Why Quartersawn Lumber

Your central Ohio source for beautiful, quartersawn hardwood lumber! Quartersawing is a lumber sawing technique that produces finished lumber with a number of distinct advantages over plain-sawing. Still, due to the increased yield, plain-sawing is how most hardwood lumber is cut today. When you quartersaw lumber, the saw cuts across the growth rings rather than tangentially as with plain sawing. In doing so, the integrity of the lumber is greatly improved. While quartersawing necessarily sacrifices some board footage yield, the resulting lumber is more stable, less prone to shrinking and warping, and for a number of species, produces a decorative effect through the resulting grain pattern usually presenting as rays or flecks in the final lumber. Quartersawn oak was a staple of American Arts and Crafts movement and was used throughout homes as cabinets, built-in furniture and moldings throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since then, quartersawn hardwood has remained a valuable material for a small but ever increasing share of wood workers, craftsmen and designers. Quartersawing lumber is both functional in terms of the integrity and stability it adds, but also decorative because of the distinct grain pattern that results when certain species are quartersawn. This is especially true of quartersawn white oak, which is highly sought after by wood workers and flooring manufacturers for it's distinctive medullary rays. The two pictures below are both of white oak lumber—the first has been quartersawn while the second is plain sawn. Timber Works specializes in quartersawn oak and quartersawn black walnut. We offer very competitive prices and complete flexibility when choosing widths, thicknesses and lengths. For more information, check out our lumber section or give us a call.