Wood

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the kinds of lumber is lumbertor, lumberking, and the inforlumber -------------Lumber is divided into 3 main categories - hardwoods, softwoods and engineered. Hardwoods (Oak, Cherry, Mahogany) are sold by the board foot. Softwoods (Pine, Firs, Larches) are mostly sold as 'dimensional' lumber, sawn a nd surfaced to a particular size (like 2X4in studs) for construction. Engineered lumber would include plywood, laminated beams, and butcher blocks. Mahogany Mahogany is highly resistant to decay and offers a finely textured closed grain. Mahogany is one of the softer hardwoods, making it much easier to work with tha n some others. Paneling is often made of mahogany. It can also be used for fine veneers and some types of furniture. Maple Maple is one of the traditional American hardwoods and has been used for furnitu re making since Colonial times. One species of maple, which is known as rock or hard maple, is denser than regular maple. Hard maple may be a good choice becaus e of the added strength, but it is more difficult to work with. Many bowling all ey floors and old-time dance hall floors are made of maple. Oak Oak is a very durable hardwood that features an open grain. The coarse grain can make oak very difficult to carve or shape, so it is best used for simple furnit ure designs. When you sink posts into the ground to build a fence, you are very likely working with oak. Teak Teak is a hardwood that hails from Southeast Asia. While it is similar to rosewo od due to its golden-brownish color, it lacks the black highlights. Teak is very expensive, so it is often used as a veneer to cover up less expensive, less att ractive woods. Teak has an open grain with medium texture. Power tools or very s harp hand tools are needed to work with teak because it is very hard. Walnut Walnut is a dark hardwood that features a striking black and brown grain pattern . Although walnut is quite hard, it is easier to work with than similar hardwood s like maple or cherry. Staining is almost never an issue since it is already da rk. Walnut is also a popular wood because it resists decay and is not subject to easy warping or swelling. Walnut can be used to make furniture and is very suit able for paneling. Lumber is divided into hardwood (from deciduous trees) and softwood (from conife rous trees). While that may seem to indicate that one type is harder than anothe r, a softwood like Douglas fir is actually harder than a hardwood like poplar. F or the most part, however, hardwoods are more durable than softwoods. This is wh y hardwood is more often used for flooring, finished projects and paneling.

ypes of Woods The more one knows about the unique characteristics of wood and its source, the better one can understand the degree of warmth and beauty that it brings to our everyday décor. Furniture made of wood is one of the few things in the world that all people can own and know that they are the only person in the world who owns that particular grain pattern and its inherent beauty. Each grain pattern is a u nique masterpiece of design, texture and splendor. Even what some may view as a defect, like a knot or other natural blemishes, can add more beauty and characte r to any given piece of furniture. The classification of wood has historically always been either hard wood; any le af bearing tree, and soft wood; any cone bearing tree. These terms can be confus ing since some leaf bearing trees can have very soft wood and some coniferous tr ees can have very hard woods. To make this easier, below you will find a list of different tree types, classification and then individual wood characteristics. There are two basic wood grades. Select lumber is excellent quality for use when appearance and finishing are important and common lumber that has defects used for construction and general-purpose projects. The grades of the select lumber a re: B and Better grade, which has minute or no blemishes; C Select grade which h as some minor defects such as small knots; D select grade that has larger imperf ections, which can be concealed by paint. The grades of common lumber are No. 1 grade containing tight knots and few blemishes. No. 2 grade that has more and la rger knots and blemishes. No. 3 grade that has loose knots, knotholes, and other flaws. No. 4 grade that is low quality and No. 5 grade where the appearance is not important. HARDWOODS OAK: Oak is the most widely used hardwood. There are more than 60 species of oak grown in the U.S., which can be separated into two basic varieties; white and r ed. The red variety is also known as black oak (a reference to its bark). Properties: Oak is a heavy, strong, light colored hardwood. It is ring porous, d ue to the fact that more and larger conductive vessels are laid down early in th e summer, rather than later. Prominent rings and large pores give oak a course t exture and prominent grain. Oak also has conspicuous medullary rays which can be seen as "flakes" in quarter sawed oak lumber. Uses: Oak is the most popular wood used to craft American and English country de signs. It is also used for Gothic and William & Mary reproductions, as well as m any transitional and contemporary pieces. MAPLE: There are 115 species of maple. Only 5 commercially important species gro w in the U.S. Two of the five are hard rock maple and sugar maple. Properties: Maple is so hard and resistant to shocks that it is often used for b owling alley floors. Its diffuse evenly sized pores give the wood a fine texture and even grain. Maple that has a curly grain is often used for violin backs (th e pattern formed is known as fiddleback figure). Burls, leaf figure, and birds-e ye figures found in maple are used extensively for veneers. The Birds eye figure in maple is said to be the result of stunted growth and is quite rare. Uses: Maple is used extensively for American colonial furniture, especially in m edium and lower priced categories. It can also be stained to simulate cherry woo d, which it resembles. MAHOGANY: Mahogany, also known as Honduras mahogany is a tropical hardwood indig enous to South America, Central America and Africa. There are many different gra

des and species sold under this name, which vary widely in quality and price. Ma hogany which comes from the Caribbean is thought to be the hardest, strongest an d best quality. Logs from Africa, though highly figured, are of slightly lesser quality. Philippine mahogany has a similar color, but is not really mahogany at all. It is a much less valuable wood, being less strong, not as durable or as be autiful when finished. Properties: Mahogany is strong, with a uniform pore structure and poorly defined annual rings. It has a reddish - brown color and may display stripe, ribbon, br oken stripe, rope, ripple, mottle, fiddleback or blister figures. Crotch mahogan y figures are widely used and greatly valued. Mahogany is an excellent carving w ood and finishes well. Uses: Mahogany is used extensively in the crafting of Georgian, Empire and Feder al reproduction furniture. Mahogany is also used in styles ranging from Victoria n furniture reproductions to Contemporary. CHERRY: Cherry is grown in the Eastern half of the U.S.. It is sometimes called fruitwood. The term fruitwood is also used to describe a light brown finish on o ther woods. Properties: A moderately hard, strong, closed grain, light to red-brown wood, ch erry resists warping and checking. It is easy to carve and polish. Uses: Cherry veneers and solids are used in a variety of styles. Cherry has been called New England mahogany and is often used to craft 18th century, Colonial a nd French Provincial designs. WALNUT: Walnut is one of the most versatile and popular cabinet making woods. It grows in Europe, America and Asia. There are many different varieties. Properties: Walnut is strong, hard and durable, without being excessively heavy. It has excellent woodworking qualities, and takes finishes well. The wood is li ght to dark chocolate brown in color with a straight grain in the trunk. Wavy gr ain is present toward the roots, and walnut stumps are often dug out and used as a source of highly figured veneer. Large burls are common. Walnut solids and ve neers show a wide range of figures, including strips, burls, mottles, crotches, curls and butts. European walnut is lighter in color and slightly finer in textu re than American black walnut, but otherwise comparable. Uses: Walnut is used in all types of fine cabinet work, especially 1 8th century reproductions. ROSEWOOD: Very hard and has a dark reddish brown color. It is fragrant and close grained. It is hard to work and takes high polish. Used in musical instruments, piano cases, tool handles, art projects, veneers and furniture. TEAK: True teak is indigenous to Southeast Asia, but similar wood species also grow in Africa. Properties & Uses: Teak is a yellow to dark brown hardwood which is extremely he avy, strong and durable. Often strongly figured, teak may show straight grain, m ottled or fiddleback figures. It carves well, but because of its high value, is often used as a veneer. Scandinavian modern, and oriental furniture styles are o ften crafted of teak. SOFTWOODS PINE: Pine is a softwood which grows in most areas of the Northern Hemisphere. T

here are more than 100 species worldwide. Properties: Pine is a soft, white or pale yellow wood which is light weight, str aight grained and lacks figure. It resists shrinking and swelling. Knotty pine i s often used for decorative effect. Uses: Pine is often used for country or provincial furniture. Pickled, whitened, painted and oil finishes are often used on this wood. ASH: There are 16 species of ash which grow in the eastern United States. Of th ese, the white ash is the largest and most commercially important. Properties: Ash is a hard, heavy, ring porous hardwood. It has a prominent grain that resembles oak, and a white to light brown color. Ash can be differentiated from hickory (pecan) which it also resembles, by white dots in the darker summe rwood which can be seen with the naked eye. Ash burls have a twisted, interwoven figure. Uses: Ash is widely used for structural frames and steam bent furniture pieces. It is often less expensive than comparable hardwoods. HICKORY: There are 15 species of hickory in the eastern United States, eight of which are commercially important. Properties: Hickory is one of the heaviest and hardest woods available. Pecan is a species of hickory sometimes used in furniture. It has a close grain without much figure. Uses: Wood from the hickory is used for structural parts, especially where stren gth and thinness are required. Decorative hickory veneers are also commonly used . BEECH: The American beech is a single species which grows in the eastern half of the United States. Properties & Uses: Beech is a hard, strong, heavy wood with tiny pores and large conspicuous medullary rays, similar in appearance to maple. This relatively ine xpensive wood has reddish brown heartwood and light sapwood. Beech is often used for frames, a variety of bent and turned parts. Quarter sliced and half round c ut beech veneers are commonly used. BIRCH: There are many species of birch. The yellow birch is the most commerciall y important. European birch is fine grained, rare and expensive. Properties & Uses: Birch is a hard, heavy, close grained hardwood with a light b rown or reddish colored heartwood and cream or light sapwood. Birch is often rot ary or flat sliced, yielding straight, curly or wavy grain patterns. It can be s tained to resemble mahogany or walnut. CEDAR: Several species of cedar grow in the southern United States, Central and South America. Properties & Uses: Cedar is a knotty softwood which has a red-brown color with l ight streaks. Its aromatic and moth repellent qualities have made it a popular w ood for lining drawers, chests and boxes. Simple cases and storage closets are a lso constructed from this light, brittle wood. REDWOOD: Indigenous to the Pacific United States, redwood trees grow to more tha n 300 feet tall and 2,500 years old.

Properties & Uses: The best quality redwood comes from the heartwood which is re sistant to deterioration due to sunlight, moisture and insects. It is used to cr aft outdoor furniture and decorative carvings. Redwood burls have a "cluster of eyes" figure. They are rare and valuable. HEMLOCK: Light in weight, uniformly textured. It machines well and has low resis tance to decay and nonresinous. Used for construction lumber, planks, doors, boa rds, paneling, sub flooring and crates. FIR: Works easy and finishes well. Uniform in texture and nonresinous. Has low r esistance to decay. Used in furniture, doors, frames, windows, plywood, veneer, general millwork and interior trim. SPRUCE: Strong and hard. Finishes well and has low resistance to decay. Has mode rate shrinkage and light in weight. Used for masts and spars for ships, aircraft , crates, boxes, general millwork and ladders. Woods. An account of the qualities of the different woods may be of use to the pu rchaser. Ash is rather lighter colored than oak, but is sometimes used in connection with it. It is less likely to split. Beech, a tables, d it may n, which very close and tough wood, is chiefly used for the framework of chairs, and bedsteads. It is nearly of the color of birch, but rather paler, an be known by the presence of those peculiar little specks of darker brow are easily seen in a carpenter's plane.

Birch is very close-grained, strong, and easily worked. It is of a pale yellowis h brown. If polished or varnished, it somewhat resembles satinwood, but is darke r, and by staining is capable of being made to closely resemble Honduras mahogan y. It is used in the better kinds of low-priced furniture. Cedar somewhat resembles mahogany, though more purplish. It has no ,'curl," and is free from tendency to warp or '' cast." The best varieties have a peculiarly pleasant aroma, which is offensive to moths ; hence it is highly valued for maki ng drawers and chests for clothing. Chestnut is coarse-grained, strong, elastic, light, and very durable. Some of th e best of the cheaper furniture is made of it. It looks so much like white oak a s to be frequently used in combination with it. Ebony is of a deep black color, and highly prized for several purposes, particul arly inlaying. It is exceedingly hard, heavy, and durable, but expensive. Pear a nd other woods dyed black are often substituted for it ; but are not so suscepti ble of good polish and luster, or so permanent in color. The best comes from Afr ica ; a kind variegated with brown is brought from Mauritius and Ceylon. Mahogany is imported of two kinds Honduras and Spanish. The former has a coarse, loose, and straight grain, without much curl or wave. The latter is darker, wit h curl, by which in great measure its price is regulated, and with a very fine, close texture. Spanish mahogany will bear great violence ; it is also free from ally tendency to warp. When, how-ever, it is very much curled, it is not nearly so strong or so free from twist ; but this is of little consequence, as its valu e is so great that it is generally veneered on to some less valuable wood, as Ho nduras or cedar. The heaviest mahogany is generally the best. Maple is of several qualities, the bird's-eye maple being most highly valued. It somewhat resembles satinwood, but is more buff than yellow, has more curl, and more " bird's-eye. " Maple is light and not very durable, and is used only in th e cheaper kinds of furniture.

