Matching red and white oak?

[Robin Cruz]

I can find 1/4 sawn white oak and have lots of plain sawn red oak. Can red and white be mixed in a chair and not noticeable after the finish is applied? 1/4 sawn would be used for larger flat pieces such as chair backs and arms. Any opinions?

[Peter Quinn]

While not for furniture, I worked in a flooring plant that made custom floors from 1/4 sawn white and red oak as well as plain sawn. I have seen just about every color variety in these species ad nausium (millions of board feet passed before my weary eyes).

If you can find white oak at the pinkest end of its scale and red oak at the tanest end of its scale you might match it. Grain depth and pattern will be more difficult across species.

Often white oak in the same bundle cut from the same tree wont even match itself for color! I have used WO where one end of a board didn't match the other, and one face of a board didn't match the reverse face. It can be challenging depending on the aesthetic effect desired.

I would probably be inclined to expand your search for QSWO rather than mix the two species and wind up having to A-B bleach an assembled chair to get the color right. I think you will need access to an awful lot of lumber in both species that you can sort and choose to get enough matching lumber to make a chair or a set.

[Robin Cruz]

ok.. Ill just get some more qswo then. thanks

[Frank Drew]

In my experience (certainly not as deep as Peter's), the grain in white oak is usually, though not always, finer than in red oak; red oak, to my eyes, can have a bit of a coarse look.

[Larry Browning]

Now, maybe I don't have the same discerning eye as the pros, but I made a entertainment center with several drawers. I did not have enough white oak to make all the drawer fronts, but I had some red oak that would work. so I made every other drawer from the red oak. I put a dark redish stain on the whole thing, and to my eye anyway, it all looks the same, and I am pleased with the results.
But then again I can't taste the difference between Old Milwaukee and Michelob either:eek:

[Peter Quinn]

Now, maybe I don't have the same discerning eye as the pros, but I made a entertainment center with several drawers. I did not have enough white oak to make all the drawer fronts, but I had some red oak that would work. so I made every other drawer from the red oak. I put a dark redish stain on the whole thing, and to my eye anyway, it all looks the same, and I am pleased with the results.
But then again I can't taste the difference between Old Milwaukee and Michelob either:eek:

But Larry,can you taste the difference? Because I can smell and taste the difference between WO and red oak in the dark! Its like white smells like fresh toasted pop corn and the red smells like fresh toasted cat pee.:D

Ditto Frank. I think our experience is the same, I just unfortunately had more of it. The depth of the pores, the size of the cathedrals formed by the growth rings, even the length of the grain lines is always a bit different. And for quarter sawn boards the ray fleck in white and red oak is not even close, white being generally more pronounced, wild and luminescent, red being more subtle and less abundant.

I can see drawer fronts working with a deep colored stain like Larry used, but if your using QSWO and using dye and light stain to pop that figure, I don't know where to go from there.

[Mike Cutler]

Robin

I made a Limbert taboret out of the two species. I couldn't get a good finish match between the two, so I ended up using a Bartley's Gel Stain for the final finish.
You couldn't tell the difference now, unless you knew the grain structure difference between the two very well.
It can be done, but I'd stick with one or the other if at all possible.

[scott spencer]

It can certainly be done, but how it looks depends alot on the individual pieces in question, and where they're placed in a piece. A recent project (http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=84775) I completed a few weeks ago is a mix of RO and QSWO, and I'm pleased with the results.