What's the difference between pine and oak?

Answer 1

A pine tree is a member of the "conifer" family of trees. Among other traits, they are known for their soft wood, needle like leaves, and the fact that they retain a large number of green needles throughout the winter/dormant season.

An oak tree is a member of the "deciduous" family of trees. Among other traits, they are known for their hard wood, broad green leaves, and the fact that all of their leaves turn brown and die in the winter/dormant season.

Further information is readily available if you do a yahoo search for "conifer trees" or "deciduous trees" (include the quotation marks in the Yahoo search box) and explore the results.

Good luck with your search for information.

Answer 2

Pine is treasured for it's rustic appearance, does take many types of stains well, but is a soft wood and will be more easily dented and scratched, even with high quality conversion varnish finishes. You can choose Pine for its 'old time' appearance and recognize that it may age a little more quickly than hardwoods, especially when used for cabinets in a busy kitchen environment. Oak is a hard, open grain, heavy, tough and strong. The white oak is more durable, less porous, finer textured, has better color than red oak; it is considered better for furniture and cabinet work. But on the other hand, red oak is greatly used and is considered just as good as white for many purposes. Did you know maple has eclipsed oak as the most popular wood for cabinet doors.? Cherry comes in third, followed by hickory and pine. if you prefer a light hardwood with an open grain and striped pattern then you should choose oak. if you prefer a softwood with an open grain, a strong pattern, and random knots, around which the color will change then you should choose pine.

Answer 3

If you're choosing which one to use for say, a family room flooring, pine is a much softer wood, meaning it scratches and dents much more easily than oak. However, it is much less expensive. For something like children's' furniture, pine would be the way to go, especially if you're not going to be keeping it for life. If you're just making something as a hobbyist, it depends on what grade (quailty) of wood you wish to use and your level of expertise with that wood.

Answer 4

This is a vague sort of question. Pines are gymnosperms which means "naked seed", that is the seeds are exposed on cone scales. Oaks are angiosperms which means "enclosed seed", the embryonic plant is enclosed in an acorn or ripened ovary. Gymnosperms are more primitive plants that angiosperms in many respects but most of all in reproduction. Most (not all) gymnosperms have male cones and female cones and pollen has to get from the male cone to the female cone to pollinate it. In most angiosperms both sexes are in the same structure, the flower. It's not that difficult for pollen to get from one part of a flower to another part of the same flower.

Beside the classification difference there are all kinds of other visual and physical differences you could mention. Many have been mentioned here by others.

Answer 5

The easist way to distinguish pine from oak are visual characteristics and basic taxonomy of the names of the trees:

Pine trees have needle like leaves and produce cones. Pines are in the family Pinaceae, genus Pinus.

Oak trees have normal looking leaves and produce acorns. In the family Fagaceae, genus Quercus.

Answer 6

Pine doesn't have as much grain in it. It can also have a lot of knots. It can have a rustic, cabin-like feel to it.

Answer 7

pine is a soft wood where as oak is hard.

Answer 8

pines are soft and oak is hard and hard to find

Answer 9

Pine has less wood grain but more "holes"

Answer 10

Pine has sap, too.