As an amateur furniture maker, I’ve read about quarter-sawn wood – white oak, specifically – being more stable than flat sawn wood, especially in furniture applications.  Logically, stability is important in furniture making.  However, I’ve been looking at two issues lately that kind of have an influence on my choice of flat sawn or quarter sawn.  Furst of all, quarter sawn white oak is about 3 to 4 times what flat sawn oak costs per board foot and is not so easy to get unless you buy it on-line, which further drives up the price.  Secondly, I recently took apart a very old oak library table that was in bad shape except for the wood.  I specifically looked for quarter sawn wood in the table top, legs, etc., and I found none.  It was all flat sawn.  Then I looked at a newer library table and found the same thing.  This table was very flat, very well built – naturally, as all white oak antique furniture is – and was constructed of flat sawn oak.  White oak is a very stable wood to begin with; do I really need to be concerned that the flat swwn wood will be a problem?