Oak losing its appeal?

[Ron Wenrich]

A little blurb on Yahoo said that oak cabinets are put in 28% of the new kitchens.  That's down 20% in the past five years.  People are opting for alder, pecan, pine and walnut.  Those sales grew 44%.  My guess is that if they're not buying oak in the kitchen, they're probably not buying the oak furniture. 

Alder is a western wood, pecan is a southern wood, and the best walnut is in the Midwest.  I'm not sure what quality the pine is.  If it's white pine, the best grows in New England.  Looks like the eastern forest management into heavy oak reproduction wasn't the best after all.

I saw the same scenario happen back during the recession of 1974.  Maple was king at the time.  When I first did procurement work, I was told not to buy red oak as it was considered junk.  15 years later, foresters were removing maple because it was junk.  I also worked in Oregon back in the early '70s as a choker setter.  We were taking out the junk alder stands. 

[Magicman]

I would love to see a Pecan market.

[RynSmith]

We were taking out the junk alder stands.

An older (than me, I guess) forester I work with/learn from is still amazed that red alder is holding its own against Douglas-fir when it is time to replant out here.  He remembers battling it for Weyerhauser back in the day.

I don't know what to say about oak, but my first impression is just whatever the fad is - I don't recall the option of stainless steel appliances a decade or so ago and now it seems like they're dominant...

[Clark]

In the 70's the State of MN was trying to find a market for it's oak because there was no market.  They were even toying with the idea of getting people interested in commercially growing mushrooms and using oak as the growing medium.

It definitely goes back to what you have said on here a thousand time before Ron, grow the trees best suited for the site.

Clark

[terry f]

     Cabinets I can see, might even be painted over, cheap furniture I can see, but oak has stood the test of time, and still speaks quality. I doubt 100 years from now antique stores will be full of pine furniture, just a passing fad. Alder over fir surprises me, but planting or thinning for 25 to 75 years out, who knows. I think walnut and oak are safe for the long run, short term who knows. Sounds like mixed species and ages might be the ticket, that's what I'm going for.

[stavebuyer]

We have a nationwide cabinet manufacturer close by. They order more Hickory and Hard Maple than anything else although we did ship them a load of Cherry last week. The flooring manufacturers are still scrambling to buy every oak board they can get their hands on.. both Red and White. There is a company that makes a lot of paint grade yellow poplar trim and they are paying almost as much for #2 poplar logs as the grade mills are paying for prime. Painted trim, Hickory cabinets, and Oak floors seems to be what is "in" for the moment.

[chain]

Good 'ol hickory, guess I'll cease fire and let the stuff grow a bit more. Seems it took the RR tie market to stabilize the oak market when demand fell for flooring a few years back.

Around us, several sawmill crews competing and cutting the woods down of oak.

We're holding most our WO presently, stave logs going up? ???

[stavebuyer]

We're holding most our WO presently, stave logs going up? ???

Stave logs are going up. Strong demand and the stave manufacturers are really competing for logs.

[woody1]

One of my old logger buddies talked about blowing large cherrys apart, with a powder wedge, for pulpwood. This was on our property. The cherries have returned. I won't be blowing them apart.
Woody

[stavebuyer]

Good 'ol hickory, guess I'll cease fire and let the stuff grow a bit more. Seems it took the RR tie market to stabilize the oak market when demand fell for flooring a few years back.

Sawn ties are going up too and the railroads feel a little betrayed after they intentionally held tie prices steady in 2008 to protect their suppliers when they could have dropped them. When we hit another bust in oak flooring I expect they will remember.