Oak. There are several varieties, of which the white oak, the red oak, and the l ive oak are the most important. The first is most used. Oak takes long to season , and is worse than most woods if used green. It is very hard to work. Its appea rance improves with age. On account of its tendency to warp, a great deal of socalled oak work is paneled with chestnut. Pearwood is of a light yellow color, and, on account of its even grain, a favori te wood for carving. It is often stained to imitate ebony. Pine is used in two varieties, the white and the yellow. When thoroughly dry, th ese woods are very free from all tendency to warp or shrink ; but in a half-seas oned state articles made of them fall to pieces. They are readily distinguished from one another by the difference of color, and from deals by the absence of tu rpentine veins. When oiled and varnished, both kinds of pine look very well. It seems a sin to stain it. Rattan, from strips of which the seats of cane chairs are made, is a small sort of cane, brought from China, Japan, and Sumatra. A very pretty and durable style of summer-chairs, lounges, tables, baskets, etc., is now made wholly of rattan. Rosewood is hard and dark, with some little curl, intermediate in this respect b etween Spanish and Honduras mahogany, and of a very open grain. Most articles of rosewood furniture are veneered, but the best are of solid wood. The color, whi ch consists of large elongated dark zones on a reddish-brown ground, is permanen t, unless it be much exposed to the direct rays of the sun ; and it takes a fine polish, which is improved by slight waxing, or, better, by the French polish, w hich brings out the color of the wood admirably. Satinwood is now used chiefly for inlaying, lining, and veneers. It is of a full yellowish color, with a fine grain, little curl, and a silky luster. Its toughn ess fits it well for furniture. Walnut is a native wood, but is used in such prodigious quantity that it is also imported. Well seasoned it is exceedingly tough and little inclined to warp.

aditional Wood Types Hickory If you are looking for strength, hardness, and durability; Hickory is the best c ommercially available wood in North America. The grain is normally straight, but can sometimes be irregular or wavy. Hickory has a coarse texture, with a great deal of color variation between reddish brown, lighter brown, and white. Soft Maple Soft Maple is considered a paint grade because of minor mineral streaking, in ad dition to its close grained texture creating a more than adequate painting surfa ce. Having medium density, hardness, and strength, its machining and finishing p roperties are good, as is its stability. This fine textured and close grained wo od does not require filling. Red Oak Red Oak is a wood that is known for being very hard, heavy, and strong. However, given its density, it is actually fairly easy to work. Like Hickory, it does ha ve a coarse texture. Red Oak turns, carves, and bends well. It is also character

ized by having excellent sanding and finishing properties, and great stability. Knotty Pine Knotty Pine is a lightweight wood, characterized by a straight grain and a fine, even texture. While knots are prevalent in the wood, the knots tend to be small and tight, giving the wood the signature rustic look that pine is so well known for, Knotty Pine is dimensionally stable and durable. Rubberwood Belonging to the Maple family, Rubberwood has very little tendency to warp or cr ack, as well as a dense grain character. Another benefit is that it is Earth Fri endly. Unlike other trees used for lumber, Rubberwood is not harvested until it can no longer be used for its latex-producing sap; and then when it is harvested , new rubber trees are planted. Metallic Selection Flat Black Finish With its black powder coating, metal corbels available in the flat black finish easily complement lighter colored wood types or stone facades alike. This smooth finish gives the appearance of a cast iron, but allows for the light weight of wrought aluminum. The smooth and rich black finish is sleek looking, though it i s not glossy. Brushed Aluminum The brushed aluminum finish draws its name from the fact that the metal is physi cally brushed to give a textured appearance, and then finished with a clear coat . This finish works particularly well when contrasting darker wood finishes, suc h as Black Walnut, or even Cherry or Mahogany finished with a dark stain. Antique Cast Iron The antique cast iron finish chosen by Osborne was carefully selected with an ey e toward authenticity of appearance. It has both the visual and tactile feeling that is found on genuine cast iron work but with lower maintenance and a longer life. Brushed Copper The copper finish we carefully selected is situated has a slightly aged appearan ce. We stopped short of a full patination as it is too dark. Conversely, we avoi ded a new penny look. The result is a finish that quickly identifies itself as c opper but which is neither too dark nor to light. It will blend well with surrou nding copper elements such as hardware. Chrome Our chrome finish is a highly polished chrome that is plated to a fine zinc allo y that has been chosen for weight and durability. The chrome finish is mirror cl ear and is reminiscent of the finish found on expensive faucet sets. This finish will hold its own around any fine hardware that is used on surrounding cabinetw ork. Stainless Steel All of our stainless steel products are produced from high quality, thick gauge stainless steel. You can feel the quality of craftsmanship and materials the min ute you touch the products. Although stainless steel is frequently associated wi th designs that reflect an industrial design aesthetic, stainless steel can serv e equally well as a counterbalance when introduced into more complicated design

work. Gun Metal Gray Our gunmetal gray finish is a polished finish applied to a fine quality zinc all oy base. The result is a timeless, elegant appearance that lends itself to proje cts where quiet sophistication is called for. The inclusion products in our gunm etal gray finish can be selected to successfully compliment other cabinet hardwa re or may be used as stand-alone pieces that harmonize on a quieter level. Bronze Osborne replicates the original copper-and-tin recipe that is used to create bea utiful bronze by applying a faultless bronze finish over a fine quality zinc bas ed alloy that results in a product that is both attractive and durable. This all ows us to offer products with all of the luxury of bronze but without the extrem e weight that is usually associated with bronze products. Alder Alder is characterized by its straight grain and even texture. Its reddish brown color often looks similar to Cherry. While Alder is often used to mimic Cherry, its rich tone is beautiful. And certainly warrants use for its own distinct qua lities. Though it dents relatively easy, it offers a stable surface. Cherry Cherry wood is moderately heavy, hard, and strong, and it also machines and sand s to glass-like smoothness. Because of this, Cherry finishes beautifully. The he artwood in Cherry is red in color, and the sapwood is light pink. Components mad e of Cherry generally consist of approximately 25% sapwood and 75% heartwood. Hard Maple Hard Maple is considered our stain grade Maple, because it is more consistent in color than its cousin, Soft Maple. The wood is characterized as dense, and ligh t in color. Similar to our Soft Maple, Hard Maple is a fine textured and close g rained wood that does not require filling. Mahogany Not only one of the most valuable timbers in Africa, this species is also one of the foremost cabinet woods in the world. Mahogany is characterized as having st raight to interlocked grain and a medium coarse texture. The wood varies slightl y in color from a light reddish brown to a medium red. Red Birch The heartwood of Yellow Birch is red in color. While it is softer than Red Oak, it does actually have a tighter grain, which makes it very easy to finish. Red B irch is similar to Cherry in its appearance, as well as in its density and its r esistance to abrasion. Black Walnut Black walnut is considered a rare wood type, and it is quite durable and strong. Its coloration can be light to chocolate brown, and may contain burls, butts, a nd curls. The sapwood is usually white in color, and may be as high as 25%, but we have it steamed to make it a light coffee color, allowing for better color un iformity. Lyptus Lyptus lumber comes from Eucalyptus trees grown to CERFLOR standards, Brazil's n ational sustainable forestry standard. Lyptus is pruned throughout its growing p

rocess, which means it grows straight and relatively knot-free; reducing waste. Also, it is a fast growing tree, making it an easily replenished lumber source. Lyptus rivals Cherry and Mahogany in appearance, while having properties similar to Hard Maple. FSC Wood Types FSC Hard Maple Like our premium selection Hard Maple, FSC Certified Hard Maple is stain grade, light in color, and is also smooth, durable, and strong. FSC Certified Hard Mapl e, however, has been certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council; affirming th at from the moment the lumber was harvested through its manufacture into compone nts at our plant, it was handled in an eco-friendly manner. FSC Cherry Like our premium selection Cherry, FSC Certified Cherry is moderately hard, heav y, and strong; sanding and finishing quite smoothly. FSC Certified Cherry, howev er, has been certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council; affirming that from the moment the lumber was harvested through its manufacture into components at o ur plant, it was handled in an eco-friendly manner. Specialty Woods Beech Beech is a heavy, pale -colored, medium-to-hard wood. It is a fine, tight grain and has large medullar rays. Beech is similar in appearance to maple and birch. One excellent characteristic of Beech is that fact that it does stain and polish well. Beech is a wood with high crush strength and medium stiffness. Spanish Cedar Spanish Cedar is a freshly cut heartwood that is pinkish to reddish brown but be comes red or dark reddish brown upon exposure. The wood is coarser than that of mahogany. Spanish Cedar has many other great qualities such as being durable, li ght but strong and is a straight grain wood. Western Red Cedar Western Red Cedar has twice the stability of most commonly available softwoods. Although Western Red Cedar is one of the world's most durable woods it however l acks in strength. Western Red Cedar has a uniform texture and is also a straight grained wood. One great characteristics of Western Red Cedar is that it is one of the easiest woods to work with. Tiger Maple Tiger Maple has a unique pattern to it, the pattern travels across the grain and can look like stripes, waves or small flames. The curly grain can make tiger ma ple less stable than straight grained maple. Tiger Wood is a hard durable wood a nd is a frequent choice for custom-made furniture. Sapele Sapele has a reddish brown color that is similar to Mahogany. Sapele has an inte resting interlocked grain that changes direction in frequent, irregular interval s. Sapele and Mahogany might be similar in color but you can depend on Sapele to be more durable. Sapele is a wood of fine texture. Heart Pine Heart Pine is a wood where the color ranges from dark rich amber to various shad es of golden yellow. When Heart Pine is exposed to light it does cause the wood to darken and yellow with time. Heart Pine is softer than red oak yet quite dens e and strong. The grain of Heart Pine is open and broad with some knots as well. Douglas Fir Douglas Fir, also known as the Oregon Pine, is a light rosy colored wood that re

ddens overtime. It is a tight knotted and close-grained wood that has a high deg ree of stiffness as well. IF you are looking to paint or stain this wood it hold s all types of stains and finishes. Douglas Fir is dimensionally stable. Cypress Cypress wood, which is found along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Delaware to F lorida, is noted for color consistency, density, hardness, and relative lack of knots. It has a predominantly yellow tone with reddish, chocolate, or olive hues . Cypress has oils in the heartwood that make it very durable.

Types of WoodsAlder Ash Cherry Eucalyptus Hickory Oak Parawood Pine Rosewood Rubberwood

Aspen Beech Birch Mahogany Maple Poplar Redwood Teak Walnut Hard vs. Soft

Alder Alder, part of the birch family, is a softer hardwood from the Pacific Northwest . Consistent color, stability, and uniform acceptance of stains and finishes are some of the characteristics that have made Western Alder a preferred wood for f urniture. Its elasticity makes it ideal for carving intricate details. Ranking s econd only to oak as the most commonly used wood, alder offers the look of many fine hardwoods at a value price. Ash White Ash is commonly used in the furniture market. Ash is a long-fibered, light -colored, medium-density wood that grows in the United States and Canada. Its co arse, porous grain is similar to that of oak, but it varies from white to lightred in color. Hard and heavy enough to be used for baseball bats, it s also flexib le enough for bending. Ash takes stain well and is used mainly for chairs and st ools. Aspen Hailing from the north-eastern and north-central United States, this is a softer , light-colored, even-grained hardwood belonging to the Populous family. Unfinis hed, aspen appears to have little or no grain, but the natural grain appears aft er the stain has been applied. Aspen can be finished to resemble cherry, walnut, and other more expensive hardwoods. It accepts most stains well, but may need a sealer to achieve an even coloring. Beech Found primarily in northeast U.S. and Canada, beech is a heavy, pale-colored, me dium-to-hard wood used widely for chairs and stools. It has a fine, tight grain and large medullar rays, similar in appearance to maple or birch woods. Beech wo od has a high shock resistance and takes stains well.

