Alder

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Common Name(s): Red Alder, Western Red Alder.
Scientific Name: Alnus rubra.
Distribution: The Pacific coast of North America, from Alaska to California.
Pale tan wood with a warm reddish undertone that deepens as the wood ages. The grain is
straight and quiet, with a fine, even texture and a subdued pattern.
A member of the birch family, alder counts as a hardwood but is one of the softest and lightest,
which makes it easy to shape and sand smooth. Because it takes stain so evenly, it is often
finished to resemble cherry or mahogany.
Alder has been a favorite for electric guitar bodies since the 1950s.
Common Uses: Furniture, cabinetry, musical instruments, veneer.

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Ash

Common Name(s): White Ash.
Scientific Name: Fraxinus americana.
Distribution: Eastern North America.
Light creamy tan to pale brown. The grain is straight and open, and many boards show bold,
flame-like arches on the face.
Hard, tough and wonderfully shock-absorbing, which is why it has long been trusted for things
that take a beating. It takes stain and clear finishes nicely.
A small beetle called the emerald ash borer has devastated ash forests across much of North
America, so ash lumber is becoming harder to come by.
Common Uses: Baseball bats, tool handles, furniture, flooring.

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Bay Laurel

Common Name(s): California Bay, Oregon Myrtle, Myrtlewood, Pepperwood.
Scientific Name: Umbellularia californica.
Distribution: Coastal forests and Sierra foothills of California, and southwestern Oregon.
Light brown to grayish brown, often with darker streaks. Curly, mottled and burl figure are all
fairly common. The grain is usually straight but often wavy or irregular, with a fine, smooth
texture that polishes beautifully.
Moderately heavy and moderately hard, it carves and turns well, which makes it a favorite for
bowls and keepsakes as well as fine furniture.
The leaves smell peppery and pungent, like kitchen bay leaves but much stronger. Despite the
nickname “myrtle,” it is a true member of the laurel family.
Common Uses: Fine furniture, cabinetry, turned bowls, musical instruments.

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Birch

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Common Name(s): Yellow Birch, Sweet Birch, Paper Birch.

Scientific Name: Betula alleghaniensis, Betula lenta, Betula papyrifera.

Distribution: Northeastern and northern North America.

Light reddish-brown heartwood framed by nearly white sapwood. The grain is straight or gently wavy, with a fine, even texture and a soft, satiny sheen.

Birch takes stain well and is one of the most widely used woods in the world for veneer and plywood.

Sweet Birch twigs smell of wintergreen when scratched, and Native peoples famously used Paper Birch bark to make canoes.

Common Uses: Plywood, veneer, furniture, interior trim, turned objects.

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Black Locust

Common Name(s): False Acacia.
Scientific Name: Robinia pseudoacacia.
Distribution: Native to the central and eastern United States; now grows in temperate regions
worldwide.
Pale greenish yellow when fresh, aging to a deep russet brown. The grain is usually straight,
with a medium texture.
Heavy, strong, close-grained and extremely hard, among the hardest woods in North America.
It stands up to years of soil and weather. It is tough on cutting tools but turns beautifully on a
lathe.
It is not a true acacia, hence the name “false acacia.” The “acacia honey” sold in Europe is
usually made from its fragrant spring flowers.
Common Uses: Outdoor furniture, decking, flooring, fence posts, turned objects.

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Black Walnut

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Common Name(s): American Black Walnut.

Scientific Name: Juglans nigra.

Distribution: Eastern and central United States.

Rich chocolate-brown heartwood, sometimes with purplish or grayish tones, set against creamy pale sapwood. The grain is usually straight but can be wavy or curly, with a medium texture and a soft natural glow.

Medium in weight yet hard and tough, it works and finishes beautifully. The heartwood is also naturally resistant to decay.

Most woods darken with age, but black walnut tends to mellow toward a lighter golden brown. It is also the traditional American choice for gunstocks.

Common Uses: Fine furniture, cabinetry, gunstocks, musical instruments, clock cases, carving.

