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| What is Quarter-Sawn Oak? |
Quartersawn oak historically has been used in Mission style furniture and cabinetry.
Quartersawn oak is recognized for its signature modular flakes combined with tight, straight grain. The process of producing quartersawn oak begins at the saw mill.
The log is split into four quarters (hence the name ['Quarter-Sawn'] then each quarter of the log is cut diagonally from the center of the tree toward the edges.
The peculiarity of oak is that it has very strong and well defined 'Medullary Rays' which running from the center of the tree toward the outer edges of the tree show fine lines perpendicular to the grain of the wood.
The Quarter sawing method places these rays on the face of the board, revealing this distinctive stripe or what is called 'ray fleck' running across the grain. This is the signature of quartersawn oak.
The net effect of sawing the wood this way is to produce furniture which allows the focus to be on the form itself rather then on the wood. Oak which is not quartersawn cut and is 'plainsawn' has very wide and open grain lines and this distracts from the furniture itself.
Quartersawn is also more stable than plainsawn. Since humidity expands the grain of the wood it is understood that due to the grain pattern of quartersawn wood any expansion occurs at these straight and tight lines.
Plainsawn oak unlike quartersawn oak has wider cross patterns and so plainsawn oak unlike quartersawn oak will tend to crack or warp at these uneven wavy grain patterns.
For more information on Quartersawn Oak, please CLICK HERE
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