Ok folks...What is roasted oak?

[Porter Bassett]

At the market in Portland, I saw some boxes made out of what they called "roasted Maple". I thought it looked fabulous.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Perhaps they were out of roasted chestnut...this is the Holiday Season after all.

-Jeff

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Well you take some oak and put it in the oven at 350 for 2 hours and 40 minutes, turning it every 45 minutes. When golden brown you take it out and cool it on a rack until cool.

Ya gotta baste it every half hour.

I much prefer it on the rotisserie. It's self basting that way.

[Chris Rosenberger]

Here is a link I found on Roasted wood.

http://www.goodfellowinc.com/index.p...143&Itemid=426

[Darryl Lunn]

I've never seen roasted oak, but I know that Goodfellow does roasted maple and birch. The maple looks very similar to walnut. I've used the roasted wood before and found that there is no difference in how it cuts, planes etc. The piece below is of roasted maple.

[Darryl Lunn]

Here's the missing pic.

roasted maple.JPG

[Dewey Torres]

Here's the missing pic.

roasted maple.JPG

Yep that's the stuff .... It was done over what looked to be white oak though and may have been just a shade darker.

[Peter Quinn]

My boss has a flooring business as part of his millwork/cabinet operation, they have been using roasted oak now for a couple of years. I can't tell you the exact receipt used by his suppliers, but it involves heat and pressure. The wood has a 'trapped in a house fire' aroma, an attractive even brown color that verges on looking fumed except the ray fleck does not pop on the quarter sawn material, and seems to be increasingly popular and available. It is not a joke or a gimmick, but seems to be a genuine new option offered by kilns regionally. It does not resemble any walnut I have seen, just looks like very tan oak. It seems the suppliers have varied the formula several times; some stuff was too cooked (very dark and smelled burnt), some too light, others just right. All we need are three bears and a little blond girl to complete this tale!

Not sure how it works as a wood worker, we have made nothing other than flooring with it. I can say I've heard it doesn't glue up well but no one I know has actually tried to glue it, so that may be rumor or hear say? Something about the heat damaging the woods cellular structure? Good luck with it, I'd be interested to know how you find its working properties relative to regular KD oak.

[Chris Padilla]

...just looks like very tan oak...

Careful, there is a species of oak called tan oak.

[Tony Joyce]

http://www.certainlywood.com/detail.cfm?ID=1789

Tony Joyce

[Larry Edgerton]

Being Christmas season and all, and being as Chestnut is so rare, maybe you are supposed to substitute? Doesn't have the same ring though.....

One of my pet pieves is that the big box/chain stores "discover" something and rename it to suit their marketing purposes. Home Depot and the like are guilty of this, and it just confuses the issue. Some things they do it so it seems that they are the only supplier, and others out of ignorance perhaps. For example Radenta was sold as pine for the longest time, and the two are not even close in character although they do look similar. The problem was that Radenta will last maybe a year or two in a northern outside condition, even well painted where pine will last for many years. They do the same with tools, hardware, whatever. If you ask the store person for what you want, by what it has always been called, they just look at you with a blank stare. When you find it yourself it has a new name and a nifty package.

I really miss the local Lumber yards/hardware stores........

[Russ Filtz]

Not the same, but back in 8th grade shop class (when they still had those!) we finished a hammer handle by toasting it almost black with a torch, then sanding it back to whatever amount you wanted. Free way of getting stain I guess!

[Ralph Wiggum]

So the color goes all the way through the wood? If you cut it does the cut expose lighter wood?

[Dewey Torres]

So the color goes all the way through the wood? If you cut it does the cut expose lighter wood?

I didn't cut it. I only looked at it but from what others have posted the color goes all the way through.

[Pat Germain]

I was with Dewey at our local Woodcraft when he first saw the "roasted oak". His his defense, it's likely nobody in the store at the time would have known anything about this wood. Like I've said before, our local Woodcraft is pretty inconsistent.

If we called back asked to speak the manager, he likely would have gone on for 20 minutes about why he won't order roasted oak anymore.