Makes perfect sense! This video shows blowing bubbles through red oak:
In general, the pores in the red oaks are open (like open soda straws) and the pores in most of the while oaks are clogged, full of something called tyloses. The tyloses prevent air and water from moving easily through the straws. This picture shows the difference:
red_white_oak_smaller.jpg
Tyloses are described as "bubble like" structures that grow inside the pores, sometimes clogging partially and sometimes completely. Under a microscope with good light the tyloses sometimes look sparkly. If you look up a wood species in the
Wood Database and see the words "abundant tyloses" the pores are likely completely clogged. (Other things can clog up pores too, things like resins and gums.)
Many species have abundant tyloses, for example osage orange and black locust are listed as "tyloses extremely abundant". That the tyloses keep the water out of the wood contributes to the rot resistance that makes some species better for outdoor furniture. The tyloses in white oak are the reason it's used for making barrels made to hold liquids.
If you see the words "tyloses common" the pores may be partially but not completely filled.
Lots of wood species have open pores but one distinctive feature of red oak is the large size of the pores. Oaks are classified as "ring porous" so the large pores are concentrated along the rings in the "early wood", the part that grows quickly in the spring.
If interested in wood structure, a nice article to read is Hardwood Anatomy in the Wood Database:
https://www.wood-database.com/wood-a...dwood-anatomy/
His article on wood identification is also excellent, describing how to use a razor blade to clean off a small area of end grain to examine with a low power hand lens:
https://www.wood-database.com/wood-a...ication-guide/
Even better are two books by R. Bruce Hoadley: Understanding Wood and Identifying Wood:
https://smile.amazon.com/Understandi.../dp/1561583588
https://smile.amazon.com/Identifying.../dp/0942391047
BTW, I got interested in wood identification when I saw a bowl marked "Cherry" on the bottom. Even without a magnifier I could see the wood was ring porous - definitely not cherry! (Cherry is "diffuse porous"!)
JKJ