About | The 1812 Shoppe

The Woods I Use

"If we're going to cut a tree down, then make sure what we make out of it is the very best we can make out of it. Keep the spirit of the tree alive."

Eric Hollenbeck - Blue Ox Millworks

I work with a wide variety of woods that are available for you to mix, match, and choose from for your project.

Wood is a renewable sustainable resource. Building something special from wood promises that the beauty of the trees it came from can be preserved forever; as a finished wood product it even provides a little known but valuable environmental benefit of trapping the carbon those trees took in over their lifetime - that's a beautiful thing too. The harvest of a tree makes room for new trees to grow from seed and other trees room to grow, to be healthy and vigorous; it's what makes them renewable and sustainable. Most of the lumber I use is sawn from hardwood trees that were harvested or salvaged from the forests of New York and Pennsylvania, including from my own woodlot. I hand pick most of the logs from those trees, which I then have sawn to my specifications and dry it for several years before use. When ready, every board is precisely milled from rough form to finished form to produce the pieces needed for your project revealing the beauty within. Decades of assessing and working with trees, logs, and lumber has helped me develop a deeper understanding of the characteristics of wood and helped me become that much better at working it.

The pictures below represent the domestic species common to the northeastern U.S. that I use most often. I really appreciate, embrace, and tend to work with the natural color of wood in the majority of my work as shown in the pictures below, but stains can be applied at your discretion, and samples can be provided upon request. If an exotic species or figured wood is preferred for a project, it can be acquired as available.

I invite you to visit the Store where you can find these woods used in the finished products I build, but if you click on the picture of each type of wood next to its description it will take you directly to a specific product made with it.

[Click on the images below to learn more about that type of wood.]

Dark Toned Woods

Warm Toned Woods

Red Toned Woods

Light Toned Woods

Figured Woods

Ash

Predominantly has warm white to light yellowish color with brown heartwood. The heart can vary in size producing a range in shades of brown. Accepts stain well. Its grain is quite pronounced and distinctive, which is really bold when stained. Sadly, ash is on its way to becoming nearly extinct due to the massive infestation throughout its range in the US of the emerald ash borer which is killing all of our native ash trees - an invasive species from China. Strength: very high. Hardness: very high - 1320 Janka scale.

Ash (Tamo)

This variety of ash has a highly figured grain pattern. It is very very rare. This grain character is typically found in an ash species native to Japan. It was my great fortune to acquire this lumber from a native ash tree in upstate NY many years ago and have not encountered anything like it since - my supply is limited and reserved to smaller projects. It is quite beautiful, but challenging to mill because the grain is oriented in three different directions making it prone to tear out requiring a certain amount of finesse to get it smooth. Already rare, there will be an even lower chance of finding more because of the emerald ash borer. Strength: very high. Hardness: very high - 1320 Janka scale.

Beech (Spalted)

This stunningly beautiful black, brown, tan, and honey toned streaking, referred to as spalting, found in white wood like beech, is the discoloration that forms in the first stage of wood decay. Logs or dead standing trees salvaged from the woods after being left for a couple of years or more typically yield this kind of streaking. Once sawn and dried, the decay process is halted. The density of the streaking depends on how advanced the decay is and must be sawn at just the right time to capture it before the wood becomes soft and punky. Despite halting the decay process, the wood often loses some of its strength and hardness as a result. My supply is limited and reserved to smaller projects. Strength: high to moderate. Hardness: moderate to low - 1000-1300 Janka scale.

Birch

Birch has a range of color from lighter blonde/gold color with strawberry blonde/reddish heartwood. The heart can vary in size producing a range in shades of red or brown, especially in larger/older trees. Accepts stain well. There are several specie varieties, but the most common ones for lumber are yellow, black (sweet), and white (paper) birch. Strength: very high. Hardness: high - 1260 Janka scale.

Butternut

Predominantly has a warm light to medium brown heartwood color with a narrow white outer sapwood. A close cousin to black walnut it is sometimes referred to as white walnut. Unfortunately, butternut is becoming more and more rare due to a disease that is decimating the population. My supply is limited and reserved to smaller projects or as an accent in larger projects. Strength: low. Hardness: very low - 490 Janka scale.

Cherry

Predominantly has a pink to reddish heartwood color with a narrow white outer sapwood. The red will deepen over time. Occasionally, some faint greenish hued streaking can be found following the grain pattern that surprisingly adds some appealing character. While the natural color is beautiful on its own, there is often a wide range in the color; unless that variability is desirable it may be prudent to apply stain for larger projects to even out the color. An iconic species, it is quite beautiful. Strength: moderate. Hardness: moderate - 950 Janka scale.

Elm, Red

Predominantly has a reddish/orange to honey brown heartwood color with a narrow white outer sapwood. It is somewhat rare as red elm trees are not abundant. My supply is limited and reserved to smaller projects. Strength: moderate. Hardness: moderate - 860 Janka scale.

Hickory

Predominantly has a reddish brown to darker brown heartwood color with a narrow white outer sapwood. Accepts stain well. It is challenging to mill because it's extreme hardness and dulls blades quickly. Strength: very high. Hardness: extremely high - 1820 Janka scale.

Maple, Sugar/Hard

Predominantly has creamy white color with brown heartwood. The heart can vary in size producing a range in shades of brown. The grain lines in the white wood tend to be fine with a hue ranging from a light pinkish to brownish. Maple accepts stain but its dense tight grain makes it difficult to achieve uniform color, which may be more noticeable on larger projects, sometimes requiring additional conditioning and/or using a different color process. Strength: very high. Hardness: very high - 1450 Janka scale.

