Oak has long been known as a good quality and affordable material. Loved by many Vietnamese families.
Natural oak itself has possessed many outstanding features. When processed by human hands, these wooden items increase the aesthetics and value. Let’s find out interesting facts about oak that you cannot ignore.
Some information about oak
Oak is a hardy tree native to the northern hemisphere. They can survive in different conditions. Including temperate, Mediterranean and tropical climates. In the United States, this is a very important tree because of its extremely strong, heavy, durable and long-lasting characteristics. It is not planted quite as commonly as rubber wood or some other industrial woods.
Some oaks are evergreen, but most are deciduous. The North American region has the largest variety of oaks with about 90 species. The wood of this tree has been used to make boats for thousands of years. And become an indispensable material in our life.
Oak belongs to group VII in the classification of wood groups in Vietnam. It takes more than 150 years to mature, when the wood is determined to be the hardest and gives the best performance. Most oak species live more than 200 years, but there are cases where oak trees are more than a thousand years old. This is a large tree, they can reach a height of 30m and nearly 4m wide with long, wide canopy. The characteristics of oak wood are similar to ironwood.
Types of oak and how to distinguish them
Oak wood comes in many different shapes and colors. But mainly, there are two most common types today: white oak and red oak. Let’s compare some outstanding features of these two woods to choose the one that best suits your needs.
- Color: Red oak is usually light brown to brown in color, with a beautiful red heartwood. Completely different from the color of industrial woods such as MDF, MFC, HPF. The color of the red oak is bright, allowing us to choose from a variety of paint styles. Depending on your preferences: paint to keep the texture, paint to fill the vein, paint light or dark colors are all beautiful. Freshly cut white oak is light and almost white. The surface of the wood is white, gradually turning light brown. The closer to the heartwood, the darker brown.
- Price: In the current market, the price of red oak and white oak does not have much difference. With 20mm red oak prices from 13 million 500 / m3 and white oak prices from 14 million / m3.
Outstanding properties and uses of oaks
Currently, oak is widely used, especially in furniture production. Possessing many outstanding advantages such as: aesthetics, beautiful and sharp wood grain. The wood surface after sawing is smooth and firm. They have high stiffness, low shrinkage. Not easy to deform, good moisture resistance, wear resistance and good strength. Just like the characteristics of redwood.
Oak can be used to make wooden doors, laminate flooring, buffer cabinets, kitchen cabinets. Architectural carved wood, exterior woodwork, office furniture or jewelry boxes. Or used to design interior decoration. In addition, it can also be used to make floors, tables and chairs, wardrobes, to beds,… Especially, with big, long, hard wooden tom like walnut wood. Oak does not crack, oak is preferred by artisans for carving and meticulous processing. Create products with good value and good value. White oak and red oak have similar hardness, but in general white oak has more outstanding characteristics.
Uses of white oak
The white oak structure consists of tightly interconnected suction tubes and vessels. Helps minimize the ability to absorb water and absorb water. White oak has longer beams, forming beautiful, straight grain lines. However, the eye-catching quality of the wood grain is not equal to that of other rare woods such as camphor, iron or jade.
White oak has good adhesion, easy to stick, so it is used a lot to make items that are often in contact with water. Or outdoor items like ships, and coffins and especially whiskey barrels.
Uses of red oak wood
Red oak has straight, coarse and irregular seeds with large pores. Therefore, the ability to resist termites and insects in design and construction is lower than that of white oak.
The advantage of red oak is that it is hard and heavy, has a high resistance to torsion and compression, and is easily bent by steam. In addition, this wood is also very resistant to dents and scratches. So red oak is also used in furniture and floors due to its strength and durability. Create a luxurious beauty for products. It contains many good wood characteristics like rosewood, rosewood or rosewood.
However, with many advantages, white oak is preferred over red oak. This wood is made into a variety of materials to meet the needs and tastes of people. The most common types of items can be mentioned such as: wine cabinets, wardrobes, floors, beds, interior decorations …
Is Russian oak an oak?
There are quite a few people who ask the question, is Russian oak oak? Same oak but are they the same? The reason for this confusion is because the characteristics of Russian oak are relatively similar to old oak. But in reality that is not the case. Russian oak is the name for ash wood. It is widely grown in the coastal regions of Europe, especially in Russia. Absolutely not a plant that is grown much in Vietnam.
Russian oak has a light grain, the color of the wood grain transitions from light yellow to white in the center. This wood is used a lot to make furniture such as kitchen cabinets. Wardrobe, dining table and chairs, bed. In addition, many people also use this wood to make stairs. Because of the natural beauty of its wood grain system.
The selling price of 1m3 of Russian oak is now relatively expensive. Ranging from 8,000,000 (VND) to 15,000,000 VND. This price may vary from period to period and each wood supplier.