Birch Birch is a stiff, close-grained hardwood that grows primarily in northeast U.S. and Canada. A heavy wood, it has a high shock resistance. Birch is very light in color (predominantly a light yellow) and takes any stain well. Cherry Also known as fruitwood, cherry is a strong, fine-grained hardwood with a pink u ndertone, often played up with a medium or dark finish to enhance its mahogany-r ed tones. Its rich coloring darkens with age and exposure to light. Cherry resis ts warping and is easy to carve and polish. Often used for 18th-century and form al, traditional-style furniture, cherry is often considered a luxury wood. Finegrained hardwoods, such as maple and alder, are common substitutes for cherry. B lack Cherry grows in Canada, the United States, and Central America; European Ch erry is distributed throughout Europe and southeast Asia. Eucalyptus This is a hardwood that earns high marks for strength, durability, and excellent weathering characteristics. Eucalyptus is pinkish-brown in color and ages to a reddish-brown with time and exposure to light. Its resistance to decay is simila r to that of teak wood. In fact, when finished with a high-quality oil, eucalypt us takes on a teak-like appearance. Hickory One of the hardest, heaviest, and strongest woods in the United States, hickory is a hardwood whose varieties can also be found in Canada and Mexico. Distinguis hed by extreme contrasts of light and dark colors, it has a dramatic natural loo k. For more even coloring, hickory can be easily stained. Mahogany A tropical medium-to-hard wood indigenous to South America, Central America, and Africa, mahogany s strength makes it an excellent carving wood. It has a uniform pore structure, a medium grain, and less defined annual rings. Mahogany ranges f rom tan to reddish-brown in color, and may display stripe, ribbon, rope, ripple, or blister figures. Its stability and resistance to decay makes the wood ideal for high-quality cabinetry and furniture. Maple This is a very light-colored medium-to-hard wood, abundant in the eastern United States. Known for its shock resistance, maple has diffused, evenly-sized pores that give the wood a fine texture and an even grain. Eastern maples are generall y harder than western maples, due to the colder winters and shorter growing seas ons. Both are highly durable and take any stain well. Maple can be finished to r esemble walnut, cherry, or other more expensive hardwoods. Oak Oak is the wood most commonly used for finer, more durable furniture. It s a very hard, heavy, open-grained wood that grows from deciduous and evergreen trees in the United States, Canada, and Europe. It's found in both red and white varietie s. Red oak (also known as black oak) has a pinkish cast and is the more popular of the two. White oak has a slightly greenish cast. Prominent rings and large po res give oak a coarse texture and prominent grain. It stains well in any color. Parawood Native to the Amazon region of South America, this wood is used for much of the furniture made in that region. Parawood can be traced back to the days of Christ opher Columbus, when its seedlings were used in rubber plantations to produce la tex. Today it s used to build fine furniture, a new tree planted in the place of e ach that is cut. Parawood is just as hard as maple or ash, and takes a very even stain. Yellow in color, it has a medium grain similar to mahogany.

Pine Pine is a softwood that grows in many varieties in various parts of the world. I n the U.S., Eastern White Pine, Ponderosa Pine, and Sugar Pine are some of the t ypes used to make furniture. Pine s &quotknotty" characteristics provide warmth an d individuality to each crafted piece. Usually light-yellow in color, the wood h as a broadly spaced striation pattern. It s ideal for children s rooms, family rooms , beach cottages anywhere you d like an airier, lighter feel. Its natural grain an d shades ensure that no piece is exactly alike. Excellent for staining. Poplar Poplar is a light-colored, softer wood that is more costly than pine, but less c ostly than oak or maple. It's generally straight-grained and "woolly" with a fin e, even texture. Pale in color, similar to beech and alder, poplar grows through out North America, Europe, and Asia. Redwood A hard, valuable, reddish-brown wood, redwood has a straight grain and a fine, c oarse texture. Its coloring ranges from light-red to a deep reddish-brown, with very prominent growth rings. Weathering more gracefully than other woods, redwoo d is often used to build decks and outdoor furnishings. Stains can enhance its n atural beauty and durability. Redwood grows along the Pacific coast of the Unite d States in California and Oregon. Rosewood This is a dark-red or brown hardwood, derived from tropical trees. Heavy, hard, and dense, rosewood is noted for its stability and excellent decay resistance. T hough commonly used for Oriental furniture, rosewood is now used for traditional European designs, as well as cabinetry. Quality rosewood furniture can be disti nguished by silver lines, achieved by polishing with Chinese Tang Oil. This firm luster surface is different from the glossy imitation paint used on more inferi or rosewood furniture. Rubberwood This wood is plantation-grown in tropical countries, particularly in the Amazon. The trees' sap is used for latex production. A rubber tree is useful for about 30 years, at which time it slows in creating latex. The trees are then cut down to make room for newly planted trees. This eco-friendly timber is very durable, and resistant to most varieties of fungi, bacteria, and mold. It is comparable t o teak. Teak Indigenous to Indonesia, India, and Central America, teak is a high-quality yell ow to dark-brown hardwood. It s generally straight-grained with a coarse, uneven t exture and an oily feel. Teak ranges from yellow-brown to dark golden-brown in c olor. Noted for its heaviness and durability, it was originally used for shipbui lding and is now often used for high-caliber outdoor furniture and decking. Walnut Prized in North America for high-end cabinetry and furniture, walnut provides st rength, hardness, and durability without excessive weight. It has excellent wood working qualities and takes finishes well. Walnut is light to dark chocolate-bro wn in color, with a straight grain in the trunk. It can be found in the United S tates and Canada. Hardwood vs. Softwood Solid woods can be classified as hard or soft. A hardwood is derived from a broa d-leefed tree (without needles), such as maple, cherry, oak, ash, walnut, or mah ogany. Hardwoods usually offer greater strength and stability. Softwoods come fr om needle-bearing evergreen trees, such as pine, spruce, redwood, or cedar, and are preferred for intricately carved pieces. Softwoods are more susceptible to m

arks and dings, but this can often result in an appealing weathered quality.

Real wood furniture is the most popular furniture in existence. It's been around for hundreds of years and probably existed when the cave people got tired of squatting on the dirt floor of their caves and looked around for a better way. The woods that are fashioned into furniture fall into three categories: 1. Hardwoods 2. Softwoods 3. Composites Even the term 'hardwood' or 'softwood' is deceptive. Hardwoods aren't necessarily harder, denser material. For example, balsa wood is one of the lightest, least dense woods there is, and it's considered a hardwood. Technically, lumber is classified based on how the tree reproduces. As a general rule, though, softwood trees are evergreen year round while the hardwoods create the gorgeous autumn foliage that we all love so much. Hardwoods are considered the highest quality and are the most expensive. Their natural colors vary from the darkest woods to the lightest ones and and they can be stained or painted for even more variety. Hardwood furniture is least likely to warp or bend and is prized in all high quality homes. The five woods most commonly used in furniture production are cherry, walnut, oak, maple and mahogany. Softwoods are less expensive than hardwoods, but they require extra care. Because they are less durable, it's much easier to scratch or dent softwood furniture. In addition, they often don't have the beautiful grains of a hardwood, and therefore don't stain as beautifully. Pine is an example of a softwood that is commonly used for furniture. These woods are often used in construction as well so the choicest pieces are reserved for furniture. In construction, knots and splits are common. Lots of construction lumber will not accept paint and this kind of wood is used for shelves or packing crates. The softwood used in furniture is designated as "Appearance" lumber and includes most softwood lumber that has been custom milled to a pattern or otherwise surfaced on all four sides. Composites are the cheapest form of wood and are literally manufactured, rather than grown. 1. Plywood: multiple layers of thin wooden sheets are glued together and pressed. Plywood is strong and resists swelling, shrinking and warping. There is some furniture

made directly from plywood, but generally it is only used as a support when incorporated into furniture. 2. Particle board: sawdust and small wood chips are mixed with glue or resin which is then shaped and pressure treated. When used for inexpensive furniture, particle board is usually covered with laminate or veneer. This is necessary because particle board splits easily and the laminate prevents splitting. However, the downside is that the laminate may separate from the wood because the particle board responds to temperature and pressure changes by swelling and shrinking. 3. Hardboard: is made like particle board but it's placed under higher pressure so it's stronger. 4. MDF or Medium Density Fiberboard: wood particles are bonded with resin and compressed. It is harder than particle board or hardboard, and can be cut like plywood although it isn't as strong as plywood. Some MDF is covered with melamine which is a durable plastic in a variety of colors. The exposed edges of MDF are rough and need covering with molding or some other decorative material. Technically, furniture made from all of these wood products is "real" wood furniture, even the composites. Prices and quality range from the hardwoods down to the composites. The higher you go up the spectrum, the more you can expect to pay for your wood furniture. The good part, of course, is that with proper care hardwood furniture will last for decades or even generations. If you can afford it, always choose hardwood furniture.

Lumber (also known as timber) is wood in any of its stages from felling to readi

ness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper pro duction. Lumber is supplied either rough or finished. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is t he raw material for furniture-making and other items requiring additional cuttin g and shaping. It is available in many species, usually hardwoods.[citation need ed] Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes, mostly for the construction i ndustry, primarily softwood from coniferous species including pine, fir and spru ce (collectively known as Spruce-pine-fir), cedar, and hemlock, but also some ha rdwood, for high-grade flooring

Terminology In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Countries such as Australia and New Zealand, timber is a term used for sawn wood products, such as floor boards, wh ereas generally in the United States and Canada, it refers to felled trees, late r milled into boards referred to as lumber. "Timber" is also used there to descr ibe sawn lumber not less than 5 inches (127 mm) in its smallest dimension.[1] An example of the latter is the often partially finished lumber used in timber-fra me construction. In the United Kingdom the word lumber has several other meanings, including unus ed or unwanted items. Dimensional lumber Example of 2×6. Dimensional lumber is a term used for lumber that is finished/planed and cut to standardized width and depth specified in inches. Examples of common sizes are 2×4 (also two-by-four and other variants, such as four-by-two in the UK, Australia, New Zealand), 2×6 (pictured), and 4×4. The length of a board is usually specified s eparately from the width and depth. It is thus possible to find 2×4s that are four , eight, or 12 feet in length. In the United States and Canada the standard leng ths of lumber are 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 feet. For wall framin g, "stud," or "precut" sizes are available, and commonly used. For an eight, nin e, or ten foot ceiling height, studs are available in 92 5/8 inches, 104 5/8 inc hes, and 116 5/8 inches. (Because the term "stud" is used inconsistently when re ferring to length, care should be taken to always specify the exact, actual leng th required.) .Solid dimensional lumber typically is only available up to lengths of 24 ft. En gineered wood products, manufactured by binding the strands, particles, fibers, or veneers of wood, together with adhesives, to form composite materials, offer more flexibility and greater structural strength than typical wood building mate rials.[2] Pre-cut studs save a framer a lot of time as they are pre-cut by the manufacture r to be used in 8 ft, 9 ft & 10 ft ceiling applications, which means they have r emoved a few inches of the piece to allow for the sill plate and the double top plate with no additional sizing necessary. In the Americas, two-bys (2×4s, 2×6s, 2×8s, 2×10s, and 2×12s), along with the 4×4, are commo n lumber sizes used in modern construction. They are the basic building block fo r such common structures as balloon-frame or platform-frame housing. Dimensional

lumber made from softwood is typically used for construction, while hardwood bo ards are more commonly used for making cabinets or furniture. Lumber's nominal dimensions are given in terms of green (not dried), rough (unfi nished) dimensions. The finished size is smaller, as a result of drying (which s hrinks the wood), and planing to smooth the wood. However, the difference betwee n "nominal" and "finished" lumber size can vary. So various standards have speci fied the difference between nominal size, and finished size, of lumber. Early standards called for green rough lumber to be of full nominal dimension wh en dry, but the requirements have diminished over time. For example, in 1910, a typical finished 1-inch- (25 mm) board was 13/16 in (21 mm). In 1928, that was r educed by 4%, and yet again by 4% in 1956. In 1961, at a meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Committee on Grade Simplification and Standardization agreed to wha t is now the current U.S. standard: in part, the dressed size of a 1 inch (nomin al) board was fixed at 3/4 inch; while the dressed size of 2 inch (nominal) lumb er was reduced from 1 5/8 inch to the now standard 1 1/2 inch.[3] [edit] Grades and standards Individual pieces of lumber exhibit a wide range in quality and appearance with respect to knots, slope of grain, shakes and other natural characteristics. Ther efore, they vary considerably in strength, utility and value. The move to set national standards for lumber in the United States began with pu blication of the American Lumber Standard in 1924, which set specifications for lumber dimensions, grade, and moisture content; it also developed inspection and accreditation programs. These standards have changed over the years to meet the changing needs of manufacturers and distributors, with the goal of keeping lumb er competitive with other construction products. Current standards are set by th e American Lumber Standard Committee, appointed by the Secretary of Commerce.[4] Design values for most species and grades of visually graded structural products are determined in accordance with ASTM standards, which consider the effect of strength reducing characteristics, load duration, safety and other influencing f actors. The applicable standards are based on results of tests conducted in coop eration with the USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Design Values for Wood Constru ction, which is a supplement to the ANSI/AF&PA National Design Specification® for Wood Construction, provides these lumber design values, which are recognized by the model building codes. A summary of the six published design values including b ending (Fb), shear parallel to grain (Fv), compression perpendicular to grain (F c-perp), compression parallel to grain (Fc), tension parallel to grain (Ft), and modulus of elasticity (E and Emin) can be found in Structural Properties and Pe rformance[5] published by WoodWorks. Canada has grading rules that maintain a standard among mills manufacturing simi lar woods to assure customers of uniform quality. Grades standardize the quality of lumber at different levels and are based on moisture content, size and manuf acture at the time of grading, shipping and unloading by the buyer. The National Lumber Grades Authority (NLGA)[6] is responsible for writing, interpreting and maintaining Canadian lumber grading rules and standards. The Canadian Lumber Sta ndards Accreditation Board (CLSAB)[7] monitors the quality of Canada's lumber gr ading and identification system. Attempts to maintain lumber quality over time have been challenged by historical changes in the timber resources of the United States from the slow-growing virgin forests common over a century ago to the fast-growing plantations now common in today's commercial forests. Resulting declines in lumber quality have been of c oncern to both the lumber industry and consumers and have caused increased use o f alternative construction products[8][9]

Machine stress-rated and machine-evaluated lumber is readily available for end-u ses where high strength is critical, such as truss rafters, laminating stock, Ibeams and web joints. Machine grading measures a characteristic such as stiffnes s or density that correlates with the structural properties of interest, such as bending strength. The result is a more precise understanding of the strength of each piece of lumber than is possible with visually graded lumber, which allows designers to use full-design strength and avoid overbuilding.[10] In Europe, strength grading of sawn softwood is done according to EN-14081-1/2/3 /4 and sorted into 9 classes; In increasing strength these are: C14, C16, C18, ? 22, ?24, ?27, ?30, ?35 and ?40[11] C14 Used for Scaffolding or Formwork C24 General construction C30 Prefab Rooftrusses and where design requires somewhat stronger joists than C 24 can offer C40 Usually seen in Glulam [edit] Hardwoods In North America, sizes for dimensional lumber made from hardwoods varies from t he sizes for softwoods. Boards are usually supplied in random widths and lengths of a specified thickness, and sold by the board-foot (144 cubic inches or 2,360 cubic centimetres, 1/12th of 1 cubic foot or 0.028 cubic metres. This does not apply in all countries; for example, in Australia many boards are sold to timber yards in packs with a common profile (dimensions) but not necessarily consistin g of the same length boards.

