Custom Woodworks Wood Choices

Red oak is a very popular hardwood, chosen for its traditional, coarse-textured look, as well as its excellent durability and strength. The Latin name for oak, Quercus, means "a fine tree." The oaks have been key in America's industrial transformation: railroad ties, wheels, plows, looms, barrels, floors and, of course, cabinetry. It accepts stain consistently and wears very well over time, making red oak a good choice for cabinetry that will see heavy everyday use. Natural color varies from yellow to pale brown, often with a light reddish tint.
* see description of quartersawing at bottom of webpage

White oak, much like red oak-is hard and strong, providing outstanding wear-resistance. White oak is impervious to liquids, and has been used extensively for ship timbers, barrels, and caskets. White Oak has a finer texture than Red Oak and is mostly straight-grained with a medium to coarse texture. White oak has longer rays than red oak, therefore it has more quarter sawn figure. Quarter sawn lumber has dramatic figured called tiger oak and is used extensively in the arts and crafts style furniture. It has a medium-coarse to coarse texture and varies in color from light tan to nearly white or light grey. The heartwood is decay resistant and suitable for exterior uses.
* see discription of quartersawing at bottom of webpage

Cherry is a dense, even-grained wood, widely considered to be the finest of the fruitwoods. It is prized for its beauty and is considered an excellent choice for both formal and casual applications. Natural coloration varies from a light cream to a dark reddish brown; however, cherry can darken considerably with exposure to light and age, developing a deep, rich patina over the course of several years. The wood has a fine uniform, straight grain, satiny, smooth texture, and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets.

Soft maple is a straight-grained, fine-textured wood. And despite its confusing name, it's actually a hardwood. Derived from red or silver maple trees, soft maple is not as durable as its hard maple cousin, but is more capable of accepting stain. Soft maple is about 25 percent less hard than hard maple. Soft maple has roughly the same density as cherry, with colors usually ranging from light cream to pale brown with occasional dark streaks.

Hickory is the hardest, heaviest and strongest woods found in the United States. It's a close-grained wood that's often nearly white in color. The grain pattern is fine, usually straight but can be wavy or irregular and welcomes a full range of medium-to-dark finishes. The sapwood of hickory is white, tinged with inconspicuous fine brown lines while the heartwood is pale to reddish brown.

Walnut is a dense wood, ranging in color from light to deep chocolate brown. The sapwood of walnut is creamy white, while the heartwood is light brown to dark chocolate brown, occasionally with a purplish cast and darker streaks. The wood is generally straight-grained, but sometimes with wavy or curly grain that produces an attractive and decorative figure. The wood develops a rich patina that grows more lustrous with age. The black walnut tree produces one of the finest cabinet woods. Slow growing and highly desired, walnut is more expensive than many other woods.

Hardwoods and Softwoods
There are two major types of wood used in furniture manufacturing-hardwoods and softwoods. Softwoods are less durable than hardwoods but more plentiful, partly because they tend to grow at a much faster rate. They're also less expensive, providing a preferable alternative to particle or fiberboard. Common softwoods include pine, fir, spruce and cedar.

Known for their strength and durability, hardwoods are usually found in higher-quality furniture. At Custom Woodworks we only use slow-growth hardwood, chosen for the greater density typical of wood grown in colder climates. Grown and harvested right here in the USA, the use of these beautiful American hardwoods helps support the US economy without adding to the problem of rainforest depletion. Choose from red oak, white oak, soft maple, hard maple, cherry, hickory, walnut and more.

Distinguishing Finish from Wood
Sometimes things are not as they appear. For example, "cherry finish" may mean only that a piece of cabinetry has a reddish stain or a finish similar to cherry wood, even though it contains no real cherry at all. We don't do that. If you're in the market for solid hardwood cabinetry, ask for it by name.

Birch is generally straight-grained with a fine uniform texture characterized by a plain and often curly or wavy pattern. Birch has a white sapwood and light reddish brown heartwood. Red Birch is not a species at all, but rather refers to the heart stock of the birch. The appearance of the wood will vary between species, but generally, the sap wood is creamy white and the heart stock, golden brown. The wood is mostly white but as it nears the core will show brown flame patterns, with white sap edges.. quite dramatic. All birch has a fine and uniform texture, closed pored and spalting is very common.

Plain Sawn Lumber
Plain-sawn hardwood boards are produced by cutting tangentially to a tree's growth rings, creating the familiar "flame-shaped" or "cathedral" grain found in most hardwood flooring and millwork. This method also produces the most lumber from each log, making plain-sawn lumber a cost-effective design choice.

Quartersawing Method
Quartersawing is simply a cutting method used to achieve a finished appearance different from the typical flatsawing technique. This method yields fewer and narrower boards per log than plain sawing. Quartersawing involves cutting a log into quarters, then cutting boards alternately from the two flat sides of each quarter. This process produces a combination of parallel line patterns and varied figuring that many builders of fine wood furniture and cabinetry find appealing. Oak cut in this manner is commonly called "tiger oak" and is traditionally found in the Arts & Crafts style of furniture.

Rift Sawn Lumber
Rift sawing at a 30-degree or greater angle to the growth rings produces narrow boards with accentuated vertical or "straight" grain patterns. Rift-sawn boards are often favored for fine furniture and other applications where matching grain is important.

Sawing Methods, Moisture Content and Dimensional Change
A product of nature, hardwoods respond to changes in relative humidity by exchanging moisture with their environment. Plain-, quarter-, and rift-sawn boards react differently to these changes. Because hardwoods are more dimensionally stable across the grain, plain-sawn lumber expands and contracts more than quarter-sawn hardwood boards, which have a more vertical grain pattern. Likewise, quarter-sawn lumber, with its emphasized vertical grain, shrinks and swells less than rift-sawn hardwood boards.

Wood Choices
Custom Woodworks cabinetry is available in any wood species, you can even use wood from your own land which is a feature that stock cabinetry can never offer.

The wood species below are the most popular domestic hardwoods but more are available. Domestic softwoods are also available such as knotty pine, pine, douglas fir, white pine, and radiata pine. Domestic softwoods, however, are not recommended because of durability issues with the softness of the wood. If you are looking for a knotty pine, Custom Woodworks recommends Alder or a rustic Hickory. For our customers with more exotic tastes, we also can construct cabinetry using a wide array of imported species.