 

Blackwood (Black Acacia)

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Common Name(s): Black Acacia, Australian Blackwood, Tasmanian Blackwood.

Scientific Name: Acacia melanoxylon.

Distribution: Native to southeastern Australia and Tasmania; also grown in California and other regions.

Golden to reddish brown, often with darker bands that follow the growth rings and give boards ribbon-like streaks of color. Wavy, curly and “fiddleback” grain (named for the ripples on a violin back) are common. The texture is fine to medium and even.

Medium in weight and hardness, it sands and polishes to a smooth, glowing finish.

Despite its name, blackwood is not black. It is a relative of Hawaiian koa, and both are favorites for guitars and ukuleles.

Common Uses: Furniture, veneer, musical instruments, paneling, turned objects.

 

Buckeye

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Common Name(s): Yellow Buckeye.

Scientific Name: Aesculus flava.

Distribution: Eastern United States, especially the Appalachian region.

Creamy white to pale yellow, sometimes with gray streaks. The texture is fine and even, and the grain straight or slightly interlocked. Buckeye burl is the showstopper, with reddish-brown knots, light and dark gray swirls and almost black discolorations.

One of the lightest and softest hardwoods native to the United States. It is gentle on tools and easy to carve.

The shiny brown nuts, with a pale spot said to resemble a deer’s eye, have long been carried as good-luck charms, though they are toxic if eaten.

Common Uses: Furniture, boxes, carving; burl for instruments, pens and turned objects.

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Canadian Cedar (Alaskan Yellow Cedar)

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Common Name(s): Canadian Cedar, Alaskan Yellow Cedar, Nootka Cypress.

Scientific Name: Callitropsis nootkatensis (formerly Cupressus nootkatensis).

Distribution: The Pacific Northwest coast, from Alaska through British Columbia to Oregon.

Bright, clear yellow when freshly cut, deepening gently with age and light. The grain is usually straight and even, with a fine to medium texture. Left outdoors, it weathers to a soft silvery gray.

Despite the name, it is not a true cedar but a member of the cypress family. It resists rot and moisture, and it is a joy to carve, turn and shape.

The trees grow slowly and can live more than 1,000 years. Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest have long prized them for carving, paddles and woven bark.

Common Uses: Boat building, siding, decking, outdoor furniture, musical instruments.

 

Cherry

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Common Name(s): Black Cherry, American Cherry.

Scientific Name: Prunus serotina.

Distribution: Eastern North America.

Light pinkish brown when freshly cut, deepening with time and light to a rich, warm reddish brown. The grain is usually straight, with a fine, smooth texture and a soft natural sheen. Occasional curly patterns and tiny dark flecks called gum pockets are natural features of the wood.

Medium in hardness and smooth to work, it finishes beautifully.

Cherry is often called the classic American furniture wood.

Common Uses: Fine furniture, cabinetry, flooring, millwork, veneer.

 

English Walnut

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Common Name(s): English Walnut, European Walnut, French Walnut, Persian Walnut, Circassian Walnut (the finest figured wood).

Scientific Name: Juglans regia.

Distribution: Native from southeastern Europe through central Asia; grown in orchards around the world.

Pale brown to dark chocolate brown with darker streaks, sometimes with a gray, purple or reddish cast. The sapwood is nearly white. The grain is usually straight but can be irregular, with a medium texture and a soft natural glow. Special pieces show curly, crotch or burl figure.

Hard enough to be durable yet easy to carve and finish.

This is the same species that gives us the walnuts we eat, and its burl veneer has long been associated with luxury car dashboards.

Common Uses: Furniture, cabinetry, gunstocks, interior paneling, veneer.

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Hickory

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Common Name(s): Shagbark Hickory, Shellbark Hickory.

Scientific Name: Carya species.

Distribution: Eastern North America.

Creamy white sapwood beside pale to reddish-brown heartwood, often in the same board, for a lively, rustic look. The grain is generally straight, with a fairly coarse texture.

Among the toughest of all North American woods: heavy, hard and wonderfully shock-resistant. It is hard on tools but finishes handsomely.