Also in North America, hardwood lumber is commonly sold in a "quarter" system wh en referring to thickness. 4/4 (four quarters) refers to a 1-inch-thick (25 mm) board, 8/4 (eight quarters) is a 2-inch-thick (51 mm) board, etc. This system is not usually used for softwood lumber, although softwood decking is sometimes so ld as 5/4 (actually one inch thick). Hardwoods cut for furniture are cut in the fall and winter, after the sap has st opped running in the trees. If hardwoods are cut in the spring or summer the sap ruins the natural color of the timber and decreases the value of the timber for furniture. [edit] Engineered lumber Engineered lumber is lumber created by a manufacturer and designed for a certain structural purpose. The main categories of engineered lumber are:[12] Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) LVL comes in 1 3/4 inch thicknesses with depths su ch as 9 1/2, 11 7/8, 14, 16, 18, or 24 inches, and are often doubled or tripled up. They function as beams to provide support over large spans, such as removed support walls and garage door openings, places where dimensional lumber isn't su fficient, and also in areas where a heavy load is bearing from a floor, wall or roof above on a somewhat short span where dimensional lumber isn't practical. Th is type of lumber cannot be altered by holes or notches anywhere within the span or at the ends, as it compromises the integrity of the beam, but nails can be d riven into it wherever necessary to anchor the beam or to add hangers for I-jois ts or dimensional lumber joists that terminate at an LVL beam. Wood I-Joists Sometimes called "TJI","Trus Joists" or "BCI", all of which are br ands of wood I-joists, they are used for floor joists on upper floors and also i n first floor conventional foundation construction on piers as opposed to slab f

loor construction. They are engineered for long spans and are doubled up in plac es where a wall will be aligned over them, and sometimes tripled where heavy roo f-loaded support walls are placed above them. They consist of a top and bottom c hord/flange made from dimensional lumber with a webbing in-between made from ori ented strand board (OSB). The webbing can be removed up to certain sizes/shapes according to the manufacturer's or engineer's specifications, but for small hole s, wood I-joists come with "knockouts", which are perforated, pre-cut areas wher e holes can be made easily, typically without engineering approval. When large h oles are needed, they can typically be made in the webbing only and only in the center third of the span; the top and bottom chords cannot be cut. Sizes and sha pes of the hole, and typically the placing of a hole itself, must be approved by an engineer prior to the cutting of the hole and in many areas, a sheet showing the calculations made by the engineer must be provided to the building inspecti on authorities before the hole will be approved. Some I-joists are made with W-s tyle webbing like Freshly cut logs showing sap running from beneath bark a truss to eliminate cutting and allow ductwork to pass through. Finger-Jointed Lumber Solid dimensional lumber lengths typically are limited to lengths of 22 to 24 feet, but can be made longer by the technique of "finger-joi nting" lumber by using small solid pieces, usually 18 to 24 inches long, and joi ning them together using finger joints and glue to produce lengths that can be u p to 36 feet long in 2×6 size. Finger-jointing also is predominant in precut wall studs. It is also an affordable alternative for non-structural hardwood that wil l be painted (staining would leave the finger-joints visible). Care must be take n during construction to avoid nailing directly into a glued joint as stud break age can occur. Glu-lam Beams Created from 2×4 or 2×6 stock by gluing the faces together to create b eams such as 4×12 or 6×16. By gluing multiple, common sized pieces of lumber togethe r, they act as one larger piece of lumber - thus eliminating the need to harvest larger, older trees for the same size beam. Manufactured Trusses Trusses are used in home construction as a pre-fabricated r eplacement for roof rafters and ceiling joists (stick-framing). It is seen as an easier installation and a better solution for supporting roofs as opposed to th e use of dimensional lumber's struts and purlins as bracing. In the southern USA and other parts, stick-framing with dimensional lumber roof support is still pr edominant. The main drawback of trusses are reduced attic space, time required f or engineering and ordering, and a cost higher than the dimensional lumber neede d if the same project were conventionally framed. The advantages are significant ly reduced labor costs (installation is faster than conventional framing), consi stency, and overall schedule savings. [edit] Timber piles In the US pilings are mainly cut from Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) and Douglas Fir (DF). Treated Piling are available in CCA retentions of .60, .80, and 2.50 pcf (pounds per cubic foot) if treatment is required. Defects in lumber Defects occurring in timber are grouped into the following five divisions: [edit] Conversion During the process of converting timber to commercial form the following defects may occur: Chip mark: this defect is indicated by the marks or signs placed by chips on the finished surface of timber Diagonal grain: improper sawing of timber

Torn grain: when a small depression is made on the finished surface due to falli ng of some tool Wane: presence of original rounded surface in the finished product [edit] Defects due to fungi Fungi attack timber when these conditions are all present: The timber moisture content is above 25% on a dry-weight basis The environment is warm enough Air is present Wood with less than 25% moisture (dry weight basis) can remain free of decay for centuries. Similarly, wood submerged in water may not be attacked by fungi if t he amount of oxygen is inadequate. Fungi timber defects: Blue stain Brown rot Dry rot Heart rot Sap stain Wet rot White rot [edit] Insects Following are the insects which are usually responsible for the decay of timber: Beetles Marine borers (Barnea similis) Termites Carpenter ants [edit] Natural forces There are two main natural forces responsible for causing defects in timber: abn ormal growth and rupture of tissues. [edit] Seasoning Defects due to seasoning are the number one cause for splinters and slivers. [edit] Durability and service life Under proper conditions, wood provides excellent, lasting performance. However, it also faces several potential threats to service life, including fungal activi ty and insect damage which can be avoided in numerous ways. Section 2304.11 of the International Building Code (IBC) addresses protection against decay and termit es. This section provides requirements for non-residential construction applicat ions, such as wood used above ground (e.g., for framing, decks, stairs, etc.), a s well as other applications. There are four recommended methods to protect wood-frame structures against dura bility hazards and thus provide maximum service life for the building. All requi re proper design and construction: 1. Control moisture using design techniques to avoid decay. 2. Provide effective control of termites and other insects. 3. Use durable materials such as pressur e treated or naturally durable species of wood where appropriate. 4. Provide qua lity assurance during design and construction and throughout the building s servic e life using appropriate maintenance practices.

[edit] Moisture control Wood is a hygroscopic material, which means it naturally absorbs and releases wa ter to balance its internal moisture content with the surrounding environment. T he moisture content of wood is measured by the weight of water as a percentage o f the oven-dry weight of the wood fiber. The key to controlling decay is to cont rol moisture. Once decay fungi are established, the minimum moisture content for decay to propagate is 22 to 24 percent, so building experts recommend 19 percen t as the maximum safe moisture content for untreated wood in service. Water by i tself does not harm the wood, but rather, wood with consistently high moisture c ontent enables fungal organisms to grow. The primary objective when addressing moisture loads is to keep water from enter ing the building envelope in the first place, and to balance the moisture conten t within the building itself. Moisture control by means of accepted design and c onstruction details is a simple and practical method of protecting a wood-frame building against decay. Finally, for applications with a high risk of staying we t, designers should specify durable materials such as naturally decay-resistant species or wood that s been treated with preservatives. Cladding, shingles, sill p lates and exposed timbers or glulam beams are examples of potential applications for treated wood. [edit] Controlling termites and other insects For buildings in termite zones, basic protection practices addressed in current building codes include (but are not limited to) the following: Grade the building site away from the foundation to provide proper drainage. Cov er exposed ground in any crawl spaces with 6-mil polyethylene film and maintain at least 12 to 18 inches of clearance between the ground and the bottom of frami ng members above (12 inches to beams or girders, 18 inches to joists or plank fl ooring members). Support post columns by concrete piers so there s at least six in ches of clear space between the wood and exposed earth. Install wood framing and sheathing in exterior walls at least eight inches above exposed earth; locate s iding at least six inches from the finished grade. Where appropriate and desired , ventilate crawl spaces according to local building codes. Remove building mate rial scraps from the job site before backfilling. If termites are found, elimina te their nests. If allowed by local regulation, treat the soil around the founda tion with an approved termiticide to provide protection against subterranean ter mites.

Preservatives Main article: Wood preservation Special fastners should be used with treated lumber because of the corrosive ch emicals used in its preservation process To avoid decay and termite infestation, it is important to separate untreated wo od from the ground and other sources of moisture. These separations are required by many building codes and are considered necessary to maintain wood elements i n permanent structures at a safe moisture content for decay protection. When it is not possible to separate wood from the sources of moisture, designers often r ely on preservative-treated wood.[13] Wood can be treated with a preservative that improves service life under severe conditions without altering its basic characteristics. It can also be pressure-i

mpregnated with fire-retardant chemicals that improve its performance in a fire. [14] One of the early treatments to fireproof lumber which retard fires was deve loped in 1936 by Protexol Corporation in which lumber is heavily treated with sa lt.[15] Wood does not deteriorate just because it gets wet. When wood breaks dow n, it is because an organism is eating it as food. Preservatives work by making the food source inedible to these organisms. Properly preservative-treated wood can have 5 to 10 times the service life of untreated wood. Preserved wood is use d most often for railroad ties, utility poles, marine piles, decks, fences and o ther outdoor applications. Various treatment methods and types of chemicals are available, depending on the attributes required in the particular application an d the level of protection needed.[16] There are two basic methods of treating: with and without pressure. Non-pressure methods are the application of preservative by brushing, spraying or dipping th e piece to be treated. Deeper, more thorough penetration is achieved by driving the preservative into the wood cells with pressure. Various combinations of pres sure and vacuum are used to force adequate levels of chemical into the wood. Pre ssure-treating preservatives consist of chemicals carried in a solvent. Chromate d copper arsenate (CCA), once the most commonly used wood preservative in North America began being phased out of most residential applications in 2004. Replaci ng it are amine copper quat (ACQ) and copper azole (CA). All wood preservatives used in the U.S. and Canada are registered and regularly re-examined for safety by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Health Ca nada's Pest Management and Regulatory Agency, respectively.[1 Timber framing is a style of construction which uses heavier framing elements th an modern stick framing, which uses dimensional lumber. The timbers originally w ere tree boles squared with a broadaxe or adze and joined together with joinery without nails. A modern imitation with sawn timbers is growing in popularity in the United States. [edit] Residual wood The conversion from coal to biomass power is a growing trend in the United State s.[18] The U.S. and Canadian governments both support an increased role for energy deri ved from biomass, which are organic materials available on a renewable basis and include residues and/or byproducts of the logging, sawmilling and papermaking p rocesses. In particular, they view it as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions by reducing consumption of oil and gas while supporting the growth of forestry, agriculture and rural economies. Studies by the U.S. government have found the country s combined forest and agriculture land resources have the power to sustain ably supply more than one-third of its current petroleum consumption.[19] Three potentially large sources of forest biomass currently not being used in ab undance are harvesting residues, particularly those left at the roadside, thinni ng treatments done in conjunction with efforts to reduce forest fire hazards (mo stly in the U.S.), and salvage and recovery of beetle-killed timber (mostly in C anada). Biomass is already an important source of energy for the North American forest p roducts industry. It is common for companies to have cogeneration facilities, al so known as combined heat and power, which convert some of the biomass that resu lts from wood and paper manufacturing to electrical and thermal energy in the fo rm of steam. The electricity is used to, among other things, dry lumber and supp ly heat to the dryers used in paper-making. [edit] Remanufactured lumber

Remanufactured Lumber refers to secondary or tertiary processing/cutting of prev iously milled lumber. The term specifically refers to lumber cut for industrial or wood packaging use. Lumber is cut by ripsaw or resaw to create dimensions tha t are not usually processed by a primary sawmill. Resawing is the process of splitting 1 inch through 12 inch hardwood or softwood lumber into two or more thinner pieces of full length boards. For example, spli tting a ten foot 2x4 into two ten foot 1x4s is considered resawing. In addition to resawing lumber, remanufactured lumber can be ripped on a ripsaw using single or multiple blades. Ripping is the process of splitting 1" through 12" hardwood or softwood lumber into two or more narrower pieces of full length boards. For example, splitting a ten foot 2x4 into two ten foot 2x2s is consider ed ripping.[20] [edit] Environmental benefits of lumber Green building minimizes the impact or "environmental footprint" of a building. Wood is a major building material that is renewable and uses the sun s energy to r enew itself in a continuous sustainable cycle.[21] Studies show manufacturing wo od uses less energy and results in less air and water pollution than steel and c oncrete.

