|
Red oak: Main Uses are for Furniture, flooring, architectural millwork and moldings’, doors, kitchen cabinets, paneling and caskets. The Latin name for oak, Quercus, means "a fine tree." The oaks have been key in America's industrial transformation: railroad ties, wheels, plows, looms, barrels and, of course, furniture and floors. The oak is the state tree of New Jersey. It Grows throughout Eastern USA. The oaks are by far the most abundant species group growing in the Eastern hardwood forests. Red oaks grow more abundantly than the white oaks. The red oak group comprises many species, of which about eight are commercial. Average tree height is 60 to 80 feet. The wood is hard and heavy, with medium bending strength and stiffness and high crushing strength. It is very good for steam bending. Great wear-resistance and is the most widely used species.
White oak: Main Uses are for Furniture, flooring, architectural millwork, moldings’, doors, kitchen cabinets, paneling, barrel staves (tight cooperage) and caskets. White oak is impervious to liquids, and has been used extensively for ship timbers, barrels and casks. White oak is the state tree of Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland. White oak machines well nails and screws well although pre-boring is advised. Since it reacts with iron, galvanized nails are recommended. Its adhesive properties are variable, but it stains to a good finish. Can be stained with a wide range of finish tones. The wood dries slowly. A hard and heavy wood with medium bending and crushing strength, low in stiffness, but very well in steam bending. Great wear-resistance.
Alder: Grows Principally the Pacific Northwest, where it is the most abundant commercial hardwood. Average height is 90 feet and the tree matures in 25 to 40 years, but will begin to deteriorate by 60 to 80 years of age. Alder grows well on burned over lands and thrives in areas that have been ravaged by fire, earthquakes or logging. Main Uses are for Furniture, kitchen cabinets, doors, shutters, moldings’, panel stock, turnings, carvings and kitchen utensils. Alder is used in the smoking of meats and fish. Red alder, a relative of birch, is almost white when freshly cut but quickly changes on exposure to air, becoming light brown with a yellow or reddish tinge. Heartwood is formed only in trees of advanced age and there is no visible boundary between sap and heartwood. The wood is fairly straight-grained with a uniform texture. Red alder machines well and is excellent for turning. It nails, screws and glues well, and can be sanded, painted, or stained to a good finish. When stained, it blends with walnut, mahogany or cherry. It dries easily with little degrade and has good dimensional stability after drying. Red alder is a relatively soft hardwood of medium density that has low bending strength, shock resistance and stiffness.
Ash: Norse mythology refers to ash as "the mighty tree that supports the heavens" and "below earth its roots went down to hell." Ash belongs to the olive family, although its only fruit is a dart-like winged seed. Ash is a popular species for food containers because the wood has no taste. Admiral Richard Byrd wore snowshoes made from ash during his polar expeditions and early windmills were made from this species. It Grows Throughout the Eastern USA. White ash trees range in height from 80 to 120 feet with diameter from 2 to 5 feet. Main Uses are for Furniture, flooring, doors, architectural millwork and moldings, kitchen cabinets, paneling, tool handles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, billiard cues, skis, oars and turnings. At one time ash was the preferred wood for making tennis racquets. Ash machines well, is good in nailing, screwing and gluing, and can be stained to a very good finish. It dries fairly easily with minimal degrade, and there is little movement in performance. Ash has very good overall strength properties relative to its weight. It has excellent shock resistance and is good for steam bending.
Aspen: It Grows Commercially in the Northeast. Average tree height is 40 to 60 feet. The aspen has a short life span: just before reaching full growth, it has a tendency to suffer from decay. Aspens are known for seeding and thriving in places where fires have been. Main Uses are for Furniture parts (drawer sides), doors, moldings’, picture frames, millwork, toys, kitchen utensils, food containers, baskets and matchsticks. Important specialized uses include sauna laths because of its low conductivity of heat, and chopsticks. Aspen dose not split when nailed, it machines easily with a slightly fuzzy surface, and turns, bores, and sands well. It takes paint and stain well to produce a good finish although care is required where the surface is fuzzy. It has low to moderate shrinkage and good dimensional stability. Aspen is a true poplar, and therefore has similar characteristics and properties to cottonwood. The wood is light and soft, with low bending strength and stiffness, and medium shock resistance. It has a very low bending classification. It is Limited in Availability and rarely available in thick stock.