Hickory is the classic wood for barbecue smoke, and the pecan tree is a member of the hickory family.

Common Uses: Tool handles, flooring, furniture, drumsticks.

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Koa

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Common Name(s): Koa.

Scientific Name: Acacia koa.

Distribution: Native only to the Hawaiian Islands.

Golden to deep reddish brown, with grain that is often dramatically curly, giving a shimmering, three-dimensional look that seems to shift as you move the piece.

Medium in weight and hardness, it carves, bends and polishes beautifully.

In Hawaiian, koa means “brave” or “bold,” and the tree was traditionally used to build voyaging canoes. Today it is rare and treasured.

Common Uses: Ukuleles, guitars, fine furniture, bowls, jewelry.

 

Madrone

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Common Name(s): Pacific Madrone, Madrona.

Scientific Name: Arbutus menziesii.

Distribution: The Pacific coast, from British Columbia to southern California.

Pale pink to light reddish brown, with a fine texture. Burls are also prized.

Hard and dense, and tricky to dry without warping or cracking, so a well-seasoned piece reflects good craftsmanship.

Madrone is easy to spot in the forest: its orange-red bark peels away in thin, papery curls to reveal a glossy, greenish-tan trunk, and the tree sheds its bark each summer.

Common Uses: Furniture, flooring, turned objects, veneer.

 

Mahogany

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Common Name(s): Honduran Mahogany, Big-leaf Mahogany, Genuine Mahogany, Brazilian Mahogany.

Scientific Name: Swietenia macrophylla.

Distribution: From southern Mexico through Central America into South America; also grown on plantations in the tropics.

Pale pinkish brown to deep reddish brown. The grain can be straight, wavy, interlocked or curly, creating patterns with names like ribbon stripe, mottle and fiddleback. The texture is fine to medium, with a warm, lustrous sheen.

Easy to work, stable and reliable, it has been favored by furniture makers, boat builders and instrument makers for centuries.

The name “mahogany” gets used loosely: woods sold as “African” or “Philippine” mahogany are different species. True mahogany is regulated by international trade rules, and much of today’s supply comes from plantations.

Common Uses: Furniture, cabinetry, boat building, musical instruments, veneer.

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Manzanita

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Common Name(s): Manzanita.

Scientific Name: Arctostaphylos species.

Distribution: Dry, shrubby hillsides of western North America, especially California.

Deep brownish red, sometimes with a bright orange hue, with creamy sapwood. Burls and swirling, wild grain are common. The texture is fine and even, with a good natural luster.

Very durable, and it turns and finishes superbly. Because manzanita is a shrub, its twisting trunks rarely yield long, straight boards, so it shines in small pieces. It needs careful drying to avoid cracking.

“Manzanita” is Spanish for “little apple,” a nod to the plant’s small red berries.

Common Uses: Decorative slabs, small boxes, turned objects.

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Maple

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Common Name(s): Hard Maple, Sugar Maple, Rock Maple.

Scientific Name: Acer saccharum.

Distribution: Northeastern North America and the Great Lakes region.

Creamy white when fresh, mellowing to a light tan, sometimes with a golden or reddish hue. Unusually, it is the pale sapwood rather than the darker heartwood that is most prized. The grain is usually straight, with a smooth, fine texture and a bright natural sheen. Some boards show curly “tiger stripe” patterns or the tiny swirls of “bird’s-eye” maple.

Hard, dense and wear-resistant.

This is the tree behind maple syrup. Indigenous peoples of northeastern North America were the first to collect the sap and boil it down, and it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

Common Uses: Flooring, cutting boards, workbenches, baseball bats, musical instruments.

 

Monterey Cypress

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Common Name(s): Monterey Cypress.

Scientific Name: Cupressus macrocarpa.

Distribution: Native to a small stretch of California’s Monterey coast; planted widely across North America, Europe and beyond.

Pale yellow to reddish brown, with a narrower, paler sapwood. The grain is usually straight, though small knots add a more irregular, characterful pattern. The texture is fine and even with a good natural luster.