Lumber or Timber is a term used to describe wood from the time trees are cut dow n, to its end product as a material suitable for industrial use as structural mate rial for construction or wood pulp for paper production. In the U.K. and Australia, "timber" is that is, boards), whereas generally in of timber cut into boards is referred nada sawn wood products of five inches sometimes called "timbers". Wood cut from Victorian Mountain Ash Lumber is supplied either rough or finished. Rough lumber is the raw material fo r furniture making. It is available in many species, usually hardwoods Dimensional Lumber Dimensional lumber is a term used in North America for lumber that is finished/p laned and cut to standardized width and depth specified in inches. [change] SoftwoodsSoftwood Dimensional Lumber Sizes Nominal Actual Nominal Actual 1 × 2 ¾? × 1½? (19×38 mm) 2 × 2 1½? × 1½? (38×38 mm) 1 × 3 ¾? × 2½? (19×64 mm) 2 × 3 1½? × 2½? (38×64 mm) 1 × 4 ¾? × 3½? (19×89 mm) 2 × 4 1½? × 3½? (38×89 mm) 1 × 6 ¾? × 5½? (19×140 mm) 2 × 6 1½? × 5½? (38×140 mm) 1 × 8 ¾? × 7¼? (19×184 mm) 2 × 8 1½? × 7¼? (38×184 mm) 1 × 10 ¾? × 9¼? (19×235 mm) 2 × 10 1½? × 9¼? (38×235 mm) 1 × 12 ¾? × 11¼? (19×286 mm) 2 × 12 1½? × 11¼? (38×286 mm) 3 × 4 2½? × 3½? (64×89 mm) 2 × 14 1½? × 13¼? (38×337 mm) 4 × 4 3½? × 3½? (89×89 mm) 6 × 6 5½? × 5½? (140×140 mm) 4 × 6 3½? × 5½? (89×140 mm) 8 × 8 7¼? × 7¼? (184×184 mm) a term also used for sawn wood products ( the United States and Canada, the product to as lumber. In the United States and Ca diameter or greater (4½? nominal size) are

Examples of common sizes are 2×4 (also two-by-four and other variants), 2×6, and 4×4. The length of a board is usually specified separately from the width and depth. It is thus possible to find 2×4s that are four, eight, or twelve feet in length. I n the United States the standard lengths of lumber are 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 feet. Outside North America sizes of timber vary slightly. Sizes are, in some cases, b ased on the imperial measurement and referred to as such; in other cases the siz es are too far removed from the imperial size to be referred to by imperial meas urement. Lengths can be sold at every 300 mm (a metric approximation of 1'). Com mon sizes are similar to the North American equivalent; 2.4, 2.7, 3.0, 3.6, 4.2, 4.8, 5.4, 6.0. But also in running lenghts, where each plank in a given packet is different, from 2500mm to 5500mm, though shorter and longer may be present

HardwoodsHardwood Dimensional Lumber Sizes Nominal Surfaced 1 Side (S1S) Surfaced 2 sides (S2S) ?? ¼? 3/16? ½? ?? 5/16? ?? ½? 7/16? ¾? ?? 9/16? 1? or 4/4 ?? 13/16? 1¼? or 5/4 1?? 1-1/16? 1½? or 6/4 1?? 1-5/16? 2? or 8/4 1-13/16? 1¾? 3? or 12/4 2-13/16? 2¾? 4? or 16/4 3-13/16? 3¾? In North America sizes for dimensional lumber made from hardwoods varies from th e sizes for softwoods. Boards are usually supplied in random widths and lengths of a specified thickness, and sold by the board-foot (144 cubic inches). [change] Engineered Lumber Engineered lumber is lumber created by a manufacturer and designed for a certain structural purpose.

Wood is the main substance in trees. Wood is used for construction of buildings or furniture, and also for art. It is also used for making fires and heating. Pa per is made from wood by a chemical reaction. Wood is very simple to cut, but it is also very strong. A lumberjack is a person who cuts down trees. After a tree falls, the wood in it can be cut into long, s traight pieces called lumber. Lumber can then be used to make posts, or put toge ther with nails, screws, or even glue to make wooden frames for other shapes. Wood comes in many different kinds. Oak and maple are widely-used types of wood. For a long time and even today, many buildings, mostly houses, have been made of wood. To build a house with wood, lumber is put together into frames that are t he shape of each wall, floor, and roof of the house. Then the frames are placed into the shape of a house. Then the frames can be covered to make solid walls. S ometimes the walls are made of more wood.

When the outside of a house or building is covered in wood, the wooden pieces ar e usually flat and stacked. These pieces are called shingles. Wood is also somet imes used in other parts of the house, like doors and staircases. Wood is also u sed to make fences. People also make many kinds of furniture with wood, like chairs, dressers, table s, and desks. When someone builds something with wood, they usually paint it. Paint protects a nd beautifies the wood. Some people like the look of wood, so they put clear pai nt called varnish on it. Some people make art with wood. Sometimes sculptures are built with wood. Regular pencils are made of wood, with dark graphite inside for writing. A place that has many trees in it that are close together, like a forest, is som etimes called 'the woods' when it is not very big. Wood can be turned into paper in large factories called paper mills. The wood is first chopped into small chips and cooked with chemicals in large vessels. The chemicals separate a substance called cellulose off the wood. The cellulose is t hen added with other chemicals and additives, and pressed into paper in large ma chines called paper machines. Most paper is made from pine, spruce and eucalyptu s. Lumber Background Lumber is a generic term that applies to various lengths of wood used as constru ction materials. Pieces of lumber are cut lengthwise from the trunks of trees an d are characterized by having generally rectangular or square cross sections, as opposed to poles or pilings, which have round cross sections. The use of wood as a construction material predates written history. The earlies t evidence of wood construction comes from a site near Nice, France, where a ser ies of post holes seems to indicate that a hut 20 ft (6m) wide by 50 ft (15 m) l ong was built there 400,000 years ago using wood posts for support. The oldest w ood construction found intact is located in northwest Germany, and was built abo ut 7,300 years ago. By 500 b.c. iron axes, saws, and chisels were commonly used to cut and shape wood. The first reference to cutting wood in a sawmill, rather than using hand tools, comes from northern Europe and dates from about 375. The sawmill was powered by the flow of water. In North America, European colonists found vast forests of trees, and wood becam e the principal building material. The circular saw, which had been developed in England, was introduced in the United States in 1814 and was widely used in saw mills. A large-scale bandsaw was developed and patented by Jacob R. Hoffman in 1 869 and replaced the circular saw for many sawmill operations. Lumber produced in early sawmills had varying dimensions depending on the custom er's specific order or the mill's standard practice. Today, lumber pieces used i n construction have standard dimensions and are divided into three categories, d epending on the thickness of the piece. Lumber with nominal thicknesses of less than 2 in (5 cm) are classified as boards. Those with nominal thicknesses of 2 i n (5 cm) but less than 5 in (13 cm) are classified as dimension. Those with nomi nal thicknesses of 5 in (12.5 cm) and greater are classified as timbers. The nom inal widths of these pieces vary from 2-16 in (5-40 cm) in 1 in (2.5 cm) increme nts. Most rough-cut lumber pieces are dried and then finished, or surfaced, by r unning them through a planer to smooth all four sides. As a result, the actual d

imensions are smaller than the nominal dimensions. For example, a standard two-b y-four piece of dried, surfaced dimension lumber actually measures 1.5 in (3.8 c m) by 3.5 in (8.9 cm). Pieces of lumber that are not only surfaced, but also machined to produce a spec ific cross sectional shape are classified as worked lumber or pattern lumber. De corative molding, tongue-and-groove flooring, and shiplap siding are examples of pattern lumber. Today, processing wood products is a billion-dollar, worldwide industry. It not only produces construction lumber, but also plywood, fiberboard, paper, cardboar d, turpentine, rosin, textiles, and a wide variety of industrial chemicals. Raw Materials The trees from which lumber is produced are classified as hardwoods or softwoods . Although the woods of many hardwoods are hard, and the woods of many softwoods are soft, that is not the defining characteristic. Most hardwood trees have lea ves, which they shed in the winter. Hardwood trees include oaks, maples, walnuts , cherries, and birches, but they also include balsa, which has one of the softe st and lightest of all the woods. Softwood trees, on the other hand, have needle s instead of leaves. They do not shed their needles in the winter, but remain gr een throughout the year and are sometimes called evergreens. Softwood trees incl ude pines, firs, hemlocks, spruces, and redwoods. Hardwoods are generally more expensive than softwoods and are used for flooring, cabinetry, paneling, doors, and trimwork. They are also extensively used to man ufacture furniture. Hardwoods are available in lengths from 4-16 ft (1.2-4.8 m). Softwoods are used for wall studs, joists, planks, rafters, beams, stringers, p osts, decking, sheathing, subflooring, and concrete forms. They are available in lengths from 4-24 ft (1.2-7.3 m). Both hardwood and softwood lumber pieces are graded according to the number and size of defects in the wood. Defects include knots, holes, pitch pockets, splits , and missing pieces on the edges or corners, called wanes. These defects primar ily affect the appearance, but may also affect the strength of the piece. The hi gher grades are called select grades. Hardwoods may also be graded as firsts or seconds, which are even higher than select. These grades have very few defects a nd are used for trim, molding, and finish woodwork where appearance is important . The higher the grade, the fewer the number of defects. The lower grades are ca lled common grades and are used for general construction where the wood will be covered or where defects will not be objectionable. Common grades are designated in descending order of quality by a number such as #1 common, #2 common, and so on. Pieces of softwood common grade lumber may also be designated by an equival ent name, such as select merchantable, construction, and so on. Lumber intended for uses other than construction, such as boxes or ladders, are given other grad ing designations. The Manufacturing Process In the United States, most trees destined to be cut into lumber are grown in man aged forests either owned by the lumber company or leased from the government. A fter the trees have reached an appropriate size, they are cut down and transport ed to a lumber mill where they are cut into various sizes of lumber. Here is a typical sequence of operations for processing trees into lumber. Felling 1 Selected trees in an area are visually inspected and marked as being ready to be cut down, or felled. If a road does not already exist in the area, one is cut and graded using bulldozers. If operations are expected to extend into the rain y season, the road may be graveled, and culverts may be installed across streams

to prevent washouts. 2 Most tree felling is done with gasoline-powered chain saws. Two cuts are made near the base, one on each side, to control the direction the tree will fall. On ce the tree is down, the limbs are trimmed off with chain saws, and the tree is cut into convenient lengths for transportation. 3 If the terrain is relatively level, diesel-powered tractors, called skidders, are used to drag the fallen tree sections to a cleared area for loading. If the terrain is steep, a self-propelled yarder is used. The yarder has a telescoping hydraulic tower that can be raised to a height of 110 ft (33.5 m). Guy wires sup port the tower, and cables are run from the top of the tower down the steep slop es to retrieve the felled trees. The tree sections, or logs, are then loaded on trucks using wheeled log loaders. 4 The trucks make their way down the graded road and onto public highways on the ir way to the lumber mill. Once at the mill, giant mobile unloaders grab the ent ire truck load in one bite and stack it in long piles, known as log decks. The d ecks are periodically sprayed with water to prevent the wood from drying out and shrinking. Debarking and bucking 5 Logs are picked up from the log deck with rubber-tired loaders and are placed on a chain conveyor that brings them into the mill. In some cases, the outer bar k of the log is removed, either with sharp-toothed grinding wheels or with a jet of high-pressure water, while the log is slowly rotated about its long axis. Th e removed bark is pulverized and may be used as a fuel for the mill's furnaces o r may be sold as a decorative garden mulch. 6 The logs are carried into the mill on the chain conveyor, where they stop mome ntarily as a huge circular saw cuts them into predetermined lengths. This proces s is called bucking, and the saw is called a bucking saw. Headrig sawing large logs 7 If the log has a diameter larger than 2-3 ft (0.6-0.9 m), it is tipped off the conveyor and clamped onto a moveable carriage that slides lengthwise on a set o f rails. The carriage can position the log transversely relative to the rails an d can also rotate the log 90 or 180 degrees about its length. Optical sensors sc an the log and determine its diameter at each end, its length, and any visible d efects. Based on this information, a computer then calculates a suggested cuttin g pattern to maximize the number of pieces of lumber obtainable from the log. 8 The headrig sawyer sits in an enclosed booth next to a large vertical bandsaw called the headrig saw. He reviews the suggested cutting pattern displayed on a television monitor, but relies more on his experience to make the series of cuts . The log is fed lengthwise through the vertical bandsaw. The first cut is made along the side closest to the operator and removes a piece of wood called a slab . The outer surface of the slab has the curvature of the original tree trunk, an d this piece is usually discarded and ground to chips for use in paper pulp. 9 The carriage is returned to its original position, and the log is shifted side ways or rotated to make subsequent cuts. The headrig sawyer must constantly revi ew the log for internal defects and modify the cutting pattern accordingly as ea ch successive cut opens the log further. In general, thinner pieces destined to be made into boards are cut from the outer portion of the log where there are fe wer knots. Thicker pieces for dimension lumber are cut next, while the center of the log yields stock for heavy timber pieces. Bandsawing small logs 10 Smaller diameter logs are fed through a series of bandsaws that cut them into nominal 1 in (2.5 cm), 2 in (5 cm), or 4 in (10 cm) thick pieces in one pass. Resawing 11 The large cut pieces from the headrig saw, called cants, are laid flat and mo ved by chain conveyor to multiple-blade bandsaws, where they are cut into the re quired widths and the outside edges are trimmed square. The pieces that were cut from smaller logs may also pass through multiple-blade bandsaws to cut them to width. If the pieces are small enough that they do not need further cutting, the y may pass through a chipper, which grinds the uneven edges square. Drying or seasoning

