 White Oak
The white oak is a large, strong, imposing specimen. It has a short stocky trunk with massive horizontal limbs. The wide spreading branches form an upright, broad-rounded crown. The bark is light ashy gray, scaly or shallow furrowed, variable in appearance, often broken into small, narrow, rectangular blocks and scales.
 The leaves are dark green to slightly blue-green in summer, brown and wine-red to orange-red in the fall. The fall foliage is showy. The sapwood is light-colored and the heartwood is light to dark brown. White oak is mostly straight-grained with a medium to coarse texture, with longer rays than red oak. White oak therefore has more figure.
White oak is impervious to liquids, and has been used extensively for ship timbers, barrels and casks. White oak is the state tree of Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland and is widespread throughout the Eastern United States. The white oak group comprises many species, of which about eight are commercial mainly used for furniture, flooring, architectural millwork, moldings, doors, kitchen cabinets, paneling, barrel staves and caskets.
White oak machines well, nails and screws well although pre-boring is advised. Since it reacts with iron, galvanized nails are recommended. Its adhesive properties are variable, but it stains to a good finish. It can be stained with a wide range of finish tones. A hard and heavy wood with medium bending and crushing strength, low in stiffness, but very good in steam bending.
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