Basswood: The name comes from its inner bark, or bast, used by Native Americans to make rope. It Grows Principally the Northern and Lake states. Average tree height is 65 feet. Its Main Uses are for Carvings, turnings, furniture, pattern making, moldings’, millwork and musical instruments. An important specialized use is Venetian blinds and shutters. Native Americans also used basswood’s inner bark fibers to make thread and fabric. Basswood machines well and is easy to work with hand tools making it a premier carving wood. It nails, screws, and glues fairly well and can be sanded and stained to a good smooth finish. It dries fairly rapidly with little distortion or degrading. It has fairly high shrinkage but good dimensional stability when dry. The wood is light and soft with generally low strength properties and a poor steam-bending classification
Beech: Known as "Mother of the Forest" for its nutrient-rich humus. Beech has a long, illustrious past. The Aryan Tribes of Asia, the earliest known people to use a written language, carved their messages into the soft, smooth pliable bark of the beech tree trunk. The writings, cut out of the bark and used intact, were called "boc," which eventually became "book. It Grows Throughout the Eastern USA, commercial concentration is in the Central and Middle Atlantic states. Average tree height is 120 feet. It’s Main Uses are for Furniture, doors, flooring, millwork, paneling, brush handles, wooden ware, bending stock, toys and turnings. It is particularly suitable for food and liquid containers since there is no odor or taste. Beech was used to make snuffboxes as well as mortars and pestles. Beech works readily with most hand and machine tools. It has good nailing and gluing properties and can be stained to a good finish. The wood dries fairly rapidly but with a strong tendency to warp, split and surface check. It is subject to a high shrinkage and moderate movement in performance. Beech is classed as heavy, hard, strong, high in resistance to shock and highly suitable for steam bending. Good resistance to abrasive wear
Birch: From sap to bark, birch trees are used to make everything from beer to toothpicks. Native Americans stretched birch bark on their canoe frames and used the wood for their arrows. The birch is New Hampshire's state tree. It is also popular as an ornamental tree and has gained the nickname "Mother Tree" because birches were planted at the White House to honor the mothers of USA presidents. The oil extracted from the bark contains a chemical used to treat rheumatism and inflammations. Eastern USA, principally Northern and Lake states. The average tree is 60 to 70 feet in height. Birch prefers valleys and stream banks although it adapts itself to higher grounds. It’s Main Uses are for Furniture, millwork and paneling, doors, flooring, kitchen cabinets, turnings and toys. Native Americans often rolled and burned birch bark to keep mosquitoes away. Yellow birch has a white sapwood and light reddish brown heartwood. The wood is generally straight-grained with a fine uniform texture. Generally characterized by a plain and often curly or wavy pattern. The wood works fairly easily, glues well with care, takes stain extremely well, and nails and screws satisfactorily where pre-boring is advised. It dries rather slowly with little degrade, but it has moderately high shrinkage, so is susceptible to movement in performance. The wood of yellow birch is heavy, hard and strong. It has very good bending properties, with good crushing strength and shock resistance
Cherry: Like all fruit trees, cherry belongs to the rose family. American Colonists used the cherry tree for its fruit, medicinal properties and home furnishings. They mixed cherry juice with rum to create Cherry Bounce, a bitter but highly favored cordial. The bark was used in the production of drugs to treat bronchitis, and cherry stalks were used to make tonics. It Grows Throughout Midwestern and Eastern USA. Main commercial areas: Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and New York. Average tree height is 60 to 80 feet. Cherry trees can live to the extreme ages of 150 to 200 years. It’s Main Uses are for Fine furniture and cabinet making, moldings’ and millwork, kitchen cabinets, paneling, flooring, doors, boat interiors, musical instruments, turnings and carvings. Early printmakers used cherry for their engraving blocks. The heartwood of cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and on exposure to light. In contrast, the sapwood is creamy white. The wood has a fine uniform, straight grain, satiny, smooth texture, and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets. Cherry is easy to machine, nails and glues well and when sanded and stained, it produces an excellent smooth finish. It dries fairly quickly with moderately high shrinkage, but is dimensionally stable after kiln drying. The wood is of medium density with good bending properties, it has low stiffness and medium strength and shock resistance.
Cottonwood: Cottonwood is the state tree of Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. It grows in the Eastern U.S., main commercial areas: Middle and Southern states. Average tree height is 80 to 100 feet. Cottonwoods have rapid growth throughout their first 40 years, then grow slowly for the many years after. Some have been known to reach 100 feet in height in fifteen years. It’s Main Uses are for Furniture, furniture parts, millwork and moldings’, toys and kitchen utensils. Specialized uses are Venetian blinds, shutters, and caskets. Together, aspen, basswood, cottonwood, elm, gum, hackberry, sassafras, sycamore and willow represent 12.5 percent of commercially available USA hardwoods. Cottonwoods were a welcome sight for pioneers moving westward. The cottonwoods marked the presence of streams in the otherwise treeless Great Plains. General machinability is fair, although tension wood is frequently present and can cause a fuzzy surface when cut, which in turn will require additional care when finishing. The wood glues well and has good resistance to splitting when nailing and screwing. It dries easily but may still have a tendency to warp, with slight movement in performance. Cottonwood is relatively light in weight. The wood is soft, weak in bending and compression, and low in shock resistance. It has no odor or taste when dry.
Cypress: Cypress trees are conifers, but unlike most American softwoods, these are deciduous trees that shed foliage in the fall like hardwoods. Although cypress is a softwood, it grows alongside hardwoods and traditionally has been grouped and manufactured with hardwoods. The oils in cypress' heartwood make it one of the most durable woods when exposed to moisture conditions causing decay. It grows Most cypress trees are natives of the South. They are found primarily in wet, swampy areas along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Delaware to Florida, and west along the Gulf of Mexico to the border of Texas and Mexico. Cypress also thrives along the Mississippi Valley from the Louisiana delta to southern Indiana. Cypress roots love water. Some trees growing on wet sites develop what are called cypress "knees" or pneumatophores. The knee-like upright growths come from the roots, helping to support the tree and also to aerate the waterlogged root system. The wood from the knees is soft and light and can be used to make vases and novelty items. It’s Main Uses are for Exterior: siding, shutters, shingles, trim, fence posts. Interior: paneling, molding, millwork, cabinetry, flooring, furniture. During the Middle Ages, European craftsmen carved massive cathedral doors from cypress. The sapwood is pale yellow white with the heartwood varying in color from light to dark or reddish brown. Cypress machines well, planes easily and resists warping. Pre-boring at board edges will help prevent splitting. It nails and screws very well. It glues well, sands easily and readily accepts finishes
Elm: Elm is the state tree of Massachusetts and North Dakota. It grows in the Eastern to Midwest USA. Average tree height is 40 to 60 feet. Its Main Uses are for Furniture, cabinet making, flooring, millwork, paneling a |
