Wondering when choosing an oak end table?

When you want a warm wood to enhance your living room or den, an oak end table is very effective. Oak is one of the most prevalent materials for solid wood end tables and can be found in many shapes, sizes and colors though it is limited to a range of colors if you want to enjoy the natural beauty of oak. Oak can have a wide range of grains too. Though oak trees will express a more open grain than a mahogany, oak is certainly a great choice for furniture. Oak grains can be found in the quarter sawn, plain sawn and rift sawn. The different choices have to do with the way the lumber was cut, at what angle to the growth rings of the tree.

A plain sawn oak end table is what most people expect when looking for an oak piece. It is the same cut that is used for most oak furniture, cabinetry and hardwood floors. The most common color found is a golden hue that emphasizes the grain of the oak. As an oak piece is stained more darkly the grain becomes even more apparent. Oak is very porous and open to receiving the stain. For a glass like surface you need to use filler to close the grains.

If you are looking for a mission style end table the process you need to look for is quarter sawn. This cut gives the “ribbon and ray” classic flake pattern. Quarter sawing is a slower and more expensive process than plain sawing. If you have your heart set on a mission style piece find a quarter sawn oak table. It will be more expensive, but is a piece you can pass down for generations. The beauty of quarter sawn is immediately apparent.
In lieu of quarter sawn, a rift sawn oak end table will resemble a quarter sawn. It is not likely to be less expensive as it too is a slow and expensive milling process, and less than 5% of American lumber commercially produced is rift or quarter sawn. It will really come down to what is available when you are looking for your table.

The oak lumber choices for wooden end tables are between red oak and white oak. White oak has a tighter grain than the red oak. On a red oak coffee table a fair amount of filler is needed if you want a shiny surface as it is more open than the white oak though both are very open grains. Grain pattern becomes much more apparent with darker stain as the pores in red oak are very open with the grain absorbing a great deal of the stain. Oak does not experience the blotchiness of other woods which has made it a popular choice for furniture in the US. Southern red oak is easier to mill as it is softer, but Northern red oaks grow more slowly and have more uniform grain patterns than the Southern red oaks. An oak end table will be a beautiful addition to your home.