In article t, Norminn wrote:

Just for the sake of argument, I don't believe either oak or ash would
ALWAYS appear completely distinctively.

You're mistaken. :-) Oak does.

I'm familiar with the look of
oak, but not the terminology. Rays or flakes? I dunno.

Here, look at this:
http://www.standupdesks.com/images/quartersawn.jpg

That's what quartersawn oak looks like. And if the wood in the photo were oak,
some of that figure would be visible -- plainly -- at the right-hand side of
the photo, where the grain is quartersawn. It isn't, and therefore the wood is
not oak.

Oak is more
open grained, as I understand, and the photo makes the wood look open
grained. Grain is so close together, I don't see how it would be
determined other figures should or should not appear?

Figure such as is visible in the image I referenced above will appear in oak,
regardless of how close together the grain lines are. It's caused by
physical structures in the tree that appear on their edges when the board is
flatsawn (whence the short, dark lines between the grain on flatsawn oak), and
on their faces when the board is quartersawn (as shown in the image referenced
above). These structures are present in all North American species of oak, and
are visible regardless of the manner in which the wood is sawn, or the
separation between the grain lines, or any other factor. That they are *not*
visible in Don's photograph is incontrovertible proof that the wood in Don's
photograph is unquestionably *not* oak. And neither are they obscured by the
stain: these ray structures do not absorb stain nearly as readily as the rest
of the wood, and staining makes them stand out even more.

All the old homes
I've seen that had "oak" woodwork may well have had ash (or something
else), but never seen one with wood identified as ash ) Ash used more
in furniture?

As I've noted several times before in this thread, they are *often* confused.
Ash is frequently used as a lower-cost substitute for oak, because most people
can't tell the difference. Both are widely used in furniture making.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.