Often used under a tinted or painted finish because of its unspectacular, but non-ugly appearance. Light colored, even grained, reasonable weight.
Very dense, tight grain. Dark brown with lighter streaks. Looks like what most people think when they think rosewood. Currently this wood is endangered and so we don't support its use.
The wood used for baseball bats is northern ash. Southern (swamp) ash is a popular wood because it is lighter than baseball-bat ash and takes stain well. Very coarse, open grain, almost like oak in appearance. Straw colored with darker wavy grain lines.
A hard maple. Grain is often irregular and very wavy due to buds encased in the wood of the tree. These buds create the very unique "eye" pattern of Bird's Eye Maple.
Dense, slight open pores. Like purpleheart, but brilliant red and (unlike purpleheart) is not photosensitive. The picture at left is the unfinished wood. Upon finishing, luster, brilliance, and depth increase dramatically.
Shares qualities of the rosewood family. Varies from straw colored to "coffee with cream" colored wood, with densely packed black sinews. These black lines frequently come across branch points, around which the black streaks take wild turns.
Dense, with shallow open pores. Mostly red-brown with darker streaks of brown and purple. A very stunning wood. Cut on quarter, Bubinga can exhibit ribbon figuring, which is exceptionally beautiful.
A very rare figure in Bubinga is the pommele figure. The grain patterns of pommele Bubinga are swirling and irregular, interspersed with iridescent effects. It looks like a topographical map of some seriously rough Bubinga terrain.
Some Bubinga, cut on quarter, exhibits a three-dimensional curl along the length of the board (as opposed to the curl in maple, across the length). Such figure is called "ribbon stripe" figure, and is strikingly beautiful in Bubinga.
Similar to purple heart in texture and density. Color varies from piece to piece, but yellow or light orange with reddish or violet streaks is typical.
Very hard and dense. Dark brown with waves of red-brown, with figure similar to walnut, but the texture and shine of a rosewood.
Fairly hard, closed pores. This wood finishes to a caramel tan color. Often tinted red and used in furniture this wood is naturally photosensitive and will darken to a deep red with age.
A true rosewood with rust brown to brilliant orange heartwood and dark brown streaks. An excellent alternative to the endangered Brazilian rosewoods.
A soft maple. Exhibits the qualities of a soft maple, with oscillating fiber orientation that gives a three dimensional "curl". Also referred to as "tiger" maple, or "flame" maple because of the shape the figure patterns take on.
This was the unofficial successor to Brazilian rosewood when supply became limited. Darker than Cocobolo.
Extremely dense and hard. Ebony has generally black heartwood, with the most prized samples having uniformly blackness throughout. There is also "striped" ebony, which is the typical black color with wide, meandering brown streaks. Ebonies are exceptionally beautiful, expensive, and hard to find in sizes useful for anything large. Pictured is striped (macasar) ebony.
Incredibly dense and rock hard. It can be incredibly beautiful, if you can afford a new bandsaw blade for each board you saw.
A medium density wood, mostly light brown to dark brown. Figure varies from board to board. Some boards exhibit sparsely distributed pin knots, some have wilder streaking, some very plain looking. Extremely strong spicy smell when worked. Imbuia is sometimes called Brazilian Walnut.
A light blonde colored wood similar in texture to a Bubinga, with many boards exhibiting a three dimensional broken mottle figure. Very refractive; looks to have dark brown patches from one angle, but just the opposite from the a different angle.
Light brown to reddish brown, sometimes with dark streaks. Streaking varies from board to board. Figure is rare, but some does exhibit bee's wing or striped figure. Some of this wood is similar in appearance to Bubinga, but usually lighter in color. Dense and hard, similar to purpleheart in its properties.
A member of the rosewood family. Wood is violet to red-orange with dark streaks typical of the rosewoods. Hard and dense.
Golden to reddish brown. Very rare hardwood which sometimes exhibits curl or flame figure. Only found in Hawaii.
Shallow open pores. Orange-tan colored wood with peach colored rays that create a very unusual "lace" pattern. The rays are much softer than the orange-tan heartwood, making for an unusual finished texture. Definitely out of the ordinary. Makes a good top wood.
