After American Black Walnut, this species has remained the second hottest species of veneer for as long as our founder has been in the business.  White Oak has a pretty large growing region in the US, but the best logs come from the Ohio / Indiana region.  Logs are flat sliced, quarter sliced and in this case, rift sliced on a half round.

Rift is almost a misnomer in any other species than Oak or perhaps European Beech.  Rift production was developed in order to minimize the flake figure we see in this species.  If you are slicing perpendicular to the medullary rays, you don’t really notice the flake.  However, as you continue to slice the veneer you begin to slice more and more parallel to those rays, which results in the appearance of the flake figure.

Rift production was developed to minimize flake, by altering the angle at which the log strikes the knife.  By using a stay log (half round machine) you can slice around the growth rings and remain more perpendicular to the medullary rays for a longer period of slicing.

On the other hand – if you WANT the flake, then we look at White Oak Flake rather than White Oak Rift.