Wood Species
Hardwood Lumber and Millwork stocks 17 species of domestic hardwoods and 22 species of exotic woods. There is so much to know about each species, including grain characteristics, workability and even availability. Browse the selection below, then click on a picture to go to an expanded explanation about that species. You may discover a new-to-you wood that fits into your project plans.
About this content--We’re pleased to share that much of the information shown below is from our own experience, various publications and the website, wood-database.com. The volume of information collected on that site by Creator Eric Meier is simply amazing, and we frequently recommend it to our customers. If you need additional information about the woods presented here, or about any other wood,
be sure to check it out.
Sourced from West Africa
Color/Appearance: Known as African Teak, (in appearance only) heartwood is typically a golden brown, frequently has an olive hue.
Workability: Afrormosia is easy to work with both hand and machine tools, though surfacing boards with interlocking grain may cause tearout. It's rather dense material, so it has a slight blunting effect on blades. It will also develop dark stains if left in contact with iron in moist conditions. Afrormosia turns, glues, stains, and finishes well.
A note about Sustainability: Afrormosia is listed as endangered due to a population reduction of over 50% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range, and exploitation. The cutting and exporting of this lumber is highly regulated.
Common Uses: Boatbuilding, veneer, flooring, and furniture.
Most often sourced from the Pacific Northwest.
AKA: Red Alder, Western Red Alder
Color/Appearance: Light tan to reddish brown; Not a big distinction between sapwood and heartwood. The overall grain pattern and appearance is similar to Birch.
Workability: Red Alder is very easy to work with both hand and machine tools; it sands especially easy. The wood is rather soft, however, and care must be taken to avoid denting it in some applications. Red Alder has excellent gluing, staining, and finishing properties; it also turns well and behaves similar to Black Cherry.
Not suitable for outdoor use.
Ambrosia Maple is a general description of any type of Maple that has been infested by ambrosia beetles. The beetles bore into the tree and bring fungus that discolors the wood.
Ambrosia Maple is considered a decorative feature which gives the wood additional character.
Sourced from Eastern North America
Common Name(s): Black Cherry, Cherry, American Cherry
Color/Appearance: Heartwood is a light pinkish brown when freshly cut, darkening to a medium reddish brown with time and upon exposure to light. Sapwood is a pale yellowish color. The grain is usually straight and easy to work—with the exception of figured pieces with curly grain patterns. Has a fine, even texture with moderate natural luster.
Workability: Cherry is known as being one of the best all-around woods for workability. It is stable, straight-grained, and machines well. The only difficulties typically arise if the wood is being stained, as it can sometimes give blotchy results—using a sanding sealer prior to staining, or using a gel-based stain is recommended. Sapwood is common, and may contribute to a high waste factor.
Rot Resistance: Heartwood is rated as being very durable and resistant to decay.
Sourced from Eastern North America
AKA: Eastern Red Cedar
Color/Appearance: Heartwood tends to be a reddish or violet-brown. Pale yellow sapwood can appear throughout the heartwood as streaks and stripes.
Workability: Overall, Aromatic Red Cedar is easy to work, but is subject to knots and irregularities in the wood. It reportedly has a high silica content, which can dull cutters. Aromatic Red Cedar glues and finishes well.
Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, and is reported by the IUCN as being a species of least concern.
Rot Resistance: Heartwood (not sapwood) is regarded as excellent in resistance to both decay and insect attack.
Sourced from Eastern North America
AKA: White Ash, American White Ash
Color/Appearance: The heartwood is a light to medium brown color. Sapwood can be very wide, and tends to be a beige or light brown.
Has a textured grain similar to yellow pine or red oak (but nicer), can have curl.
Workability: Produces good results with hand or machine tools. Responds well to steam bending. Glues, stains, and finishes well.
A Note about Sustainability: This wood species is listed as critically endangered. Ash is frequently the victim of the Emerald Ash bore, which kills the tree.
Not suitable for outdoor use.
Sourced from Eastern North America
AKA: Basswood, American Basswood, Lime, Linden
Color/Appearance: Pale white to light brown color. Knots and other defects are uncommon.
