Thread: European Oak Quarter Sawn needed for table top

Originally Posted by Kazmatt

Hi there,

We are in desperate need of quarter sawn English/European Oak to restore our antique table. Will require 1.3m lengths of inch thick timber, width of planks doesn't much matter so long as it totals about 1.5m.

Any help would be much appreciated as we are finding this type of timber very difficult to source.

Many thanks,
Karolina

Hi Karolina,

I have not purchased European Oak myself but suspect that unless a forum member has some stashed away you will need to try one of the commercial suppliers or (see below) a second hand furniture shop or op shop. I think that American Oak and Japanese Oak are the same genus, Quercus, or else closely related genera so may also be suitable timbers. Commercial suppliers in Brisbane (I have no connection with either but have bought from the second - so no conflict of interest here) include:

Watts Wood and Mouldings
Address: 81 Pentex St, Salisbury QLD 4107
Phone:(07) 3275 1947

OR

Lazarides Timber
15 Hurricane St, Banyo QLD 4014
(07) 3267 3899

Another alternative is to find a second hand furniture dealer that has a broken/damaged table that you could scavenge pieces from. The op shops like Vinnies often get these sort of things - try the big one at Sumner Park.

There are some great specialty shops in Sydney too if these cannot help you.

Good luck and happy woodwork.

David

Thanks for the suggestions David. We've actually been to the timber places you mentioned without much success. The American oak seems whiter than ours but we'll need to take a leaf of the table top in to compare next time. Not heard of Japanese Oak yet but will ask about it. Found a place in Sydney that sells quarter sawn English Oak but there's no way of checking the colour against ours until we get it. Could be risky.

Funnily enough, I know the Sumner Park Op Shop you're referring to. You must be close by! I've been ebaying and gumtreeing for old furniture but our problem lies in the fact that the table is wider than most so sourcing secondhand oak of a suitable length is proving quite difficult. Seriously, someone should get into business selling this stuff because it should not be this difficult. So much antique furniture is made out of this timber and yet sourcing replacement timber is hard.

So the search continues...

Thanks again!

Euro oak is also greener in colour, the American stuff has more red. If it's going to be stained a decent polisher should be able to get the colour pretty close, but then you have the issue of trying to find quarter sawn American oak. We go through a LOT of it at work and get maybe one board in 60 or 70
We have sourced Euro oak from Britton Timbers in Melbourne in the past and it was mostly quarter sawn.

Have you tried this mob ?
Contact The Salvage Company - Request A Quote | Brisbane | Sydney | Melbourne

They used be in Sherwood Rd Rocklea but it looks like they've moved.
Last time I was there, it was a bit hit and miss but then I didn't have a specific shopping list. Most timbers were offered in large-ish lots but they were happy to sell just 1 or 2 pieces.

Don't know about quarter-sawn though.