Kitchen / Dining Room Blog, Workshop Blog
What does A/B quality mean for wood
Jun
Wood quality A/B briefly explained
Wood qualities
In order to be able to distinguish between different types of wood, it is sorted into different wood qualities. The sorting is already done by the forester and determines the further processing of the trunk 🌳 in order to obtain the correct demand for the required wood quality. For example, if a rustic Table top needed, the piece should be taken from the trunk, which has many forks in the branches, or a piece from the treetop 🤴🏻. However, if a musical instrument or a parquet floor is to be made from the wood, pieces are taken from a "clean", flawless piece.
A distinction is made between four wood qualities: A, B, C and D. Mixed qualities such as A/B, BB, B/C etc. are usually offered by the pre-production trade. Pre-production is usually carried out by contract cutting in order to split logs into planks and to be able to process them further - for example into solid wood panels.
By the way, A/B quality is called A/B because it an A side and a B side gives.
Is each type of wood sorted?
Each type of wood is sorted according to its quality characteristics. However, the rustic quality levels for some types of wood are significantly lower than for others. This is primarily due to the use. For wood from 🌲 spruce, Larches and Oaks there are very often the more rustic Quality levels, since many products that are produced further require precisely these distinctive features, such as knots and cracks. beech, birch, maple, nut, cherry, ash and many more, the demand for better qualities is significantly higher.
🧐 The well-known wild oak is not a type of oak, but rather a very rustic sort of the classic German oak. It was coined as a buzzword in the furniture industry and in sales and is therefore now established as a self-evident term.
Which wood quality is better for the kitchen
Which quality of wood is right for the kitchen 🍽 depends entirely on how it is used. Basically, wood has antibacterial properties. This means that germs 🦠 and bacteria are killed by the natural tannins. This happens both with an A/B quality and with a more rustic version. With a rustic quality, such as the well-known wild oak, branches and cracks are deliberately processed. This gives the wood a distinct, wilder appearance. The branches and cracks are usually filled with special wood resin so that food residues cannot get stuck there. However, the natural tensions 💥 in the wood of wild oak are higher and more pronounced than in a knot-free oak. Smaller cracks and holes can therefore also form later and should therefore be closed.
At Cutting boards A higher quality board should therefore be used. Especially if the board is actively used for cutting and serving and if food 🥒 is to be worked on it.
Wood favorite used in all End grain cutting boards and Wooden cutting boards always the A/B quality.
At Gliding boards and Snack boards a mixture of light wild oak and A/B quality.
At Baking boards and Hob covers However, our customers have the choice between both qualities.
A/B Quality or Rustic
A/B quality
✅ Heartwood of excellent quality
✅ flawless appearance
✅ has only low quality characteristics
✅ no sapwood
Rustic
✅ predominantly heartwood
✅ up to 15% sapwood content
✅ Branches of varying sizes
✅ Cracks in the wood
✅ striking colour and fibre gradients
Despite pre- and post-sorting, our A/B qualities can contain up to 20% of the area of the next lower quality level. Pure A/A quality without any deviation is usually not possible from an economic point of view, as a tree always has individual characteristics.
Wood remains wood
Which wood quality is right for you is usually an optical 🤩 Decision. Functional aspects are only very rarely decisive. The rustic sortings are perceived as more dynamic, wilder, and more characteristic. The high qualities are more monotonous and more even in color and wood gradient. As wood lovers 🤎, we are more attracted to the rustic variant. The wood simply lives more here and shows itself in its most natural way. Nevertheless, there is nothing more beautiful than a flawless End grain cutting board with flawless 🔱 grain, which is almost too beautiful to use.
Wood is a natural product
Our video “Wood is a natural product” is also about the two wood types oak A/B and wild oak.
Hello, we would like to buy a wooden cover plate for our induction cooker to create an additional work area and cutting board. Our question is:
1. What is better, a solid wood board or a glued wood stove cover?
2.What differences for the use
3.What is the difference in weight?
We think that oak A/B has the highest degree of hardness and no cracks or knots?
We ask for advice,
kind regards
Rainer Kiessling
Hello Rainer,
Thank you for your message! I'll be happy to address the points.
1. In my opinion, a stove cover and a solid wood board are the same thing. But I'll try to explain a bit, maybe I'll get your idea across. Our stove covers are all made of solid wood, glued together from several wooden slats. Gluing several slats is important to reduce or prevent the board from warping. A wooden board made from just one piece, for example 2.5cm thick, 60cm long and 53cm wide, would almost certainly work so hard that it would warp completely and the board would become crooked. If this happens with a glued board, the problem can be brought under control. Find the hollow side, go over it with a damp cloth and lay it on the kitchen worktop facing downwards. One night later, the curved board should be flat again (or flatter than before 🙂 ). This won't work with a board made from one piece. Crooked things stay crooked. That's why we always make our rustic one-piece cutting boards from pieces of wood with many upright annual rings and a maximum width of 35-40cm, depending on the length and thickness of the board.
2. You can work on all of our cutting boards, hob covers or baking boards in the same "good" way. The final treatment is always the same. Sand the work piece to 180 grit, water, sand, oil, sand, oil.
3. We have summarized all weights under the "additional information" tab. Select the size and then click on the tab. The weight will then be shown there +/- 10% Natural :-).
At our Oak hob covers and our Oak baking boards we give our customers the choice between wild oak and oak A/B. In my opinion, the type of wood you choose should be based on appearance. Oak A/B is much more homogeneous and cleaner. Wild oak is more dynamic with greater color differences and is therefore wilder and more lively. We fill the cracks/knots in wild oak with special resin to seal them. However, I would like to point out that branches in particular can withstand moisture more than "normal wood". Over time, this can lead to smaller holes or cracks. These "really small" holes/cracks are easiest to seal with a little candle wax. This is the simplest and most gentle way to do this for the wood. Light the candle, drip wax into the cavity, wipe it over, and you're done. Everything is sealed and the wood is even protected.
I hope I was able to help you a little? If you have any questions, let me know 🙂
Best regards Marco