Workability: Easy to work, being very soft and light. Most frequently used for hand carving. Basswood also glues and finishes well, but has poor steam bending and nail holding characteristics.
Not suitable for outdoor use.
Sourced from Northeastern North America
AKA: Yellow Birch
Color/Appearance: Heartwood tends to be a light reddish brown, with nearly white sapwood. Occasionally figured pieces are available with a wide, shallow curl similar to the curl found in Cherry.
Workability: Generally easy to work with hand and machine tools, though boards with wild grain can cause grain tearout during machining operations. Turns, glues, and finishes well.
Not suitable for outdoor use.
Sourced from Tropical South America
Color/Appearance: Heartwood is a bright, vivid red. Well defined sapwood is a pale yellowish color.
Grain is usually straight or even slightly interlocked. Has a fine texture with good natural luster, and is also somewhat chatoyant.
Workability: Bloodwood is extremely dense, so it has a pronounced blunting effect on cutters. The wood tends to be brittle and can splinter easily while being worked.
Common Uses: Carvings, trim, inlays, furniture, guitars, knife handles, and turned objects.
Sourced from Mexico and Central/South America
Color/Appearance: Has a yellowish-brown body with dramatic dark brown to almost black stripes. Also, the grain patterning can be quite striking, particularly on flatsawn areas. It’s not uncommon to see many “eyes” and other figuring in Bocote.
Grain varys from straight to nicely figured in some way, and also tends to be interlocked. Medium uniform texture and a naturally oily/waxy feel. Good natural luster.
Workability: Bocote is easily worked and machined with good results, though, some species may contain silica that will dull cutters. Bocote has a fairly high natural oil content, but glues well. Bocote also turns and finishes well.
Common Uses: Fine furniture, cabinetry, flooring, veneer, boatbuilding, musical instruments, gunstocks, turned objects, and other small specialty wood items.
Sourced from Equatorial Africa
AKA: Kevazingo
Color/Appearance: Heartwood ranges from a pinkish red to a darker reddish brown with darker purple or black streaks. Sapwood is a pale straw color. Bubinga is very frequently seen with a variety of figure, including: pommele, flamed, waterfall, quilted, mottled, etc. Grain is straight to interlocked. Has a uniform fine to medium texture and moderate natural luster.
Workability: Easy to work overall, though depending upon the species Bubinga may have silica present, which is hard on cutting edges. Also, on pieces with figured or interlocking grain, tearout can occur during planing or other machining operations. Gluing can occasionally be problematic due to Bubinga’s high density and natural oils. Turns and finishes well.
Common Uses: Veneer, inlays, fine furniture, cabinetry, turnings, and other specialty items. Since Bubinga trees can grow so large, natural-edge slabs of the wood have also been used in tabletops and other specialized projects.
Rot Resistance: Ranges from moderately durable to very durable depending upon the species. Bubinga is also reported to be resistant to termite and marine borer attack.
Sourced from Panama down to southern Brazil
Color/Appearance: Heartwood color can vary a fair amount, from a pale yellow-orange to a darker reddish brown, usually with darker streaks throughout.
Grain is typically straight, with some figure.
Workability: Easy to work with both hand and machine tools, though some tearout can occur during planing on pieces with wild or irregular grain. Good dimensional stability. Turns, glues and finishes well.
Common Uses: Flooring, veneers, boatbuilding, furniture, cabinetry, and turned items.
Sourced from Central America
Color/Appearance: Cocobolo shows in a variety of colors, ranging from yellow, orange, red, and shades of brown with streaks of black or purple. Grain is straight to interlocked that can cause tear out, with a fine even texture. Good natural luster.
Workability: Cocobola has a high oil content, so care should be taken when gluing—perhaps use epoxy. Also, the wood’s color may bleed into surrounding wood when applying a finish. The wood is dense, so it has a blunting effect on cutting edges. Cocobolo has excellent turning properties.
A Note about Sustainability: Cocobolo is listed on CITES appendix II under the genus-wide restriction on all Dalbergia species—which also includes finished products made of the wood. It is also listed on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable due to a population reduction of over 20% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range, and exploitation. The cutting and exporting of this lumber is highly regulated.
Common Uses: Fine furniture, musical instruments, turnings, and other small specialty objects.
