One species which never seems to go out of fashion and always looks good regardless of whether a modern and elegant or rustic and traditional appearance is called for, is EUROPEAN OAK which we have made the subject of our latest featured veneer page.

Also known as	:	European White Oak, English Oak, French Oak, German Oak etc., Common or Pedunculate Oak (Q. robur), Sessile or Durmast Oak (Q. Petraea)
Botanical name	:	Quercus robur, Q. petraea
Origin	:	Europe except northern Scandinavia

It is said that the whole of England was once virtually covered by forest made up mostly of Oak trees and that, as recently as 500 years ago, in the reign of King Henry VIII, around a third of this country's land was still ancient oakwood.

What a wonderfully handsome, strong and versatile timber the mighty Oak gives us. It is our national tree and has been of huge importance to this country pretty much throughout its history, having been used from medieval times for building our towns and cities, not to mention the old fighting ships of the navy. One of the oldest churches in England, St. Andrew's at Greensted in Essex, was timber built using Oak and the most ancient of the timbers, used for the wooden walls of the nave, have been dated at somewhere between the years 1060 - 1100. Decorative Oak panelling can be found in many historic buildings, having been extensively used in Elizabethan times.

The choicest wine and whiskey owes a great deal to carefully selected Oak which is used to make the finest barrels, and lovers of smoked Salmon - or even the humble kipper - will appreciate the effect of the Oak chips used for the smoking process.

Throughout Europe, Asia and North America there are around four hundred and fifty different species of Oak, both deciduous and evergreen. For this feature, however, we are concerned with the two native English Oaks, Quercus robur (Common Oak) and Q. petraea (Sessile Oak), both of which shed their leaves in late Autumn. In appearance the most obvious difference between them is with the acorns which, on the Sessile Oak, don't have a stalk but simply sit directly on the twig. Both will grow happily alongside each other and have frequently hybridized. Their growing range extends across much of Europe, reaching further north than any of the other Oaks but stopping short of northern Scandinavia. These are long-lived trees which can live for 500 years or more - in fact it is not unknown for some specimens to have survived in excess of 800 years. An old, unattributed quotation goes something like "An Oak spends 300 years growing, 300 years resting and 300 years gracefully retiring". Logs suitable for veneer production will usually be between 300 and 450 years old.

As veneer, the two species are indistinguishable and it matters not from which the veneer is produced. Both will yield from close to wide grained material depending upon the actual individual growing conditions. Slowly grown close-textured wood, which the French refer to as "Grand Fin", is particularly elegant, with a softer look than the wide-grained material that is sliced from trees that have grown more quickly. Colour is well known, being commonly referred to as a light, yellowy tan or medium biscuit, although individual logs can vary to include slightly pinky or greeny shades. Sapwood, a small amount of which is often left remaining on the edges of the bundles after clipping, is a similar but paler colour.

Clean, sound logs are selected for conversion into veneer and these will be either flat-cut for crown material or, if large enough, quartered or rift-cut to produce straight-grained veneer. When quarter-cut much of the production will show medullary ray figure to some degree. The rays, sometimes referred to as "silver grain", vary from a delicate "raindrop" figure to a heavy, almost indiscriminate spread of broad rays which gives a more traditional or Jacobean look. In the past quartered Oak displaying prominent ray figure was frequently known as "wainscot" Oak.

There is a modern demand for straight-grained Oak veneer with a very plain appearance, as free of ray figure as possible. To satisfy this it is not uncommon now for carefully selected logs to be rift-cut which has the advantage of yielding straight-grained veneer showing considerably less visible ray. Most of the finest logs for this type of production originate from France or Germany, where the forest trees often grow taller and straighter than here in the U.K.

It is not uncommon for some trees to develop small twig-like growths and small branches at intervals along the main trunk and these logs give us pippy Oak veneer, sometimes also known as catspaw, rustic or character Oak.

Pollarding of Oaks is a practice that goes back many centuries. This is where the young trees were cut back severely at crown height, above the reach of grazing animals, to encourage new growth which was then cropped for use as firewood. The regular removal of the young branches encouraged the trees to continually produce new shoots and so the cycle continued. However, pollarding Oaks for fuel became less common from around the mid to late 1800's and the management today of some of these "lapsed" pollards has become extremely difficult as some of the old branches have become very large and heavy.

A burr growth will sometimes occur where old trees have been pollarded, when countless young shoots all appear to grow from one small area and the wood swells and distorts with the grain diverting in many directions. Burrs, however, are not restricted to just these pollarded trees and they may appear on others as abnormal swollen growths, often at the base of the trunk but sometimes higher. From trees that sport several of these burr growths at assorted intervals along the trunk, "cluster" type veneer is sliced - the burrs appearing in small patches, or clusters, in between areas of plainer wood. Burr and burr-cluster veneer is highly prized, particularly when sound and of good size. Frequently, however, there will be pockets of ingrowing bark and the more prevalent this is, the lower the resulting overall quality. It is now difficult to find sound and sizeable logs of full burr and when they are obtainable they command high prices.

The growing wood of some Oak trees, if subjected to attack by a particular fungus, commonly known as the beef-steak fungus, will assume a rich reddish brown colour.

This does not adversely affect the actual substance of the wood but merely changes the colour. The veneer produced from these logs is simply known as Brown Oak or, because it mainly occurs in English grown trees, English Brown Oak. Very occasionally this brown colour will appear streaked together with the more usual light Oak colour and this type is often referred to as Tiger Brown Oak. It has been noticed that the change in colour may start at either end of the trunk and will therefore extend upwards or downwards as the case may be. In some examples it may only be part of the log that is affected and then the brown wood will extend over part only of the length. As with natural light Oak, from time to time cluster and burr veneers are also available from Brown Oak logs, the burr being particularly beautiful.

The mature heartwood of Oak is naturally acidic and this means that when fumed (or smoked) it reacts very dramatically, changing to anything from a very dark brown to almost completely black. Individual logs will react differently to the fuming process and some will even display a slightly lighter narrow line or stripe which can look most attractive. Fumed Oak veneer has become more called for recently, particularly as supplies of good Bog Oak (see separate page in our "Veneer" section) have become harder to find.

As can be seen from the images of the different types shown below, veneer from English or European Oak offers a surface material full of options for the designer. Differences in colour, structure, grain pattern and figure mean there is an Oak veneer suitable for an enormously wide range of projects, be they traditional or modern.

CROWN EUROPEAN OAK	PLAIN QTD. OR RIFT-CUT EURO. OAK	QUARTERED EURO. OAK WITH RAY FIGURE	QUARTERED EURO. OAK WITH HEAVY FIGURE	PIPPY (RUSTIC) EUROPEAN OAK
OAK BURR	OAK CLUSTER	CROWN BROWN OAK	QUARTERED BROWN OAK	BROWN OAK BURR
"TIGER" BROWN OAK BURR	CROWN FUMED OAK	STRAIGHT GRAIN FUMED OAK	STRAIGHT GRAIN FIGURED FUMED OAK