Maple (Birds Eye)

Birds eye maple is a uniquely figured wood characterized by the small eye-like shaped wood formations. The figure density varies from light to heavy and is mostly found in the white wood of sugar maple. The "eyes" typically form in trees growing in unfavorable conditions where the tree, in attempt to get more sunlight, puts out new shoots from dormant buds in the wood, which due to the poor growing conditions are aborted; the small eye shaped branch knots left behind are grown over and absorbed into the wood. My supply is limited and reserved to smaller projects or as an accent in larger projects. Birds eye maple is found rarely in a very few number of trees. It is mostly put made into veneer. Strength: high. Hardness: very high - 1450 Janka scale.

Maple (Spalted)

This stunningly beautiful black, brown, and tan streaking, referred to as spalting, found in white wood like maple, is the discoloration that forms in the first stage of wood decay. Logs or dead standing trees salvaged from the woods after being left for a couple of years or more typically yield this kind of streaking. Once sawn and dried, the decay process is halted. The density of the streaking depends on how advanced the decay is and must be sawn at just the right time to capture it before the wood becomes soft and punky. Despite halting the decay process, the wood often loses some of its strength and hardness as a result. My supply is limited and reserved to smaller projects. Strength: moderate to very low. Hardness: moderate to low - 500-700 Janka scale.

Maple (Tiger)

Tiger maple is a beautifully figured wood that resembles tiger stripes or is washboard like (often referred to as "curly" by the industry). The figure density varies from light to heavy and is mostly found in the white wood. It can be found in sugar maple and other species but is typically found in red/soft maple. Because of the abundance of maple trees, it can be found quite often, but is still quite unique. My supply is limited and reserved to smaller projects or as an accent in larger projects. While a white wood and very closely related to sugar maple, the heartwood of red maple tends to be blackish/grey and not that desirable. Tiger maple is highly sought after by guitar and violin makers. Strength: high. Hardness: moderate - 950 Janka scale.

Oak, Red

Predominantly has a warm light pinkish/brown heartwood color with a narrow white outer sapwood. Accepts stain well. Its grain is quite pronounced and distinctive, which is really bold when stained. It is one of the most abundant hardwood species in the world, but the timber growing in the northern US, especially in NY has some of the best natural color; the timber growing south of NY and northern PA tend to be duller and more often is better suited for staining. Strength: very high. Hardness: high - 1220 Janka scale.

Oak, Red (Ray Flecked)

Commonly referred to by the industry as "quarter sawn", when sawn from the inside out by splitting the log into quarters, the grain appears as straight lines (inset picture). There are cell structures in the tree called rays that radiate out from its center. Sawing this way exposes the sides of these rays producing small flecks of figure. It requires a lot of handling to saw logs in this manner and is usually special ordered or just luck of the draw when conventional sawing hits the grain just right producing an occasional board with the ray fleck. My supply is limited, but it can be acquired. Strength: very high. Hardness: high - 1220 Janka scale.

Oak, White

Predominantly has a medium light brown or tan/brown heartwood color with a narrow white outer sapwood. Accepts stain well. Its grain is quite pronounced and distinctive, which is really bold when stained. White oak is highly sought after for making whiskey and wine barrels, because it leak proof, but allows small amounts of oxygen to penetrate which is desirable for the aging process and its chemical properties stabilize the color of the liquid. In the case of whiskey, charring the inside of the barrel enhances the aroma and flavor. Strength: very high. Hardness: very high- 1335 Janka scale.

Oak, White (Tiger)

Commonly referred to by the industry as "quarter sawn", when sawn from the inside out by splitting the log into quarters, the grain appears as straight lines (inset picture). There are cell structures in the tree called rays that radiate out from its center. Sawing this way exposes the sides of these rays producing the wavy fleck figure that appears like tiger stripes. These rays are quite pronounced like this in white oak. The density of the figure varies. It requires a lot of handling to saw logs in this manner and is usually special ordered or just luck of the draw when conventional sawing hits the grain just right producing an occasional board with the ray fleck. My supply is limited, but it can be acquired. Strength: very high. Hardness: very high - 1335 Janka scale.

Poplar

Also called tulip or yellow poplar. Predominantly has white to yellow/green color with a variably colored heartwood. The heart can vary in size producing a range of colors that include green, gray, purple, or a blend. While it can be used no differently than any other species in a project, other than the occasional heartwood color that might be unique, its grain is not very interesting. It does, however, accept stain and paint well making it ideal to be used where structure (drawer interiors, painted shelving, for example) is more important than beauty from grain or natural color. Strength: moderate. Hardness: low- 540 Janka scale.

Sumac

Sumac is not a traditional woodworking species. In fact it is not really even a tree; it is more of a non-commercial shrub, the largest only growing to about 6 inches in diameter. But, it can be sawn into lumber and has beautiful green color with streaks of orange and yellow. It is ideal as an accent wood in small projects. Strength: moderate. Hardness: low- 680 Janka scale.

Sycamore, Lacewood

Commonly referred to by the industry as "quarter sawn", when sawn from the inside out by splitting the log into quarters, the grain appears as straight lines (inset picture). There are cell structures in the tree called rays that radiate out from its center. Sawing this way exposes the sides of these rays producing a range of fleck figure that appears petite and lace like. These rays are quite pronounced like this in sycamore. The density of the figure varies. It requires a lot of handling to saw logs in this manner and is usually special ordered or just luck of the draw when conventional sawing hits the grain just right producing an occasional board with the ray fleck. My supply is limited, but it can be acquired. Strength: very high. Hardness: low - 770 Janka scale.

Walnut

Predominantly has a deep rich brown heartwood color with a narrow white outer sapwood. The depth of the color can range from light brown to a deep brown; sometimes it can take on a purplish hue or even reddish/purple streaks can be found in the grain. An iconic species, it is quite beautiful. Strength: moderate. Hardness: moderate - 1010 Janka scale.