Rot Resistance: Rated as very durable, and also resistant to insect attack. Its natural oils are reported to give it good resistance to degrade.
Curly Maple is simply a description of a figure in the grain—it occurs most often in soft maples, but can also be found in hard maples. It is so called because the ripples in the grain pattern create a three-dimensional effect that appears as if the grain has “curled” along the length of the board. Other names for this phenomenon are: tiger maple, fiddleback maple, (in reference to curly maple’s historic use for the backs and sides of violins), or flamed maple. It is not completely clear what environmental conditions (if any) cause this phenomenon, but there are different grades of curly maple, which greatly affect its price.
Sourced from Southeastern United States, from Texas to Delaware
AKA: Bald Cypress
Color/Appearance: Color tends to be a light, yellowish brown. Sapwood is nearly white. Some boards can have scattered pockets of darker wood that have been attacked by fungi, which is sometimes called pecky cypress.
Grain is straight grain and medium-to-coarse texture. Raw, unfinished wood surfaces have a greasy feel.
Workability: Sharp cutters and light passes are recommended when working with Cypress to avoid tearout. Also, the wood has been reported by some sources to have a moderate dulling effect on cutting edges. Cypress has good gluing, nailing, finishing, and paint-holding properties.
Rot Resistance: Old-growth Cypress is rated as being durable to very durable in regards to decay resistance, while wood from younger trees is only rated as moderately durable.
Harvested in Northeastern North America
AKA: Sugar Maple, Rock Maple
Color/Appearance: On interesting thing about hard maple is that the sapwood is most commonly used rather than its heartwood. Sapwood color ranges from nearly white, to an off-white cream color, sometimes with a reddish or golden hue. The heartwood tends to be a darker reddish brown. Hard maple can also be seen with curly or quilted grain patterns.
Grain/Texture: Grain is generally straight, but may be wavy. Has a fine, even texture.
Workability: Fairly easy to work with both hand and machine tools, though slightly more difficult than soft maple due to hard maple’s higher density. Maple has a tendency to burn when being machined with high-speed cutters such as in a router. Turns, glues, and finishes well, though blotches can occur when staining, and a pre-conditioner, gel stain, or toner may be necessary to get an even color.
Not suitable for outdoor use.
Sourced from Southeastern United States
AKA: Water Hickory
Color/Appearance: Heartwood tends to be light to medium brown, with a reddish hue; sapwood is a paler yellowish brown. Grain is usually straight, though occasionally wavy, with a medium texture. Pores are medium-sized and open.
Workability: Difficult to work, tearout is common and is blunting on cutters (keep sharp). Glues, stains, and finishes well. Responds well to steam bending.
Not suitable for outside.
Sourced from Southern Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America
Color/Appearance: Heartwood is dark reddish brown to nearly black, sometimes with a strong purple hue. Sapwood is sharply demarcated and is pale yellowish white. Pieces with curly or wavy grain are not uncommon.
The grain is usually straight with a fine even texture and good natural luster.
Workability: Katalox is typically considered difficult to work on account of its high density. (It's tough on cutters!) If the grain happens to be interlocked, tearout can be an issue. Due to its high density and natural oils present can be problematic to glue.
Common Uses: Inlays, fine furniture and cabinetry, parquet flooring, guitars, turnings, and other small specialty items.
Rot Resistance: Varies depending upon species, but heartwood is generally very durable.
Sourced from Central and South America
Color/Appearance: Has a very conspicuous flecking that gives this wood its namesake. The wood itself is a medium to dark reddish brown with grey or light brown rays, which resemble the spots of a leopard. Like other woods that exhibit the strongest figure in quartersawn pieces, (such as Sycamore). This is due to the wood’s wide medullary rays, whose layout can be seen the clearest when looking at the endgrain.
It has a fairly coarse texture and straight grain.
Common Uses: Veneer, cabinetry, fine furniture, musical instruments (guitars), and turned objects.
Rot Resistence: Very durable
Sourced from Central and tropical west Africa
Color/Appearance: Heartwood color can vary, ranging from a pale pinkish orange to a deep brownish red. The grain is usually straight, but can sometimes be interlocked with a coarse, open texture and good natural luster.
