The late wood of good oak, except for radial grayish patches of small pores, is dark colored and firm, and consists of thick-walled fibres which form one-half or more of the wood.
In inferior oak, such fibre areas are much reduced both in quantity and quality.

Such variation is very largely the result of rate of growth.
Wide-ringed wood is often called "second-growth," because the growth of the young timber in open stands after the old trees have been removed is more rapid than in trees in the forest, and in the manufacture of articles where strength is an important consideration such "second-growth" hardwood material is preferred.

This is particularly the case in the choice of hickory for handles and spokes.

Here not only strength, but toughness and resilience are important.

The results of a series of tests on hickory by the U.S.Forest Service show that "the work or shock-resisting ability is greatest in wide-ringed wood that has from 5 to 14 rings per inch, is fairly constant from 14 to 38 rings, and decreases rapidly from 38 to 47 rings.