12 The cut and trimmed pieces of lumber are then moved to an area to be dried, o r "seasoned." This is necessary to prevent decay and to permit the wood to shrin k as it dries out. Timbers, because of their large dimensions, are difficult to thoroughly dry and are generally sold wet, or "green." Other lumber may be air d ried or kiln dried, depending on the required moisture content of the finished p iece. Air-dried lumber is stacked in a covered area with spacers between each pi ece to allow air to circulate. Air-dried woods generally contain about 20% moist ure. Kiln-dried lumber is stacked in an enclosed area, while 110-180°F (44-82°C) hea ted air is circulated through the stack. Kiln-dried woods generally contain less than 15% moisture and are often specified for interior floors, molding, and doo rs where minimal shrinkage is required. Planing 13 The dried pieces of lumber are passed through planers, where rotating cutting heads trim the pieces to their final dimensions, smooth all four surfaces, and round the edges. Grade stamping and banding 14 Each piece of lumber is visually or mechanically inspected and graded accordi ng to the amount of defects present. The grade is stamped on each piece, along w ith information about the moisture content, and a mill identification number. Th e lumber is then bundled according to the type of wood, grade, and moisture cont ent, and the bundle is secured with steel bands. The bundle is loaded on a truck or train and shipped to a lumber yard for resale to customers. Quality Control There are very few pieces of perfect lumber. Even though great avoid or minimize defects when sawing the wood to the required almost always some defects present. The number and location of ermines the grade of the lumber, and the purchaser must choose appropriate for each specific application. The Future care is taken to sizes, there are these defects det the grade that is

As the number of older trees available for logging diminishes, so does the lumbe r industry's ability to selectively cut pieces of lumber to the sizes needed for construction. Many of the trees being logged today are second-generation or thi rd-generation trees that are younger and smaller in diameter than the original o ld-growth trees. These younger trees also contain a higher percentage of juvenil e wood, which is less dimensionally stable than older wood. To counter this trend, the lumber industry is literally taking trees apart and p utting them back together again to manufacture the sizes, strengths, and stabili ty required for construction. Actually, they have been doing this for decades in the form of plywood and glue-laminated beams, and some of the new products use similar technology. One of the new manufactured lumber products is called parallel strand lumber. It begins much like plywood with a thin veneer of wood being peeled off a log. The veneer passes under a fiber-optic scanner that spots defects and cuts them out, sort of like an automated cookie cutter. The veneer is then dried and cut into 0.5 in (1.3 cm) wide strips. The strips are fed into one end of a machine, which coats them with a phenolic resin glue and stacks them side-to-side and end-to-e nd to form a solid 12 in by 17 in (30 cm by 43 cm) beam of wood. The beam is zap ped with 400,000 watts of microwave energy, which hardens the glue almost instan tly. As the beam emerges from the other end of the machine, it is cut into 60 ft (18.3 m) lengths. It is then further cut into various sizes of lumber, and sand ed smooth. The resulting pieces are significantly stronger and more dimensionall y stable than natural wood, while being attractive enough to be used for exposed beams and other visible applications. Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundred

s of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an o rganic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers (which are strong in te nsion) embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression. Wood is sometim es defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees,[1] or it is define d more broadly to include the same type of tissue elsewhere such as in tree root s or in other plants such as shrubs.[citation needed] In a living tree it perfor ms a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up for th emselves. It also mediates the transfer of water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with compar able properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber. The earth contains about one trillion tonnes of wood, which grows at a rate of 1 0 billion tonnes per year. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, wo ody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy. In 1991, approximately 3.5 billion cubic meters of wood were harvested. Dominant us es were for furniture and building construction.[ History A 2011 discovery in the Canadian province of New Brunswick uncovered the earlies t known plants to have grown wood, approximately 395 to 400 million years ago.[3 ] People have used wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging , artworks, and paper. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in some species by dendrochronology to ma ke inferences about when a wooden object was created. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clu es to the prevailing climate at that time.[4] Physical properties Growth rings Wood, in the strict sense, is yielded by trees, which increase in diameter by th e formation, between the existing wood and the inner bark, of new woody layers w hich envelop the entire stem, living branches, and roots. This process is known as secondary growth; it is the result of cell division in the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem, and subsequent expansion of the new cells. Where there are c lear seasons, growth can occur in a discrete annual or seasonal pattern, leading to growth rings; these can usually be most clearly seen on the end of a log, bu t are also visible on the other surfaces. If these seasons are annual these grow th rings are referred to as annual rings. Where there is no seasonal difference growth rings are likely to be indistinct or absent. If there are differences within a growth ring, then the part of a growth ring ne arest the center of the tree, and formed early in the growing season when growth is rapid, is usually composed of wider elements. It is usually lighter in color than that near the outer portion of the ring, and is known as earlywood or spri ngwood. The outer portion formed later in the season is then known as the latewo od or summerwood.[5] However, there are major differences, depending on the kind of wood (see below).

Knots A knot on a tree at the Garden of the Gods public park in Colorado Springs, Col orado (October 2006)

A knot is a particular type of imperfection in a piece of wood; it will affect t he technical properties of the wood, usually for the worse, but may be exploited for visual effect. In a longitudinally sawn plank, a knot will appear as a roug hly circular "solid" (usually darker) piece of wood around which the grain of th e rest of the wood "flows" (parts and rejoins). Within a knot, the direction of the wood (grain direction) is up to 90 degrees different from the grain directio n of the regular wood. In the tree a knot is either the base of a side branch or a dormant bud. A knot (when the base of a side branch) is conical in shape (hence the roughly circular cross-section) with the inner tip at the point in stem diameter at which the pl ant's vascular cambium was located when the branch formed as a bud. During the development of a tree, the lower limbs often die, but may remain atta ched for a time, sometimes years. Subsequent layers of growth of the attaching s tem are no longer intimately joined with the dead limb, but are grown around it. Hence, dead branches produce knots which are not attached, and likely to drop o ut after the tree has been sawn into boards. In grading lumber and structural timber, knots are classified according to their form, size, soundness, and the firmness with which they are held in place. This firmness is affected by, among other factors, the length of time for which the branch was dead while the attaching stem continued to grow. Wood Knot Knots materially affect cracking and warping, ease in working, and cleavability of timber. They are defects which weaken timber and lower its value for structur al purposes where strength is an important consideration. The weakening effect i s much more serious when timber is subjected to forces perpendicular to the grai n and/or tension than where under load along the grain and/or compression. The e xtent to which knots affect the strength of a beam depends upon their position, size, number, and condition. A knot on the upper side is compressed, while one o n the lower side is subjected to tension. If there is a season check in the knot , as is often the case, it will offer little resistance to this tensile stress. Small knots, however, may be located along the neutral plane of a beam and incre ase the strength by preventing longitudinal shearing. Knots in a board or plank are least injurious when they extend through it at right angles to its broadest surface. Knots which occur near the ends of a beam do not weaken it. Sound knots which occur in the central portion one-fourth the height of the beam from eithe r edge are not serious defects.[6] Knots do not necessarily influence the stiffness of structural timber, this will depend on the size and location. Stiffness and elastic strength are more depend ent upon the sound wood than upon localized defects. The breaking strength is ve ry susceptible to defects. Sound knots do not weaken wood when subject to compre ssion parallel to the grain. In some decorative applications, wood with knots may be desirable to add visual interest. In applications where wood is painted, such as skirting boards, fascia boards, door frames and furniture, resins present in the timber may continue to 'bleed' through to the surface of a knot for months or even years after manufac ture and show as a yellow or brownish stain. A knot primer paint or solution, co rrectly applied during preparation, may do much to reduce this problem but it is difficult to control completely, especially when using mass-produced kiln-dried timber stocks. Heartwood and sapwood A section of a Yew branch showing 27 annual growth rings, pale sapwood and dark heartwood, and pith (centre dark spot). The dark radial lines are small knots.

Heartwood (or duramen[7]) is wood that as a result of a naturally occurring chem ical transformation has become more resistant to decay. Heartwood formation occu rs spontaneously (it is a genetically programmed process). Once heartwood format ion is complete, the heartwood is dead.[8] Some uncertainty still exists as to w hether heartwood is truly dead, as it can still chemically react to decay organi sms, but only once.[9] Usually heartwood looks different; in that case it can be seen on a cross-sectio n, usually following the growth rings in shape. Heartwood may (or may not) be mu ch darker than living wood. It may (or may not) be sharply distinct from the sap wood. However, other processes, such as decay, can discolor wood, even in woody plants that do not form heartwood, with a similar color difference, which may le ad to confusion. Sapwood (or alburnum[7]) is the younger, outermost wood; in the growing tree it is living wood,[8] and its principal functions are to conduct water from the roo ts to the leaves and to store up and give back according to the season the reser ves prepared in the leaves. However, by the time they become competent to conduc t water, all xylem tracheids and vessels have lost their cytoplasm and the cells are therefore functionally dead. All wood in a tree is first formed as sapwood. The more leaves a tree bears and the more vigorous its growth, the larger the v olume of sapwood required. Hence trees making rapid growth in the open have thic ker sapwood for their size than trees of the same species growing in dense fores ts. Sometimes trees (of species that do form heartwood) grown in the open may be come of considerable size, 30 cm or more in diameter, before any heartwood begin s to form, for example, in second-growth hickory, or open-grown pines. The term heartwood derives solely from its position and not from any vital impor tance to the tree. This is evidenced by the fact that a tree can thrive with its heart completely decayed. Some species begin to form heartwood very early in li fe, so having only a thin layer of live sapwood, while in others the change come s slowly. Thin sapwood is characteristic of such species as chestnut, black locu st, mulberry, osage-orange, and sassafras, while in maple, ash, hickory, hackber ry, beech, and pine, thick sapwood is the rule. Others never form heartwood. No definite relation exists between the annual rings of growth and the amount of sapwood. Within the same species the cross-sectional area of the sapwood is ver y roughly proportional to the size of the crown of the tree. If the rings are na rrow, more of them are required than where they are wide. As the tree gets large r, the sapwood must necessarily become thinner or increase materially in volume. Sapwood is thicker in the upper portion of the trunk of a tree than near the ba se, because the age and the diameter of the upper sections are less. When a tree is very young it is covered with limbs almost, if not entirely, to t he ground, but as it grows older some or all of them will eventually die and are either broken off or fall off. Subsequent growth of wood may completely conceal the stubs which will however remain as knots. No matter how smooth and clear a log is on the outside, it is more or less knotty near the middle. Consequently t he sapwood of an old tree, and particularly of a forest-grown tree, will be free r from knots than the inner heartwood. Since in most uses of wood, knots are def ects that weaken the timber and interfere with its ease of working and other pro perties, it follows that a given piece of sapwood, because of its position in th e tree, may well be stronger than a piece of heartwood from the same tree. It is remarkable that the inner heartwood of old trees remains as sound as it us ually does, since in many cases it is hundreds, and in a few instances thousands , of years old. Every broken limb or root, or deep wound from fire, insects, or falling timber, may afford an entrance for decay, which, once started, may penet rate to all parts of the trunk. The larvae of many insects bore into the trees a