Workability: Overall Padauk is easy to work; tearout may also occur during planing on quartersawn or interlocked grain. Padauk turns, glues, and finishes well.
Common Uses: Veneer, flooring, turned objects, musical instruments, furniture, tool handles, and other small specialty wood objects.
Sourced from Eastern United States
AKA: Tulip Poplar, Yellow Poplar
Color/Appearance: Heartwood is light cream to yellowish brown, with occasional streaks of gray or green. Sapwood is pale yellow to white, not always clearly demarcated from the heartwood. Can also be seen in mineral stained colors ranging from dark purple to red, green, or yellow, sometimes referred to as Rainbow Poplar. Colors tend to darken upon exposure to light.
Grain/Texture: Poplar typically has a straight, uniform grain, with a medium texture. Low natural luster.
Workability: Very easy to work in almost all regards, one of Poplar’s only downsides is its softness. Due to its low density, Poplar can sometimes leave fuzzy surfaces and edges: especially during shaping or sanding. Sanding to finer grits of sandpaper may be necessary to obtain a smooth surface.
Not suitable for outdoor use.
Sourced from Central and South America (from Mexico down to southern Brazil)
Color/Appearance: When freshly cut the heartwood of Purpleheart is a dull grayish/purplish brown. Upon exposure the wood becomes a deeper eggplant purple. With further age and exposure to UV light, the wood becomes a dark brown with a hint of purple. This color-shift can be slowed and minimized by using a UV inhibiting finish on the wood
Grain/Texture: The grain is usually straight, but can also be wavy or irregular. Has a medium texture with good natural luster. Burns easily with pwer cutting tools. Purpleheart will exude a gummy resin that can clog tools and complicate the machining process. Depending on the grain orientation, can be difficult to plane without tearout. Purpleheart also has a moderate dulling effect on cutters.
Common Uses: Inlays/accent pieces, flooring, furniture, boatbuilding, heavy construction, and a variety of specialty wood items.
AKA: Tiger Oak
Sourced from Northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada
Up to 10 genetically different species of trees are cut and marketed under the title of Red Oak.
Color/Appearance: Heartwood is a light to medium brown, commonly with a reddish cast. Nearly white to light brown sapwood is not always sharply demarcated from the heartwood. Quartersawn sections display prominent ray fleck patterns. Red and white oak cannot be differentiated by color alone.
Grain/Texture: Grain is straight, with a coarse, uneven texture. Red oak is “reedy,” meaning it has long open runs of grain. You can actually blow into a red oak dowel and air will come out the other end!
Workability: Produces good results with hand and machine tools, though prone to tearout. Has moderately high shrinkage values, resulting in mediocre dimensional stability, especially in flatsawn boards. Can react with iron (particularly when wet) and cause staining and discoloration. Responds well to steam-bending. Glues, stains, and finishes well.
Not suitable for outdoor use.
The treatment is a chemical-free, heat & steam process that "cooks" the wood. The technique solidifies the sugars inside the wood, which eliminates the food for fungi and insects. The wood is highly resistant to rot. The process substantially reduces moisture in the wood, making it extremely stable. And finally, because the thermal process is chemical-free, this technique is not only sustainable, it's environmentally friendly—no leaching of chemicals.
The wood still has the same texture as natural ash. The roasting process leaves the wood a consistent chocolate brown color throughout, so it's beautiful on its own. It looks great alongside other woods.
Workability: Roasted woods glue well, but because the wood is so dry, leave your glue-up to sit twice as long as normal to ensure good adhesion. And for the same reason, you'll notice that when you're working with it, splinters of the wood are like dry twigs and break easily. In fact, the surface of roasted wood is actually quite dense and more resistant to dings, yet the wood is less flexible. It does turn well, just keep your tools sharp. And an interesting side note, when you cut thermal woods, it smells like burned wood.
Uses: We have customers who choose roasted woods for small projects, frames, tables and even cutting boards, but the wood is actually an excellent choice for exterior use--not just as furniture. You'll see it as accent woods on commercial and residential buildings. As with all exterior woods, just be sure to use a UV topcoat to prevent the wood from aging naturally to a silvery-grey. (Not suitable for ground contact.)