ForMatter/Materials/wood/White Oak (Quercus alba)
mat_oak_white

White Oak (Quercus alba)

ring-porous hardwood, closed-grain · American white oak, Quercus alba, oak
highlast updated 2026-04-26
metallic 0.00
hue shift +0°

The default American hardwood. Hard, heavy, takes a stain evenly, water-tight enough to make whiskey barrels and wooden boats. The wood Mission furniture is built from. Open enough grain to feel like wood under the hand; closed enough to seal cleanly.

Ring-porous hardwood with tyloses occluding the early-wood vessels (the reason it can hold liquid). Janka hardness ~1360 lbf. Air-dries with moderate movement; quartersawn pieces show medullary ray figure. Joins by glue, screw, mortise-and-tenon. Works well under hand and power tool.

mechanical

  • density_kg_m3750
  • modulus_of_elasticity_gpa12.3
  • modulus_of_rupture_mpa105
  • janka_hardness_lbf1360
source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, *Wood Handbook* (FPL-GTR-282, 2021)

Sustainability

  • embodied carbon kg co2e per kg0.45
  • sourceEditorial estimate from ICE / Granta CES EduPack class databases — industry mean, with cradle-to-gate boundary unless otherwise noted. Embodied carbon for any specific product depends on supplier mix, recycled content, and energy grid; verify against a primary source before using these numbers in a sustainability claim.
  • recyclabilityhigh — reusable as boards, biodegradable at end of life, carbon-storing while in service
  • biodegradableTrue
  • certificationsFSC, PEFC, SFI
  • localityeastern United States; managed forest harvest is mature and certifiable
visual
pale tan to light brown heartwood, stronger ring figure than red oak, silver flecks on quartersawn faces
tactile
open grain readable under fingertips, warmer than maple, cooler than pine
weight perception
heavy
acoustic
deep resonant tap on a board face — used in flooring and barrel staves where sound matters less, but it speaks
Sōetsu Yanagi (dead — channeled)

The oak that is good is the oak that does not insist on its own grain. It receives the hand of the carpenter without protest, accepts the shape that the use of the object requires, and gives back what was always inside it. The beauty of a finished piece of oak is the beauty of a thing that did not need to be flattered into being itself.

Channeled within the philosophy of Sōetsu Yanagi, *The Beauty of Everyday Things* (柳宗悦, *日用品の美*, posthumous English ed. Penguin Modern Classics, 2017).

PBR starter values

Principled BSDF defaults derived from the sphere woodgrain finish. Reasonable seed for Blender, Substance, Keyshot, Rhino — tune per material.

# finish:      woodgrain
albedo        #b89472
metallic      0.00
roughness     0.60
ior           1.45
transmission  0.00
clearcoat     0.00
sheen         0.00
anisotropic   0.60
copy as JSON 
{
  "albedo": "#b89472",
  "metallic": 0.0,
  "roughness": 0.6,
  "ior": 1.45,
  "transmission": 0.0,
  "clearcoat": 0.0,
  "sheen": 0.0,
  "anisotropic": 0.6
}
Blender 4.x Python 
# Blender 4.x — Principled BSDF
# White Oak (Quercus alba) · finish: woodgrain
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_oak_white")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value         = (0.4793, 0.2961, 0.1683, 1.0)
bsdf.inputs["Metallic"].default_value           = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Roughness"].default_value          = 0.600
bsdf.inputs["IOR"].default_value                = 1.450
bsdf.inputs["Transmission Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Coat Weight"].default_value        = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Sheen Weight"].default_value       = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Anisotropic"].default_value        = 0.600
KeyShot Python (lux) 
# KeyShot 11+ — lux Python API, Generic material
# White Oak (Quercus alba) · finish: woodgrain
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_oak_white", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse",      (184, 148, 114))   # 8-bit sRGB
mat.setProperty("metallic",     0.000)
mat.setProperty("roughness",    0.600)
mat.setProperty("indexOfRefraction", 1.450)
mat.setProperty("transparency", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("coatingWeight", 0.000)
Substance pbrMetalRough 
{
  "_format": "Substance Designer / Painter \u2014 pbrMetalRough constants",
  "_about": "White Oak (Quercus alba) \u00b7 finish: woodgrain",
  "baseColor": {
    "r": 0.4793,
    "g": 0.2961,
    "b": 0.1683
  },
  "metallic": 0.0,
  "roughness": 0.6,
  "ior": 1.45,
  "opacity": 1.0,
  "anisotropyLevel": 0.6,
  "_notes": "Channels listed are the standard Substance pbrMetalRough output. Drop into a Uniform Color node per channel, or as the constant input on a layered stack."
}
glTF 2.0 Metallic-Roughness 
{
  "asset": {
    "version": "2.0",
    "generator": "ForMatter"
  },
  "materials": [
    {
      "name": "mat_oak_white",
      "pbrMetallicRoughness": {
        "baseColorFactor": [
          0.4793,
          0.2961,
          0.1683,
          1.0
        ],
        "metallicFactor": 0.0,
        "roughnessFactor": 0.6
      },
      "extensions": {
        "KHR_materials_ior": {
          "ior": 1.45
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
USD Preview Surface 
# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# White Oak (Quercus alba) · finish: woodgrain
def Material "mat_oak_white" {
    token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_oak_white/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>

    def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
        uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
        color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.4793, 0.2961, 0.1683)
        float   inputs:metallic     = 0.000
        float   inputs:roughness    = 0.600
        float   inputs:ior          = 1.450
        float   inputs:opacity      = 1.000
        float   inputs:clearcoat    = 0.000
        token   outputs:surface
    }
}
↓ download glTF material
ProcessCNC Milling · Adhesive Bonding · Laser Cutting
Used inChair
Substitutes
Hard Maple (Sugar Maple, Acer saccharum)
Baltic Birch Plywood

Citations