Jim Oak Home Improvement

Oak Furniture for the Home

Hardwood is gorgeous in the house and perfect for your furniture. It gives style and elegance and it comes from renewable sources. There are many different hardwoods to use in the home but the most popular in the United Kingdom is oak which has been used for hundreds of years because of its beautiful looks, the wonderful properties it possesses to make it a useful construction and craft wood, and the fact that it is grown locally. It resists insect and fungal attack as well so it is easy to see why oak furniture is so popular.

So what does it mean to be a ‘hardwood’? The term ‘hardwood’ doesn’t actually mean that the wood is hard. Balsa is a hardwood but it is actually softer than the softwoods. There is great variance in the physical hardness of both hardwoods and softwoods. What the term actually means is that the wood comes from trees that reproduce in a certain way. Hardwoods come from angiosperm trees where the seeds have some sort of covering. Oak is a hardwood because its acorns are covered seeds.

The physical hardness of a timber is measured on what is called the Janka scale. At the upper end of the scale are woods such as Patagonian Rosewood and Brazilian Ebony and at the bottom end you tend to find many of the softwoods such as Western Juniper and Eastern White Pine. The scale measures hardeness in pounds-force (lbf) and it records the force required to embed a 0.444 inch steel ball into wood to the point where it halves the ball’s diameter. Guayacan wood at the very top of the scale is rated at 4500 lbf, and Balsa at the bottom end is rated at 100 lbf.

Oak is available in several different types, each with distinct characteristics. The types are Natural, Tiger, Pippy and Bog. Natural is the most common and is pale brown with normal grain, Tiger is more stripey, Pippy has a cats-paw appearance, and Bog is dark because it has absorbed colour from peat bogs. Bog oak is pretty rare so you aren’t likely to find much furniture made from it, although it is around.

When buying oak furniture, make sure that everything is crafted from solid oak including the backs and bases of drawers because solid wood furniture will last longer. Veneers look pretty good but they don’t have the same strength and durability. Handles, knobs and other extras should reflect the quality of the wood and complement the piece. Aim for great design and craftsmanship.

You will find that there are different styles of oak furniture available, both modern and traditional, but oak crafted to any design looks stunning and will be a lovely addition to any home. Check out your local furniture stores and see what takes your fancy.