Chestnut and oak

THE majority of the wood in the south west corner of France, where I am writing this post from, is either chestnut or oak.

You will often see logs stacked up alongside the road with trucks loading up flat loaders before heading off to factories.

Chestnut is a favourite around these parts because it is hard, fine grained and its natural resistance means there is no need to treat the floor with insecticide or fungicide.

One of the wood's main advantages is that it is easy to work with and the sawn timber has little sapwood with a straight slope of grain.

Oak is also popular around this region and it is known for its toughness and durability as well as its flexibility.

It is tough to decide which is best, I suppose if you want something a bit different then you'd go for chestnut, but oak is such a favourite that it just comes down to your own tastes.