Mission Oak Designs uses the best possible quartersawn oak for each piece. All our pieces take approximately 8 weeks to build and finish to your particular order. We will not rush through any order for bar stools because we feel mass producing eliminates the quality of the piece. We want your bar stools to last a life time. Now here is a little about of wood:

Wood types for Bar stools and Bar Tables.

Quarter Sawn: Gustav Stickley and other quality woodworkers of the past have relied on quartersawn oak for strength, durability, and beauty. Furniture made from quartersawn oak has lasted for centuries. Quartersawn Oak , a material little used today, is one of the hallmarks of the Arts & Crafts. Quartersawn is cut for figure. It is expensive to produce because the log is cut using the heart as the edge rather than the center, as in flatsawn oak.

At the sawmill, the log is first split into four quarters ('quartersawn'), then cut on the diagonal from the center of the tree out toward the edges. Look closely at the end of a sawn oak board or branch and you can easily pick out the rays. They look like fine, straight lines spreading out from the center of the tree, perpendicular to the grain of the wood.

 

The Quartersawing Method places these designs on the face of the board, revealing the distinctive stripe or 'flack' running across the grain that is the signature of quartersawn oak. According to Gustav Stickley "The quartersawing method of cutting makes quartersawn oak structurally stronger, also finer in grain, and, as shown before, less liable to warp and check than when sawn in any other way."

 

Quartersawing fell out of favor in the first half of this century because it yields less lumber per tree and takes more labor than plainsawing. Because almost all oak furniture today is flatsawn or plainsawn, we associate the quartersawn figure with the period of the pieces. Therefore, this unique figure is an important ingredient in accurately recreating the look of turn-of-the-century furniture.

Quartersawn is as beautiful in either red or white oak, and well worth the extra expense. After all, woodworkers of today are making the antiques of the future. Therefore we use the best wood we can get.

We at Mission Oak Designs quatersawn in all our bar stools. We also offer all the hardwoods such as cherry, maple and walnut. Each bar stool can be ordered either way. If you have any questions about our bar stools or wine tables please feel free to contact us, we are always here to answer any questions you may have.