Live Sawn Natural Character White Oak Flooring

About Our Live Sawn White Oak Flooring

Our most popular floor, live sawn white oak flooring is a true reflection of the inside of the tree. Unlike other wide plank floors, that have been created by choosing boards with a particular look, the natural live sawn grade uses all of the boards from a given log, showing you exactly how the tree was formed by nature. No repeating patterns here! Just unique, one-of-a-kind, individual character and grain on each piece of hardwood flooring.

Here in New England, Northern White Oaks have a tendency for epicormic branching, which leaves a legacy of knots in the grain of the wood.  We created our live sawn white oak natural grade wood flooring to make use of this abundant resource and highlight these gorgeous character marks.

What is Live Sawn?

The live sawn cut saws directly through the log, and the log is sliced all the way through without being turned. This is an old-fashioned method of sawing wood flooring that results in boards with a lively variety of grain, from quarter sawn to rift sawn to plain sawn. The live sawn cut of wood flooring is also very stable, even at wider widths, because it includes vertical and radial grain as well as tangential grain. Live sawn wood floors are also an excellent value compared to clearer grades of white oak flooring. If you like the look of quarter sawn white oak flooring but don’t have the budget for it, consider the live sawn cut of white oak flooring.

Sometimes the live sawn cut of white oak flooring is referred to as “European center cut oak” or “French oak” because this method is an old world style of sawing that maximizes the use of the log. Whether you want to call it French oak flooring, European oak flooring, center cut oak flooring, or live sawn oak flooring, this cut celebrates the character and personality of the individual trees used.

Characteristics

Since open knots and character are allowed in live sawn white oak plank flooring, they are normally filled on the jobsite (or during prefinish) with sawdust-based wood putty. We recommend ebony-colored putty because it showcases the beautiful character of the floor planks, much as a black picture frame is the perfect complement to a work of art.

Whether you have an old house or a modern one, this grade of oak flooring works. If you are going for a vintage or farmhouse look, you can’t go wrong with live sawn white oak flooring. The lively grain injects an organic warmth into any interior, which also makes it the perfect foil for the sleeker materials often found in kitchens or in modern architecture, such as stainless steel, aluminum, stone, and glass. If you are worried your white kitchen will read too “cold,” then this is a floor that will counteract that.

Learn More About Our Live Sawn Wide Plank White Oak Flooring

Five reasons to love live sawn white oak floors

See our live sawn white oak at the FRYE flagship store in Manhattan

Other Grades of White Oak Flooring

Select plain sawn – Our highest grade of White Oak flooring, hand selected for consistent color and clear grain with few to no knots.

Premium plain sawn – Mostly clear grain, features occasional small knots and is a mid-point between the Select and Natural grades.

Quarter sawn select – This method of sawing the log exposes the medullary rays and “fleck” in the wood grain. Quarter and rift sawn oak flooring has radial and vertical grain instead of tangential grain.

Rift and quarter sawn premium –  Features occasional knots for added interest.

Rift and quarter sawn natural character – Features the greatest amount of knots and character.