| Products Q&A |
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I'm in love with the “craftsman” style, and I see the wood in many of these kitchens labeled as “quarter-sawn” oak. What does this mean? Why does this oak cost more than regular oak?
Craftsman styling, especially in architecture and interiors, is often associated with the Frank Lloyd Wright school of design. It celebrates simple lines, and brings interest with rather spare geometric detail.
Early cabinet makers learned that lumber with prominent rays running outward from the log's center (the most well-known being oak) could be sawn in various ways to create different-looking finished wood results.
We are all familiar with the prominent, vigorous grain pattern typical of oak. This is what most oak boards look like when a log is simply sliced-up in the typical fashion. A board sliced right through the center of an oak log, though, shows a very different straight-lined grain pattern and features “ray slubs” which give a subtle “antique” look.
Logs are cut into length-wise quarter sections, and carefully cut to produce this through-the-middle grain pattern. It takes more time and effort to saw out such boards, and the log produces less high-quality lumber when sawn in this way – so more cost.
Early cabinet makers learned that lumber with prominent rays running outward from the log's center (the most well-known being oak) could be sawn in various ways to create different-looking finished wood results.
We are all familiar with the prominent, vigorous grain pattern typical of oak. This is what most oak boards look like when a log is simply sliced-up in the typical fashion. A board sliced right through the center of an oak log, though, shows a very different straight-lined grain pattern and features “ray slubs” which give a subtle “antique” look.
Logs are cut into length-wise quarter sections, and carefully cut to produce this through-the-middle grain pattern. It takes more time and effort to saw out such boards, and the log produces less high-quality lumber when sawn in this way – so more cost.