American White Oak

Hi all
About 15 years ago I started purchasing American White Oak from a supplier near Windsor, NSW but stopped about 2 years ago when I thought the house did not require any more furniture. The wood was always a straw colour with a few tan coloured lines running through it. Two months ago I purchased another $650.00 of the same timber but this time, the timber was a tan colour. I spoke to the supplier and they have told me that for the past 18 months - 2 years, all the oak they have received has been this colour. They were unsure if their supplier has a different source or the wood was cut from a different part of the tree. Does anyone know a supplier of this timber who can get the oak in a straw colour; I'm trying to match the existing colours of the furniture.

Cheers
Foccacia

Can you post some pics of the colour variation you're talking about?

As any furniture maker will tell you, timber is always going to have natural colour variations and no one is going to guarantee supplying a particular shade. If their stock has consistently been that colour after the change, my guess is their source mill has either changed or has moved on to a different patch of forest where that's the colour.

It might be 'Red Oak' not 'White Oak' - Red is considered a lesser timber in the US and is generally cheaper to buy. You can test for this if you can get a short offcut - just try to blow thru it - Red Oak you can blow thru, it will make water 'fizz' with small bubbles, while with White Oak you can blow till your cheeks explode and nothing will go through. It is also quite likely the Australian dealer is being ripped off by his US supplier - what is he going to do? mail it back?