Hardwood
Hardwood
All of our hardwoods are locally sourced from small sawmills throughout Western PA. We take the utmost care to create as little waste as possible. The following list of hardwood species is certainly not exhaustive, but it represents most of the wood species we commonly work with.
Ash
Ash is a dense wood with a blonde tone. It’s getting harder to find because of the Emerald Ash Borer.
Cherry
Cherry is a fine grained wood with an orange to reddish tone. Because of its fine grain and relative softness it is often used for detailed work.
Maple
Maple is a light colored, fine grained wood that comes in hard and soft varieties—both of which are pretty hard.
Poplar
Poplar is the softest hardwood we use. It is straight grained and comes in a range of tones from light blond to greenish, and sometimes purplish which tends to turn grey over time. Because it is easy to work with, we typically use it for support material—subframes and strainers.
Red Oak
Walnut
Walnut is a highly prized wood with a beautiful grain and dark tone. Although it is toward the far end of the hardness spectrum it is very easy to work with.
White Oak
White oak is a very dense wood with a beautiful grain. It is a light to medium colored wood that is less pink than red oak It has a natural resistance to moisture which is why it was typically used in shipbuilding. When a lumber mill knows what they are doing they will typically quarter-saw it so that the grain is fine and straight—and they can charge more for it. We tend to use it for projects when we have to bend wood because it reacts so well to steam bending.
