Floor Sanding Maidenhead Co.

Maidenhead Floor Sanding Co.

Maidenhead Floor Sanding Masters

OAK

Oak is the most widely used hardwood. There are more than 60 species of oak grown in the U.S., which can be separated into two basic varieties; white and red. The red variety is also known as black oak (a reference to its bark).Oak is a heavy, strong, light colored hardwood. It is ring porous, due to the fact that more and larger conductive vessels are laid down early in the summer, rather than later. Prominent rings and large pores give oak a course texture and prominent grain. Oak also has conspicuous medullary rays which can be seen as "flakes" in quarter sawed oak lumber.

Uses: Oak is the most popular wood used to craft American and English country designs. It is also used for Gothic and William & Mary reproductions, as well as many transitional and contemporary pieces.

Famous oak trees:

Emancipation Oak
Ivenack Oak
Bowthorpe Oak
Minchenden (or Chandos) Oak
Seven Sisters Oak
Major Oak
Friendship Oak
The Crouch Oak
Angel Oak
The Kaiser's Oak

Floor Sanding Maidenhead

SOFTWOODS top 3

PINE: Pine is a softwood which grows in most areas of the Northern Hemisphere. There are more than 100 species worldwide.

Properties: Pine is a soft, white or pale yellow wood which is light weight, straight grained and lacks figure.It resists shrinking and swelling. Knotty pine is often used for decorative effect.
Uses: Pine is often used for country or provincial furniture. Pickled, whitened, painted and oil finishes are often used on this wood.

ASH: There are 16 species of ash which grow in the eastern United States. Of these, the white ash is the largest and most commercially important.

Properties: Ash is a hard, heavy, ring porous hardwood. It has a prominent grain that resembles oak, and a white to light brown colour. Ash can be differentiated from hickory (pecan) which it also resembles, by white dots in the darker summer wood which can be seen with the naked eye. Ash burls have a twisted, interwoven figure.
Uses: Ash is widely used for structural frames and steam bent furniture pieces. It is often less expensive than comparable hardwoods.

HICKORY: There are 15 species of hickory in the eastern United States, eight of which are commercially important.

Properties: Hickory is one of the heaviest and hardest woods available. Pecan is a species of hickory sometimes used in furniture. It has a close grain without much figure.
Uses: Wood from the hickory is used for structural parts, especially where strength and thinness are required. Decorative hickory veneers are also commonly used.

But, at all events, one thing we have in our power — the doing without machine ornament and cast-iron work. All the stamped metals, and artificial stones, and imitation woods and bronzes, over the invention of which we hear daily exultation — all the short, and cheap, and easy ways of doing that whose difficulty is its honour — are just so many new obstacles in our already encumbered road. They will not make one of us happier or wiser — they will extend neither the pride of judgment nor the privilege of enjoyment. They will only make us shallower in our understandings, colder in our hearts, and feebler in our wits. And most justly. For we are not sent into this world to do any thing into which we cannot put our hearts. We have certain work to do for our bread, and that is to be done strenuously; other work to do for our delight, and that is to be done heartily: neither is to be done by halves and shifts, but with a will; and what is not worth this effort is not to be done at all. ~John Ruskin, "The Lamp of Life," The Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849