General Description
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 develops a rich patina that grows more lustrous with age.  Walnut is usually supplied steamed, to darken sapwood.  The wood is generally straight-grained, but sometimes with wavy or curly grain that produces an attractive and decorative figure.  This species produces a greater variety of figure types than any other.

Working Properties
Walnut works easily with hand and machine tools, and nails, screws and glues well.  It holds paint and stain very well for an exceptional finish and is readily polished.  It dries slowly, and care is needed to avoid kiln degrade.  Walnut has good dimensional stability.

Physical Properties
Walnut is a tough hard timber of medium density, with moderate bending and crushing strengths and low stiffness.  It has a good steam bending classification.

Specific Gravity: 0.55 (12% M.C.)
Average Weight: 609 kg/m3 (12% M.C.)
Average Volumetric Shrinkage: 10.2% (Green to 6% M.C.)
Modulus of Elasticity: 11,584 MPa
Hardness: 4492 N

Availability
Reasonable availability with regional limitations, (1.9 percent of total U.S.  hardwoods commercially available).

Main Uses
Furniture, cabinets, architectural millwork, doors, flooring, paneling, and gun stocks.  A favored wood for using in contrast with lighter-colored species.

General Description
The heartwood of Cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and on exposure to light.  In contrast, the sapwood is creamy white.  The wood has a fine uniform, straight grain, satiny, smooth texture, and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets.

Working Properties
Cherry is easy to machine, nails and glues well and when sanded and stained, it produces an excellent smooth finish.  It dries fairly quickly with moderately high shrinkage, but is dimensionally stable after kiln-drying.

Physical Properties
The wood is of medium density with good wood bending properties, it has low stiffness and medium strength and shock resistance.

Specific Gravity: 0.50 (12% M.C.)
Average Weight: 561 kg/m3 (12% M.C.)
Average Volumetric Shrinkage: 9.2% (Green to 6% M.C.)
Modulus of Elasticity: 10,274 MPa
Hardness: 4226 N

Availability
Readily available, (3.9 percent of total U.S.  hardwoods commercially available).

Main Uses
Fine furniture and cabinet making, mouldings and millwork, kitchen cabinets, paneling, flooring, doors, boat interiors, musical instruments, turnings and carvings.
 

General Description
The sapwood is creamy white with a slight reddish brown tinge and the heartwood varies from light to dark reddish brown.  The amount of darker brown heartwood can vary significantly according to growing region.  Both sapwood and heartwood can contain pith fleck.  The wood has a close fine, uniform texture and is generally straight-grained, but it can also occur as "curly," "fiddleback," and "birds-eye" figure.

Working Properties
Hard Maple dries slowly with high shrinkage, so it can be susceptible to movement in performance.  Pre-boring is recommended when nailing and screwing.  With care it machines well, turns well, glues satisfactorily, and can be stained to an outstanding finish.  Polishes well and is suitable for enamel finishes and brown tones.

Physical Properties
The wood is hard and heavy with good strength properties, in particular its high resistance to abrasion and wear.  It also has good steam bending properties.

Specific Gravity: 0.63 (12% M.C.)
Average Weight: 705 kg/m3 (12% M.C.)
Average Volumetric Shrinkage: 11.9% (Green to 6% M.C.)
Modulus of Elasticity: 12,618 MPa
Hardness: 6450 N

Availability
Widely available, (4 percent of U.S.  hardwoods commercially available).  The higher quality grades of lumber are available selected for white color (sapwood) although this can limit availability.  Figured maple (birds-eye, curly, fiddleback) is generally only available in commercial volumes as veneer.

Main Uses
Flooring, furniture, paneling, ballroom and gymnasium floors, kitchen cabinets, worktops, table tops, butchers blocks, toys, kitchenware and millwork: stairs, handrails, mouldings, and doors.
 

General Description
The sapwood is light-colored to nearly white and the heartwood varies from greyish or light brown, to pale yellow streaked with brown.  The wood is generally straight-grained with a coarse uniform texture.  The degree and availability of light-colored sapwood, and other properties, will vary according to the growing regions.

Working Properties
Ash machines well, is good in nailing, screwing and gluing, and can be stained to a very good finish.  It dries fairly easily with minimal degrade, and there is little movement in performance.

Physical Properties
Ash has very good overall strength properties relative to its weight.  It has excellent shock resistance and is good for steam bending.

Specific Gravity: 0.60 (12% M.C.)
Average Weight: 673 kg/m3 (12% M.C.)
Average Volumetric Shrinkage: 10.7% (Green to 6% M.C.)
Modulus of Elasticity: 11,977 MPa
Hardness: 5871 N

Availability
Readily available, (4.6 percent of total U.S.  hardwoods commercially available).

Main Uses
Furniture, flooring, doors, architectural millwork and moulding, kitchen cabinets, paneling, tool handles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, billiard cues, skis, oars and turnings.