"Wood of Life" is perhaps the heaviest densest wood in the world. Beautiful black green and brown grain. Turns like plastic in the lathe. 80+lbs per cubic foot, sinks in water. Was chosen by the maker of the first chronographer to win the longitude prize for its great stability and durability.
Generally lighter in color than other rosewoods. I've seen two types of wood called Madagascar rosewood: one, a chocolate brown with occasional black streaks winding through. Another, light tan with straight chocolate and purple lines, is shown at left.
Smaller, open pores, light density. Finishes to a red brown. Light, yet stable and stiff. Dents rather easily, but still highly desirable.
Hard, moderately heavy, closed pores. Oils to a golden color. Very popular for fine furniture. Some species are softer than others and thus, you hear the terms "Soft Maple" and "Hard Maple" and even "Rock Maple". The eastern maples tend to be predominantly of the hard variety so some people say "Eastern Maple" to refer to the hard variety.
Sometimes called "tropical walnut", Nogal is very similar in texture to American black walnut. It is frequently darker, and also softer, than its north American cousin, occasionally having some mildly interesting black streaks.
Resembles Bubinga in texture and density. Bright orange with dark brown streaks when freshly cut, this takes on a dark red glow when oiled. This material is photosensitive and will darken and turn brownish with exposure to sunlight.
Tight grained, very dense. Closely resembles a rosewood, is sometimes called "Bolivian Rosewood" or "Morado". Ranges in darkness from a salmon colored wood with brown streaks to chocolate brown with black streaks.
Tan colored heartwood, frequently with a subtle flame figure. Very even, soft color, but like most fruitwoods, hard to find wide boards.
Sometimes called "Poor man's Bocote", this wood is botanically related to Bocote, but slightly duller in color, with yellows replaced by dullish tan color. Exhibits the same densely packed, black lines with occasional swirls around small knots.
Dense, tight grained. Absolutely purple heartwood. Splintery to work with, but takes on a great smooth finish when sanded. This material is photosensitive and will darken and turn brownish with exposure to sunlight.
A soft maple, mostly big leaf from the pacific northwest. Oscillations in fiber orientation yield a pillowy "quilt" appearance. Very rare and highly prized.
A lot like Mahogany. Texture rather fine; grain interlocked, sometimes wavy. Lustrous. Works fairly well.
A good substitute for swamp ash.
Satinwood is light-tan to yellowish in color, with a satiny mottled figure that can be spectacular. Quite expensive.
Also known as Ovagnkol, an olive-brown African hardwood with dark streaks.
Snakewood is extremely rare and precious. Cut it open and it looks like spotted snakeskin. The trees grow very small and the wood is very hard to dry. As a result, only a very few, small, often cracked logs see the light of day in retail. Those that do carry a mighty price tag, but the visual effect of Snakewood is stunning.
Generally soft maple. Spalted maple is the result of infestation by fungus stopped short of rendering the logs unusable. Varying levels of fungus activity leave wild patterns of discoloration, with patches of straw and grays delineated by dark brown streaks. Very difficult to find pieces large enough to use, and only suitable as a top wood, but very striking. The term "Spalted" comes from an old lumberjacks term for spoiled wood = "Spoilt".
Almost identical to mahogany to the untrained eye. Smells like a cedar, though. It's perhaps even lighter than mahogany, and works in the same situations, though it tears and dents a bit easier than Honduras mahogany.
A very interesting domestic wood. Color varies from light tan to salmon, with broad waves of color and some dark bands. Has a medium-heavy ray fleck pattern when cut on quarter. When flat sawn, the rays produce a dense speckled pattern.
Open grain, medium density. Walnut starts gray - purple to dark brown and oils to a glowing, chocolate brown with wide, dark brown streaks. A favorite for dark furniture.
A dense, open pored hardwood. Dark brown and chocolate brown-to-orange fibers create a lace-like pattern that almost makes this wood look fake.
Dense, with small open pores. Straw colored wood with prominent, dense streaks of dark-brown to black wood. Commonly cut on quarter so the dark streaks are roughly straight and parallel. A very unique and beautiful wood that is very challenging to work with.
Coloring is similar to macasar ebony, with a deep chocolate brown heartwood and black streaks, and lighter colored sapwood is typical. The streaks are far from regular as they are in ebony, though. These appear to be organized in layers, and so the direction and eccentricity of the streaks is out of control. The picture here is of a very light colored specimen.