higher quality pieces. When I’m buying QS I look for a nice tight ring growth of 12-14 rings per inch.

[Neil Lamens]

Andy:

Here's white oak solids with an English oak burl.

Legs, topr rims, edge banding, and drawer knobs all white oak with Poly oil and wax.

41331


Hope that helps.........Neil

[lou sansone]

very nice oak example neil!

lou

[Andy Fox]

Thanks Mark and Neal, really fine examples. I just might have to try to include some burl in my next project now.

[David Wilson]

Andy
Here is a pic of a white oak table I built a few years ago. Finished with Watco natural and polyhttp://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9258&d=1091385481

[Rick Doyle]

Does anyone have any photos of white oak furniture they've made?
hi andy,

here's a pic of a mission style coffee table i made from q/s white oak:

41375

[Chad Bender]

Here's an endtable I made last year, modeled after an old Stickley version. It's quartered WO, dyed with transtint Brown Mahogany.

241731

[John TenEyck]

No matter how you stain oak, red or white, it will never look like cherry. If you don't want to spend the money on cherry, poplar WILL look like cherry after you dye or stain it. It might also be your cheapest option as well. But it's not nearly as hard as cherry or oak, so if that's a concern, maple would be next on the list of being most like cherry in grain structure.

[Jim Rimmer]

I agree with those who have posted about QSWO as opposed to flat sawn oak but the price will probably put you at or above the price of cherry.

[Rod Sheridan]

241757241758241759

Some QSWO furniture I've made.................Rod.

[Jim Andrew]

I've used quite a bit of white oak, grown local and milled by me and others. No way you can make the oak grain look like cherry. People have weird ideas about stains and finishes, using one wood stained to look like another. The craziest example I can think of was at a shop I worked, a customer wanted cherry stained to look like walnut. Didn't figure out what they were doing till they got an approved sample. Took the finish guy a couple days of sampling to pull that off. My question, why didn't they just use walnut?

[Frank Drew]

No matter how you stain oak, red or white, it will never look like cherry. If you don't want to spend the money on cherry, poplar WILL look like cherry after you dye or stain it.

I've never found poplar to be a very convincing substitute for cherry. (Just a personal antipathy to poplar as a primary wood, particularly when stained.)

I'd consider dyed or stained birch a closer match, if you've got to have the color and general grain appearance of cherry.

But if you really want cherry, get some cherry. The wood adds relatively little to the overall cost of a piece of furniture when you figure in your time and other factors. And in the end you have your cherry piece, not some stained something or other.

[Mickey Gobes]

I agree with you. I hope this pic will help you.

Pine furniture

(http://www.lowennaspinefurniture.co.uk)242277

[Michael W. Clark]

Andy,
The QS oak will look better to you if you do not like the strong grain patterns. My experience (with red oak) is that QS tends to have more of the ray-fleck pattern than flat sawn. If you want to stain it, Walnut Danish Oil will darken it, but will not look like cherry. Sounds like you want a cherry color, but not necessaily look like cherry based on your original post. I used a medium brown dye stain, then followed with a black cherry WB stain from GF on some cabinets that I am doing. My coloring is on hard maple and is probably quite a bit darker than what you are looking for, but I used two coats of dye and did very little wiping. I think if you do some type of brown as a base, then a redish stain on top you start getting a dark cherry look. However, if you want aged cherry, it is very difficult to replicate the real thing. Just my limited experience.

Mike

[Jacob Reverb]

If you want to see lots of examples of QS WO furniture, just do a Google image search on "Mission oak" and "Stickley" and "arts and crafts" furniture.

[McKay Sleight]

I too, have grown bored with red oak. I love QSWO and have used it now for many of my personal and professionally made projects. I really love the flakes that pop when the wood is finished. I have fumed it, stained it, and left it natural. Here is the latest project that I did in the QSWO.242398