White Oak is classified as a domestic wood and is sometimes referred to as Stave Oak, Cucharillo, Appalachian Oak, Encino, and Arizona Oak.

White Oak can vary in color from light tan to pale yellow-brown with a pinkish tinge, and it is similar to European Oak. It is straight-grained and silver-grained in quartersawn wood with a medium to coarse texture. Quartersawn White Oak has been prized by furniture makers for centuries because of the unique flecking found in quartersawn White Oak.

Many pieces of furniture from the Arts and Crafts or Greene and Greene era were made from quartersawn White Oak lumber. Although pre-drilling is advised, it does take nails and screws well; however, its gluing properties can vary. It also stains well and can be finished.

White Oak is usually used for furniture making, cabinetmaking, parquet and strip flooring, joinery, ladder rungs, heavy construction, railroad ties, shakes and shingles, plywood, paneling, and veneers.

White Oak has a Janka hardness rating of 1360.