It was, and still is, used for keels, planking and bent parts in ships and boats. Oak kegs and barrels were, and still are, prized in this country's spirits production, for the aging and storage of wine, bourbon and whiskey. White oak is still the best all-around hardwood and remains in reasonably good supply. It is a valuable, rather expensive wood, but is usually less expensive than cherry and walnut. It is sold as veneer and as lumber in the full range of grades and thicknesses.
White oak makes up into the most desirable and durable hardwood flooring.
The growing conditions of trees determine the various characteristics of the wood they produce. White oak is a prime example. In the dense forests of high, well drained hillsides, the trees will grow tall, fast and straight, reaching for the sun. They produce longer boards, drier and more even grained. The same specie, grown in an open field on low wetlands, will produce a stocky, broad trunked, slow growing tree with a harder, heavier, tougher grained wood.