nd their tunnels remain indefinitely as sources of weakness. Whatever advantages , however, that sapwood may have in this connection are due solely to its relati ve age and position. If a tree grows all its life in the open and the conditions of soil and site rem ain unchanged, it will make its most rapid growth in youth, and gradually declin e. The annual rings of growth are for many years quite wide, but later they beco me narrower and narrower. Since each succeeding ring is laid down on the outside of the wood previously formed, it follows that unless a tree materially increas es its production of wood from year to year, the rings must necessarily become t hinner as the trunk gets wider. As a tree reaches maturity its crown becomes mor e open and the annual wood production is lessened, thereby reducing still more t he width of the growth rings. In the case of forest-grown trees so much depends upon the competition of the trees in their struggle for light and nourishment th at periods of rapid and slow growth may alternate. Some trees, such as southern oaks, maintain the same width of ring for hundreds of years. Upon the whole, how ever, as a tree gets larger in diameter the width of the growth rings decreases. Different pieces of wood cut from a large tree may differ decidedly, particularl y if the tree is big and mature. In some trees, the wood laid on late in the lif e of a tree is softer, lighter, weaker, and more even-textured than that produce d earlier, but in other trees, the reverse applies. This may or may not correspo nd to heartwood and sapwood. In a large log the sapwood, because of the time in the life of the tree when it was grown, may be inferior in hardness, strength, a nd toughness to equally sound heartwood from the same log. In a smaller tree, th e reverse may be true. Color In species which show a distinct difference between heartwood and sapwood the na tural color of heartwood is usually darker than that of the sapwood, and very fr equently the contrast is conspicuous (see section of yew log above). This is pro duced by deposits in the heartwood of chemical substances, so that a dramatic co lor difference does not mean a dramatic difference in the mechanical properties of heartwood and sapwood, although there may be a dramatic chemical difference. Some experiments on very resinous Longleaf Pine specimens indicate an increase i n strength, due to the resin which increases the strength when dry. Such resin-s aturated heartwood is called "fat lighter". Structures built of fat lighter are almost impervious to rot and termites; however they are very flammable. Stumps o f old longleaf pines are often dug, split into small pieces and sold as kindling for fires. Stumps thus dug may actually remain a century or more since being cu t. Spruce impregnated with crude resin and dried is also greatly increased in st rength thereby. Since the latewood of a growth ring is usually darker in color than the earlywoo d, this fact may be used in judging the density, and therefore the hardness and strength of the material. This is particularly the case with coniferous woods. I n ring-porous woods the vessels of the early wood not infrequently appear on a f inished surface as darker than the denser latewood, though on cross sections of heartwood the reverse is commonly true. Except in the manner just stated the col or of wood is no indication of strength. Abnormal discoloration of wood often denotes a diseased condition, indicating un soundness. The black check in western hemlock is the result of insect attacks. T he reddish-brown streaks so common in hickory and certain other woods are mostly the result of injury by birds. The discoloration is merely an indication of an injury, and in all probability does not of itself affect the properties of the w ood. Certain rot-producing fungi impart to wood characteristic colors which thus become symptomatic of weakness; however an attractive effect known as spalting

produced by this process is often considered a desirable characteristic. Ordinar y sap-staining is due to fungal growth, but does not necessarily produce a weake ning effect. Water content Water occurs in living wood in three conditions, namely: (1) in the cell walls, (2) in the protoplasmic contents of the cells, and (3) as free water in the cell cavities and spaces. In heartwood it occurs only in the first and last forms. W ood that is thoroughly air-dried retains 8 16% of the water in the cell walls, and none, or practically none, in the other forms. Even oven-dried wood retains a s mall percentage of moisture, but for all except chemical purposes, may be consid ered absolutely dry. The general effect of the water content upon the wood substance is to render it softer and more pliable. A similar effect of common observation is in the soften ing action of water on paper or cloth. Within certain limits, the greater the wa ter content, the greater its softening effect. Drying produces a decided increase in the strength of wood, particularly in smal l specimens. An extreme example is the case of a completely dry spruce block 5 c m in section, which will sustain a permanent load four times as great as a green (undried) block of the same size will.[citation needed] The greatest strength increase due to drying is in the ultimate crushing strengt h, and strength at elastic limit in endwise compression; these are followed by t he modulus of rupture, and stress at elastic limit in cross-bending, while the m odulus of elasticity is least affected. Structure Wood is a heterogeneous, hygroscopic, cellular and anisotropic material. It is c omposed of cells, and the cell walls are composed of micro-fibrils of cellulose 50%) and hemicellulose (15% 25%) impregnated with lignin (15% 30%).[10] (40% Sections of tree trunk A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, Netherlands In coniferous or softwood species the wood cells are mostly of one kind, trachei ds, and as a result the material is much more uniform in structure than that of most hardwoods. There are no vessels ("pores") in coniferous wood such as one se es so prominently in oak and ash, for example. The structure of hardwoods is more complex.[11] The water conducting capability is mostly taken care of by vessels: in some cases (oak, chestnut, ash) these are quite large and distinct, in others (buckeye, poplar, willow) too small to be s een without a hand lens. In discussing such woods it is customary to divide them into two large classes, ring-porous and diffuse-porous. In ring-porous species, such as ash, black locust, catalpa, chestnut, elm, hickory, mulberry, and oak, the larger vessels or pores (as cross sections of vessels are called) are locali sed in the part of the growth ring formed in spring, thus forming a region of mo re or less open and porous tissue. The rest of the ring, produced in summer, is made up of smaller vessels and a much greater proportion of wood fibers. These f iber are the elements which give strength and toughness to wood, while the vesse ls are a source of weakness. Magnified cross-section of Black Walnut, showing the vessels, rays (white lines ) and annual rings: this is intermediate between diffuse-porous and ring-porous, with vessel size declining gradually In diffuse-porous woods the pores are evenly sized so that the water conducting

capability is scattered throughout the growth ring instead of being collected in a band or row. Examples of this kind of wood are basswood, birch, buckeye, mapl e, poplar, and willow. Some species, such as walnut and cherry, are on the borde r between the two classes, forming an intermediate group. Earlywood and latewood in softwood

In temperate softwoods there often is a marked difference between latewood and e arlywood. The latewood will be denser than that formed early in the season. When examined under a microscope the cells of dense latewood are seen to be very thi ck-walled and with very small cell cavities, while those formed first in the sea son have thin walls and large cell cavities. The strength is in the walls, not t he cavities. Hence the greater the proportion of latewood the greater the densit y and strength. In choosing a piece of pine where strength or stiffness is the i mportant consideration, the principal thing to observe is the comparative amount s of earlywood and latewood. The width of ring is not nearly so important as the proportion and nature of the latewood in the ring. If a heavy piece of pine is compared with a lightweight piece it will be seen at once that the heavier one contains a larger proportion of latewood than the oth er, and is therefore showing more clearly demarcated growth rings. In white pine s there is not much contrast between the different parts of the ring, and as a r esult the wood is very uniform in texture and is easy to work. In hard pines, on the other hand, the latewood is very dense and is deep-colored, presenting a ve ry decided contrast to the soft, straw-colored earlywood. It is not only the proportion of latewood, but also its quality, that counts. In specimens that show a very large proportion of latewood it may be noticeably mo re porous and weigh considerably less than the latewood in pieces that contain b ut little. One can judge comparative density, and therefore to some extent stren gth, by visual inspection. No satisfactory explanation can as yet be given for the exact mechanisms determi ning the formation of earlywood and latewood. Several factors may be involved. I n conifers, at least, rate of growth alone does not determine the proportion of the two portions of the ring, for in some cases the wood of slow growth is very hard and heavy, while in others the opposite is true. The quality of the site wh ere the tree grows undoubtedly affects the character of the wood formed, though it is not possible to formulate a rule governing it. In general, however, it may be said that where strength or ease of working is essential, woods of moderate to slow growth should be chosen Earlywood and latewood in ring-porous woods Earlywood and latewood in a ring-porous wood (ash) in a Fraxinus excelsior ; ta ngential view, wide growth rings In ring-porous woods each season's growth is always well defined, because the la rge pores formed early in the season abut on the denser tissue of the year befor e. In the case of the ring-porous hardwoods there seems to exist a pretty definite relation between the rate of growth of timber and its properties. This may be br iefly summed up in the general statement that the more rapid the growth or the w ider the rings of growth, the heavier, harder, stronger, and stiffer the wood. T his, it must be remembered, applies only to ring-porous woods such as oak, ash, hickory, and others of the same group, and is, of course, subject to some except ions and limitations.

In ring-porous woods of good growth it is usually the latewood in which the thic k-walled, strength-giving fibers are most abundant. As the breadth of ring dimin ishes, this latewood is reduced so that very slow growth produces comparatively light, porous wood composed of thin-walled vessels and wood parenchyma. In good oak these large vessels of the earlywood occupy from 6 to 10 percent of the volu me of the log, while in inferior material they may make up 25% or more. The late wood of good oak is dark colored and firm, and consists mostly of thick-walled f ibers which form one-half or more of the wood. In inferior oak, this latewood is much reduced both in quantity and quality. Such variation is very largely the r esult of rate of growth. Wide-ringed wood is often called "second-growth", because the growth of the youn g timber in open stands after the old trees have been removed is more rapid than in trees in a closed forest, and in the manufacture of articles where strength is an important consideration such "second-growth" hardwood material is preferre d. 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 result s 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 fr om 5 to 14 rings per inch (rings 1.8-5 mm thick), is fairly constant from 14 to 38 rings per inch (rings 0.7 1.8 mm thick), and decreases rapidly from 38 to 47 ri ngs per inch (rings 0.5 0.7 mm thick). The strength at maximum load is not so grea t with the most rapid-growing wood; it is maximum with from 14 to 20 rings per i nch (rings 1.3 1.8 mm thick), and again becomes less as the wood becomes more clos ely ringed. The natural deduction is that wood of first-class mechanical value s hows from 5 to 20 rings per inch (rings 1.3 5 mm thick) and that slower growth yie lds poorer stock. Thus the inspector or buyer of hickory should discriminate aga inst timber that has more than 20 rings per inch (rings less than 1.3 mm thick). Exceptions exist, however, in the case of normal growth upon dry situations, in which the slow-growing material may be strong and tough."[12] The effect of rate of growth on the qualities of chestnut wood is summarised by the same authority as follows: "When the rings are wide, the transition from spring wood to summer wood is grad ual, while in the narrow rings the spring wood passes into summer wood abruptly. The width of the spring wood changes but little with the width of the annual ri ng, so that the narrowing or broadening of the annual ring is always at the expe nse of the summer wood. The narrow vessels of the summer wood make it richer in wood substance than the spring wood composed of wide vessels. Therefore, rapid-g rowing specimens with wide rings have more wood substance than slow-growing tree s with narrow rings. Since the more the wood substance the greater the weight, a nd the greater the weight the stronger the wood, chestnuts with wide rings must have stronger wood than chestnuts with narrow rings. This agrees with the accept ed view that sprouts (which always have wide rings) yield better and stronger wo od than seedling chestnuts, which grow more slowly in diameter."[12] Earlywood and latewood in diffuse-porous woods In the diffuse-porous woods, the demarcation between rings is not always so clea r and in some cases is almost (if not entirely) invisible to the unaided eye. Co nversely, when there is a clear demarcation there may not be a noticeable differ ence in structure within the growth ring. In diffuse-porous woods, as has been stated, the vessels or pores are even-sized , so that the water conducting capability is scattered throughout the ring inste ad of collected in the earlywood. The effect of rate of growth is, therefore, no t the same as in the ring-porous woods, approaching more nearly the conditions i n the conifers. In general it may be stated that such woods of medium growth aff ord stronger material than when very rapidly or very slowly grown. In many uses of wood, total strength is not the main consideration. If ease of working is pri zed, wood should be chosen with regard to its uniformity of texture and straight

ness of grain, which will in most cases occur when there is little contrast betw een the latewood of one season's growth and the earlywood of the next. Monocot wood Trunks of the Coconut palm, a monocot, in Java. From this perspective these loo k not much different from trunks of a dicot or conifer Structural material that roughly (in its gross handling characteristics) resembl es ordinary, "dicot" or conifer wood is produced by a number of monocot plants, and these also are colloquially called wood. Of these, bamboo, botanically a mem ber of the grass family, has considerable economic importance, larger culms bein g widely used as a building and construction material in their own right and, th ese days, in the manufacture of engineered flooring, panels and veneer. Another major plant group that produce material that often is called wood are the palms. Of much less importance are plants such as Pandanus, Dracaena and Cordyline. Wi th all this material, the structure and composition of the structural material i s quite different from ordinary wood. Hard and soft woods There is a strong relationship between the properties of wood and the properties of the particular tree that yielded it. The density of wood varies with species . The density of a wood correlates with its strength (mechanical properties). Fo r example, mahogany is a medium-dense hardwood that is excellent for fine furnit ure crafting, whereas balsa is light, making it useful for model building. One o f the densest woods is black ironwood. It is common to classify wood as either softwood or hardwood. The wood from coni fers (e.g. pine) is called softwood, and the wood from dicotyledons (usually bro ad-leaved trees, e.g. oak) is called hardwood. These names are a bit misleading, as hardwoods are not necessarily hard, and softwoods are not necessarily soft. The well-known balsa (a hardwood) is actually softer than any commercial softwoo d. Conversely, some softwoods (e.g. yew) are harder than many hardwoods. Chemistry of wood Aside from water, wood has three main components. Cellulose, a crystalline polym er derived from glucose, constitutes about 41 43%. Next in abundance is hemicellul ose, which is around 20% in deciduous trees but near 30% in conifers. It is main ly five-carbon sugars that are linked in an irregular manner, in contrast to the cellulose. Lignin is the third component at around 27% in coniferous wood vs 23 % in deciduous trees. Lignin confers the hydrophobic properties reflecting the f act that it is based on aromatic rings. These three components are interwoven, a nd direct covalent linkages exist between the lignin and the hemicellulose. A ma jor focus of the paper industry is the separation of the lignin from the cellulo se, from which paper is made. In chemical terms, the difference between hardwood and softwood is reflected in the composition of the constituent lignin. Hardwood lignin is primarily derived from sinapyl alcohol and coniferyl alcohol. Softwood lignin is mainly derived fr om coniferyl alcohol.[13] Extractives Aside from the lignocellulose, wood consists of a variety of low molecular weigh t organic compounds, called extractives. The wood extractives are fatty acids, r esin acids, waxes and terpenes.[14] For example, rosin is exuded by conifers as protection from insects. The extraction of these organic materials from wood pro vides tall oil, terpentine, and rosin.[15] Uses Fuel Main article: Wood fuel

Wood has a long history of being used as fuel, which continues to this day, most ly in rural areas of the world. Hardwood is preferred over softwood because it c reates less smoke and burns longer. Adding a woodstove or fireplace to a home is often felt to add ambiance and warmth.[16] The churches of Kizhi, Russia are among a handful of World Heritage Sites built entirely of wood, without metal joints. See Kizhi Pogost for more details. The complex carpentry of the Centre Pompidou-Metz museum, Metz. The Saitta House, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York built in 1899 is made of an d decorated in wood.[17] Construction Wood has been an important construction material since humans began building she lters, houses and boats. Nearly all boats were made out of wood until the late 1 9th century, and wood remains in common use today in boat construction. Wood to be used for construction work is commonly known as lumber in North Ameri ca. Elsewhere, lumber usually refers to felled trees, and the word for sawn plan ks ready for use is timber. New domestic housing in many parts of the world today is commonly made from timb er-framed construction. Engineered wood products are becoming a bigger part of t he construction industry. They may be used in both residential and commercial bu ildings as structural and aesthetic materials.

