White Oak Lumber: Grades, Thicknesses and Properties

White oak lumber is the sawn wood of the white oak group, sold under one trade name and graded under the NHLA rules. It is heavy, hard and resistant to decay in the heartwood, its pores are plugged so it holds liquids, and it is cut plain sawn, rift or quartered. Most of it is sold kiln dried in 4/4 to 8/4, in FAS, F1F and Common grades.

Item	Typical for white oak lumber
Trade name and species	White oak: Quercus alba plus other white oaks sold together (bur, chestnut, post, swamp white, overcup, chinkapin)
Side hardness (Janka)	about 1,360 lbf at 12% moisture
Specific gravity	0.60 green, 0.68 at 12% moisture
Shrinkage, green to oven dry	radial 5.6%, tangential 10.5%, volume 16.3%
Decay resistance of heartwood	Resistant (Wood Handbook group)
Common thicknesses	4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 8/4. 10/4 and 12/4 from fewer suppliers
Cuts offered	Plain sawn, rift, quartered or rift and quartered mixed
Grades	FAS, F1F, Selects, No.1 Common, No.2A Common and lower
Typical kiln dried moisture	6 to 8% for interior use in North America
US tariff line	4407.91 (oak), statistical suffix for white oak under “other”

Figures are typical values for the species from the USDA Wood Handbook, not guarantees for a lot. The NHLA rulebook governs grades.

What is sold as white oak

The trade does not sort white oak by species. The Wood Handbook lists white oak (Quercus alba) with chestnut, post, overcup, swamp chestnut, bur, chinkapin and swamp white oak as the main species of the group, and they reach the market mixed. The sawn boards cannot be told apart reliably by species, only by group. For most buyers that is fine. It matters in two cases:

• Tight cooperage and wet use. White oak pores are usually plugged with tyloses, which makes the wood hard for liquids to pass through. The Handbook notes that many heartwood pores of chestnut oak lack tyloses. A stave buyer therefore cares about the source and the cut, not just the trade name.
• Color matching. Heartwood runs from grayish brown to mid brown and darker. Lumber from different regions and mills can differ in tone. Keep one lot for one product line.

The NHLA species guide gives US white oak growing stock as 2.26 billion cubic meters, about 15.5% of all US hardwood growing stock. It is readily available as sawn lumber and veneer in a wide range of grades and sizes.

Grades and what they yield

White oak follows the standard NHLA grades. A grade is set by the share of the board that can be cut into clear pieces of a minimum size, judged on the poorer face for most grades.

Grade	Minimum board	Clear face yield	Typical white oak use
FAS	6 in wide, 8 to 16 ft	83 1/3%	Long rails, table tops, stair treads, millwork
F1F and Selects	One FAS face, back No.1 Common	83 1/3% on the better face	Face frames, doors, drawer fronts
No.1 Common	3 in wide, 4 to 16 ft	66 2/3%	Cabinet doors, furniture parts, flooring
No.2A Common	3 in wide, 4 to 16 ft	50%	Flooring, short parts, rustic work

Sizes and yields come from the NHLA grade summaries published by the American Hardwood Export Council and the Wood Handbook. Read the FAS grade page for how cuttings are counted and the lumber grades hub for every grade side by side.

Grade and appearance are separate. Sapwood and color are not grade defects in white oak. If you need heartwood only, color-matched stock or a narrow color range, write it as an extra line on the order.

Plain sawn, rift and quartered

White oak has broad rays. The cut decides how they show and how much the board moves.

Cut	Ring angle to face (typical)	Look	Movement across the width
Plain sawn	0 to about 30 degrees	Cathedral figure on the face	Highest, close to the tangential value
Rift sawn	about 30 to 60 degrees	Straight, tight grain, little fleck	Between the two
Quartersawn	about 60 to 90 degrees	Straight grain with ray fleck	Lowest, close to the radial value

The Wood Handbook gives white oak a tangential shrinkage of 10.5% and a radial shrinkage of 5.6% from green to oven dry. A quartersawn board therefore moves about half as much across its width as a plain sawn board for the same change in moisture. That is the reason quartered and rift white oak is chosen for wide panels, flooring in heated rooms and furniture with tight joints.

Quartered and rift lumber cost more because the log yields less of it. Mills sell “rift and quartered” as a mix, rift only or quartered with a stated minimum fleck. Agree the sort and the angle tolerance in writing. Our guide to plain sawn vs quarter sawn vs rift sawn hardwood compares the three cuts across species.

Properties that matter to a buyer

Property	White oak	Northern red oak	What it means
Side hardness at 12%	about 1,360 lbf	about 1,290 lbf	Both suit floors and treads
Specific gravity at 12%	0.68	0.63	White oak is heavier, more freight per board foot
Modulus of rupture at 12%	about 15,200 psi	about 14,300 psi	Similar strength
Tangential shrinkage	10.5%	8.6%	White oak moves more when plain sawn
Pores	Usually plugged with tyloses	Open	White oak for wet use and barrels
Heartwood decay resistance	Resistant	Not in the resistant groups	White oak for exterior and boat parts

Values are from the Wood Handbook tables for clear wood. A lot of lumber varies around them. Weight from these figures: white oak at 12% moisture is near 47 lb per cubic foot, or roughly 4 lb per board foot. Use the supplier’s own weight for freight.

Red oak, the cheaper and more open-pored alternative, has its own page: red oak lumber. If you are weighing European oak against American white oak, see European oak vs American white oak.

Drying and thick stock

White oak dries slowly. Thick boards that are dried too fast can surface check and honeycomb, so mills air dry or pre-dry before the kiln and run conservative schedules. Two consequences for the order:

• Lead time. 8/4 and thicker can take months from the saw to kiln dried stock. Ask whether the mill has dry inventory or will saw to order. The NHLA guide notes that not all suppliers offer 10/4 and 12/4.
• Moisture spec. For interior use in North America the usual target is 6 to 8%. Ask for the kiln record or a moisture reading at loading. The kiln drying schedules guide explains what a good schedule looks like.

Where white oak is used

Use	Grade and cut usually quoted	Note
Furniture and cabinets	FAS and No.1 Common, plain or rift	Rift for straight grain on doors
Flooring	No.1 and No.2A Common, plain or rift and quartered	Hardness and wear resistance
Stair treads	FAS 5/4 to 8/4	Wide, clear boards
Millwork and mouldings	FAS, F1F	Stain grade, consistent color
Barrel staves	Quartered stave bolts from selected logs	Tight grain and tyloses
Exterior and marine parts	Heartwood, FAS	Decay resistance of heartwood

What to write on the RFQ

A white oak quote is comparable only when these fields match: species name, cut, grade and rulebook, thickness in quarters, surfacing, drying, color or heartwood rule, width and length limits, board feet and paperwork. Our hardwood lumber specifications guide explains every field.

RFQ line: White oak (Quercus alba group), rift and quartered, FAS, NHLA rules (edition named), 5/4 rough, KD 6-8%, random widths 4 in and up, 8-16 ft, 3,000 BF, Lacey Act data.

Send it through our lumber RFQ form and we pass it to up to 3 mills or yards that carry white oak in that grade and thickness. More species are listed on the hardwood species hub.