Pleasantly aromatic and long-lasting outdoors, it works well for furniture, fence posts and boats.

The windswept Monterey cypresses clinging to the California coast are among the most photographed trees in America.

Common Uses: Furniture, fence posts, boat building, turned objects.

 

Live Oak

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Common Name(s): Live Oak, Southern Live Oak.

Scientific Name: Quercus virginiana.

Distribution: The coastal southeastern United States, from Virginia to Texas.

Light to medium brown, with a coarse, uneven texture. The grain is often irregular, shaped by the tree’s sprawling growth.

Exceptionally dense, heavy and strong, tougher than other oaks and a real challenge to saw and plane. Botanically it belongs to the white oak group, but it is an evergreen that keeps its leaves year-round, hence the name “live.”

The USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” was built with live oak, and the story goes that cannonballs bounced off her hull in the War of 1812.

Common Uses: Boat building, furniture, flooring, specialty pieces.

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Red Oak

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Common Name(s): Red Oak, Northern Red Oak.

Scientific Name: Quercus rubra.

Distribution: Eastern North America; also planted in Europe.

Light to medium brown with a pinkish-red cast. The grain is open and bold, and the texture on the coarse side. Boards cut “quartersawn” (straight across the growth rings) show a beautiful pattern of shimmering flecks.

Hard and strong. There are roughly 500 species of oak worldwide, and red oak is America’s everyday oak, found in countless homes as furniture, cabinets and floors.

The pores in red oak are so open that you can blow air through the end of a short piece, almost like a straw. That is why barrels for liquids are made of white oak instead.

Common Uses: Cabinetry, furniture, flooring, veneer.

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White Oak

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Common Name(s): White Oak, American White Oak.

Scientific Name: Quercus alba.

Distribution: Eastern United States and Canada.

Light tan to deeper brown, sometimes with an olive or slightly pinkish tint. Color alone isn’t a reliable way to tell white oak from red. The grain is straight and open, with a medium to coarse texture, and the flecks on quartersawn boards are more pronounced than in red oak.

Hard, strong and naturally water-resistant, because its pores are sealed shut inside the wood. The trees are long-lived, often 200 to 300 years or more.

Whiskey, bourbon and many wines are aged in white oak barrels, which lend flavors such as vanilla and spice. The acorns also feed turkeys, woodpeckers, black bears, rabbits and many other animals.

Common Uses: Furniture, flooring, barrels, boat building, cabinetry.

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Olive

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Common Name(s): Olive, European Olive.

Scientific Name: Olea europaea.

Distribution: The Mediterranean region and parts of Africa and western Asia; grown in orchards around the world.

Cream to yellowish brown with dark brown or black streaks and swirls that deepen with age. Curly, wavy or wild grain and burls are common. The texture is fine and even.

Dense and hard, it turns and polishes to a lovely glow. Because olive trees are small and twisting, pieces are usually small too, ideal for bowls, boards and fine details.

Olive trees can live for centuries, even thousands of years, and much olive wood comes from old orchard trees that have finished producing fruit.

Common Uses: Bowls, cutting boards, utensils, turned objects, veneer.

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Pear

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Common Name(s): Pear, European Pear.

Scientific Name: Pyrus communis.

Distribution: Native to central and eastern Europe and western Asia; planted in temperate regions worldwide.

Pale pink to light pinkish brown, with a very fine, smooth, even texture that makes the grain almost disappear. A mottled figure sometimes shows up.

Tough and stable, and it polishes to a lovely finish. It holds crisp detail, so it has long been a favorite with carvers and printmakers.

Pear is sometimes steamed to deepen the pink color, and sometimes dyed black to stand in for ebony.

Common Uses: Veneer, inlay, carving, musical instruments, furniture.

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Pine (Western White Pine)

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Common Name(s): Western White Pine, Idaho White Pine.

Scientific Name: Pinus monticola.

Distribution: Mountains of western Canada and the western United States.

Light brown heartwood, sometimes with a slightly reddish hue, and pale yellow to nearly white sapwood. The grain is straight and the texture even and uniform.

