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"Moon Ring" Defect in Oak
Question
Can anyone diagnose what this is? A fellow furniture maker suggested that it may have occurred during kiln drying. I thought it could be the signs of early decay of some kind of rot that has not softened the timber yet. I would like to return the wood to my supplier but I want to understand what it might be before I try to return the wood. The oak was bought at a high price to get prime quality material and personally feel it is a visual defect and not an attractive natural feature. Any thoughts or ideas?  Click here for higher quality, full size image Forum Responses
From contributor D: I recently dried tan oak and saw something similar. The rough boards looked fine but the planed boards had light areas. I was told that the light areas were the natural color and the dark majority was the result of enzymes and sitting too long. From contributor C: Gene - look at the edge on photo of the boards. It looks like a ribbon running through the wood. From Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor: Sure enough - I missed that. It looks like sapwood and some of the wood did not convert to heartwood while most of the rest of the wood did. From the original questioner: Thanks for everyone’s responses. Since posting I have had lots of useful suggestions. I have since tried to get some kind of exchange or reduction of price. So far not much luck. The sawmill says it is a common natural characteristic of oak, particularly because I have machined the oak. I can understand where they are coming from but feel it’s not that common and I certainly didn’t expect to find it during planing. I have since purchased more wood from a different supplier at my own cost.
From Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor: The oxidation stains are primarily surface phenomena and would not result in the white areas in the center of the piece as shown in the photo. That is why I do believe you have some areas on the wood that have not converted to heartwood and so still have the white sapwood appearance. This is indeed rare, but I have seen it before.
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