In buildings made of other materials, wood will still be found as a supporting m aterial, especially in roof construction, in interior doors and their frames, an d as exterior cladding. Wood is also commonly used as shuttering material to form the mould into which c oncrete is poured during reinforced concrete construction. Furniture and utensils Wood has always been used extensively for furniture, such as chairs and beds. Al so for tool handles and cutlery, such as chopsticks, toothpicks, and other utens ils, like the wooden spoon. Engineered wood Wood can be cut into straight planks and made into a wood flooring. Engineered wood products, glued building products "engineered" for application-s pecific performance requirements, are often used in construction and industrial applications. Glued engineered wood products are manufactured by bonding togethe r wood strands, veneers, lumber or other forms of wood fiber with glue to form a larger, more efficient composite structural unit.[18] These products include gl ued laminated timber (glulam), wood structural panels (including plywood, orient ed strand board and composite panels), laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and other s tructural composite lumber (SCL) products, parallel strand lumber, and I-joists. [18] Approximately 100 million cubic meters of wood was consumed for this purpos e in 1991.[2] The trends suggest that particle board and fiber board will overta ke plywood. Engineered wood products display highly predictable and reliable performance cha racteristics and provide enhanced design flexibility: on one hand, these product s allow the use of smaller pieces, and on the other hand, they allow for bigger spans. They may also be selected for specific projects such as public swimming p

ools or ice rinks where the wood will not deteriorate in the presence of certain chemicals, and are less susceptible to the humidity changes commonly found in t hese environments. Engineered wood products prove to be more environmentally friendly and, if used appropriately, are often less expensive than building materials such as steel or concrete. These products are extremely resource-efficient because they use more of the available resource with minimal waste. In most cases, engineered wood pr oducts are produced using faster growing and often underutilized wood species fr om managed forests and tree farms.[19] Wood unsuitable for construction in its native form may be broken down mechanica lly (into fibers or chips) or chemically (into cellulose) and used as a raw mate rial for other building materials, such as engineered wood, as well as chipboard , hardboard, and medium-density fiberboard (MDF). Such wood derivatives are wide ly used: wood fibers are an important component of most paper, and cellulose is used as a component of some synthetic materials. Wood derivatives can also be us ed for kinds of flooring, for example laminate flooring. Next generation wood products Further developments include new lignin glue applications, recyclable food packa ging, rubber tire replacement applications, anti-bacterial medical agents, and h igh strength fabrics or composites.[20] As scientists and engineers further lear n and develop new techniques to extract various components from wood, or alterna tively to modify wood, for example by adding components to wood, new more advanc ed products will appear on the marketplace. In the arts Artists can use wood to create delicate sculptures. Stringed instrument bows are often made from pernambuco or brazilwood. Main article: Wood as a medium Wood has long been used as an artistic medium. It has been used to make sculptur es and carvings for millennia. Examples include the totem poles carved by North American indigenous people from conifer trunks, often Western Red Cedar (Thuja p licata), and the Millennium clock tower,[21] now housed in the National Museum o f Scotland[22] in Edinburgh. It is also used in woodcut printmaking, and for engraving. Certain types of musical instruments, such as those of the violin family, the gu itar, the clarinet and recorder, the xylophone, and the marimba, are made mostly or entirely of wood. The choice of wood may make a significant difference to th e tone and resonant qualities of the instrument, and tonewoods have widely diffe ring properties, ranging from the hard and dense african blackwood (used for the bodies of clarinets) to the light but resonant European spruce (Picea abies) (t raditionally used for the soundboards of violins). The most valuable tonewoods, such as the ripple sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), used for the backs of violins , combine acoustic properties with decorative color and grain which enhance the appearance of the finished instrument. Despite their collective name, not all woodwind instruments are made entirely of wood. The reeds used to play them, however, are usually made from Arundo donax, a type of monocot cane plant. Sports and recreational equipment Many types of sports equipment are made of wood, or were constructed of wood in

the past. For example, cricket bats are typically made of white willow. The base ball bats which are legal for use in Major League Baseball are frequently made o f ash wood or hickory, and in recent years have been constructed from maple even though that wood is somewhat more fragile. In softball, however, bats are more commonly made of aluminium (this is especially true for fastpitch softball). Many other types of sports and recreation equipment, such as skis, ice hockey st icks, lacrosse sticks and archery bows, were commonly made of wood in the past, but have since been replaced with more modern materials such as aluminium, fiber glass, carbon fiber, titanium, and composite materials. One noteworthy example o f this trend is the golf club commonly known as the wood, the head of which was traditionally made of persimmon wood in the early days of the game of golf, but is now generally made of synthetic materials. Medicine In January 2010 Italian scientists announced that wood could be harnessed to bec ome a bone substitute. It is likely to take at least five years until this techn ique will be applied for humans.[23] The wood species mentioned here, are the most commonly used in our own productio n. It should be noticed that wood is UNIQUE, and there are no two pieces of woo d that are exactly the same, so when dealing with natural products it is importa nt to remember that there can be variations, and especially there are differenci es in appearance between flatsawn and quartersawn wood in appearance, strengths and stability. also there are differencess even within a small region, and even within a single tree. Wood is a wonderful material, and it is selfsustaining when grown in well manage d forests. International désigns Woodworking Corp. Phone: (+632) 813 - 8178 Fax: (+632) 813 - 8176 [email protected] PHILIPPINE ROSEWOOD Scientific Name: Petersianthus Quadrialatus Weight:Abt 650 Kgs/m3 Color:Very Dark With Lighter Flames Naturally Occuring Description: Philippine Rosewood is a very beautiful dark and flamy wood. It has for many years been used for local boatmaking due to it's strength and durabili ty. We have introduced this species for interiors and flooring. TEAK Weight:Abt 600kgs. Color:Brown Scientific Name:Tectona Grandis Description:Teak is one of the world's best timbers. It's usage is multiple, but mainly furniture, decking, and various kitchen accessories. Especially well sui ted for outdoor use. PHILIPPINE MAHOGANY Scientific Name: Shorea Negrosensis Weight:Abt 500kgs/m3 Description: Also known as Lauan, the Philippine Mahogany is considered the very

best in Asia. - The types growing in LUZON are generally harder and darker, whi le MINDANAO origin is a lighter and milder type.. YAKAL Scientific Name:Shorea Laevis Weight:Abt 700 Kgs/m3 Color:Yellow To Golden Red Description: Yakal is a hard and golden Mahogany type which is used for frequent ly used products and surfaces. Ideal for outdoor use also. ALMON - Red Mahogany Color: Uniform Light Red Weight: 450-500kgs/m3 Scientific Name: Shorea Almon Description:Almon grows in the southern island of Mindanao. It is uniform in col our and weight, and is mild and easy to work. BAGRAS - Southern Mahogany Weight:400-600kgs At 15% Color:Reddish / Brown Scientific Name:Eucalyptus Deglupta Description:Also known as Mindanao Gum or Rainbow Eucalyptus. Both natural and p lanation growth. - Furniture and cabinet making. BAGTICAN - WHITE LAUAN Color:Pale To Light Red Scientific Name: Shorea And Parashorea Weight:Abt 400-600kgs/m3 Description:Light red or white Lauan and Bagtikan species are widespread in the Philippines, but vary in weight from north to south. - Often used for joinery. IGEM Weight: 450-600kgs Scientific Name: Podocarpus Imbricatus Color: Light Yellow To White Description:Igem is mainly used as a Ramin replacement for mouldings and frames. MAHOGANY - (Plantation) Scientific Name: Swietenica Macrophylla Color: Redbrownish With Orange Tone Weight: Abt 500kgs/m3 At 12% M.c. Description: Swietenia Mahogany has been planted in the Philippines since the 70 ies. Originating in Brazil, where it is now an endangered species, this plantati on species can now be aquired on sustainable basis. It may contain some small fi rm knots, but is available in good quality for furniture purposes. ACACIA (road side) Color:Dark Brown, With Very Distingt Sap Wood (yellow) Weight: Abt. 4-500kgs/m3 Scientific Name:Acacia Auriculaeformi, Racosperma Aurculiforme Description:The Acasia grows wild everywhere in the Philippines, and is often us ed for local handicrafts, and especilly suited for turning into bowls and plates . ACACIA MANGIUM Weight: 545kgs At 12% Color:Pale Brown With Very Light Sapwood Scientific Name:Acacia Mangium Willd. Leguminosae (mimosoideae) Description:The sapwood of mangium is narrow and pale yellow to light brown, whi

le the heartwood is olive brown to gray brown, with darker streaks. It is hard, with a medium texture, strong and durable (not in contact with the ground). The grain shows an interlocked figure radially, but looks straight on the flatsawn s urface NARRA Scientific Name: Pterocarpus Indicus Weight: Abt 600 Kgs/m3 Color:Deep Orange Golden To Darker Red Tones Description:Narra is considered the most valuable wood in the Philippines, and i s therefore very restricted. Special permits are required for export of finished products. - Most often used for furniture, flooring, and panels. PILI Scientific Name:Canarium Luzonicum Weight: Abt 500kgs/m3 Color: Whitish, Light Brown Description:Fruit tree with a nut fruit, also sometimes called olive. Found main ly in the Philippines. Common in primary forests and low and medium altitudes. C ommon names: Antang, kedondong, piling-liitan, belis, malapili COCONUT WOOD Scientific Name: Cocos Nucifera Color:Brown Weight: Abt 600kgs/m3 Description: Coconut is very widespread all over the Philippines, and it used ex tensively in the local construction industry. - It is a very hard wood which is excellent for turning into small bowls, jewelry accessories, but also used for c utting boards, flooring and much more GMELINA (White Teak) Weight: Abt. 400 Kgs At 12% M.c. Color: Pale, Light Color Scientific Name: Gmelina Aborea Description: One of the most used plantation species in the Philippines. Widely used for fingerjointed and edgeglued materials for shelves, furniture parts, and mouldings OAK Scientific Name: Quercus Rob. Weight:About 600kgs/m3 Color: Pale/light Description:Our Oak primarily comes from Northern Europe and is lighter in colou r, and more dense than it's North American equivalent. Lead time for production in Oak will most often be about 6 months, until produciton is stable, after whic h 3 months production time is normal. BEECH WOOD Color:Pale White. Scientific Name:Fagus Grandifolia Description:Mostly closed, straight grain; fine, uniform texture. Our Beech come s from Northern and Central Europe. CHERRY Color:Golden Light Brown Scientific Name:Prunus, Serotina Description:North American Cherry is one of Americas favorite cabinet and furnit ure woods, prized for its rich reddish color and fine graining. MAPLE

Color:Creamy White To Light Reddish Brown Scientific Name:Acer Saccharum Description:American white Maple is widely used for furniture, and is often used for very pale products with a soft sanded surface. SANTOL Scientific Name: Sandoricum Koetjape Weight: Abt 500 Kgs/m3 Color: Light Brown Description:heartwood is pale reddish-brown when dry, imparting the color to wat er. It is fairly hard, moderately heavy, close-grained and polishes well. It is plentiful, easy to saw and work, and accordingly popular. If carefully seasoned, it can be employed for house-posts, interior construction, light-framing, barre ls, cabinetwork, boats, carts, sandals, butcher's blocks, household utensils and carvings. When burned, the wood emits an aromatic scent. MOUNTAIN PINE Scientific Name: Pinus Color:Light Reddish Weight: Abt 350-400kgs/m3 Description:Pine is grown above 1000 meters in the Philippines. - It is relative ly fast grown, but we are able to offer most of our products free of knots.

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