A softwood, which is a botanical label for evergreens with needles and cones, not a promise of softness, but this pine is indeed light and easy to carve, turn and paint.

Western white pine is the state tree of Idaho, and its soft, even wood has long been used for wooden matches.

Common Uses: Millwork, paneling, carving, veneer, construction lumber.

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Redwood

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Common Name(s): Redwood, Coast Redwood, California Redwood, Vavona (burl).

Scientific Name: Sequoia sempervirens.

Distribution: A narrow strip of the Pacific coast, from southwestern Oregon to central California.

Light cherry red to deep reddish brown, with pale yellowish sapwood. The grain is straight, with a coarse texture. Redwood burls, sometimes called “lace” or “vavona,” are rare and prized, with swirling, richly figured grain.

Very soft and lightweight, yet exceptionally stable, with very little shrinkage or seasonal movement. It naturally resists decay and insects.

Redwood is the tallest tree species on Earth, with record trees above 380 feet. It grows only where coastal fog and heavy rainfall keep the air cool and damp, and the trees often live 500 to 1,000 years.

Common Uses: Decking, siding, beams, outdoor furniture; burls for turning and tabletops.

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Sassafras

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Common Name(s): Sassafras, White Sassafras.

Scientific Name: Sassafras albidum.

Distribution: Eastern North America.

Light to medium brown, sometimes with an olive, orange or reddish tint, set against narrow, pale yellowish sapwood. The grain is straight with a coarse texture, and the open pattern looks a little like ash.

Lightweight and fairly soft, yet the heartwood holds up well against decay. It is easy to work, and the freshly cut wood has a pleasant spicy scent.

A single sassafras tree bears three different leaf shapes: oval, mitten-shaped and three-lobed. Its root bark once gave root beer its flavor, though modern root beer uses substitutes.

Common Uses: Furniture, cabinetry, fence posts, boat building, carving.

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Sycamore

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Common Name(s): American Sycamore, American Plane, Buttonwood.

Scientific Name: Platanus occidentalis.

Distribution: Eastern and central United States.

White to light tan, often with golden or reddish-brown streaks of heartwood. The texture is fine and even, with a high natural sheen. The grain is interlocked, and quartersawn boards show a lacy pattern of fine flecks.

Medium in weight and moderately hard, and easy to work.

The tree is easy to spot in the landscape: its bark flakes away in patches, leaving a mottled pattern of white, tan and olive green. In Britain, “sycamore” refers to a different tree, a type of maple famed for violin backs.

Common Uses: Butcher blocks, furniture, drawer parts, interior trim, veneer.

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Teak

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Common Name(s): Teak, Burmese Teak.

Scientific Name: Tectona grandis.

Distribution: Native to southern and southeast Asia; now grown on plantations across the tropics of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Golden yellow-brown that deepens to a rich brown with darker streaks. The grain is straight, the texture coarse and uneven, and raw surfaces have a slightly oily feel from the wood’s natural oils.

Those oils help teak resist water, rot and termites. It is also remarkably stable, strong and easy to work, which is why it ranks among the most desired woods in the world.

Teak has been used on ships for centuries, and it also defined mid-century Danish modern furniture.

Common Uses: Boat decks, outdoor and indoor furniture, veneer, carving.

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Tupelo

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Common Name(s): Black Tupelo, Blackgum, Sour Gum, Water Tupelo.

Scientific Name: Nyssa sylvatica, Nyssa aquatica.

Distribution: Eastern and southeastern United States.

Whitish gray to light grayish brown, with little difference between heartwood and sapwood. The grain is interlocked, meaning the fibers weave back and forth, and the texture is fine and uniform, giving boards a soft, subtle shimmer.

Medium in weight and hardness. The interlocked grain makes it remarkably resistant to splitting, and it carves and turns nicely.

Bees visiting the flowers of a related swamp tree, the Ogeechee tupelo, make prized, slow-to-granulate tupelo honey in Florida and Georgia.

Common Uses: Furniture parts, carving, turned objects, veneer.