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WOOD
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Below is a brief description of the types of woods I typically use for projects ...
WALNUT (domestic)... Walnut is very popular with woodworkers. The warmth of it's color and the beauty of it's grain, combined with it's workability, stability, availability, and affordability is unsurpassed. It can be used as an accent or as the primary element.
PAU FERRO (exotic)... as my website would indicate is one of my favourite woods. It is very hard and is highly variable in color and grain pattern. Pau Ferro has a spectacular contrast between the heartwood and sapwood, which I very often use contrast in my my work.
SAPELE...Often mistaken for a kind of mahogany, sapele is darker and heavier than mahogany. It also tends to have more color variation. Sapele has a tight interlocking grain pattern which can result in a change in color depending how the light hits it. All of these qualities, along with its workability make Sapele a wonderful wood to build with.
MAPLE (domestic)... Maple is a "go to" wood for woodworkers looking for a light wood. It has all of the benefits of walnut, but is much lighter in color. It has the added benefit of coming in many dramatic grain patterns (see figured maple).
FIGURED MAPLE (domestic)... Figured maples are those with a different grain pattern than plain. Some of the varieties are flame maple, tiger maple, curly maple, ripple maple, quilted maple, striped maple, and others. Again, they have basically the same physical properties as plain maple, but are highly desired and priced for their beautiful grain patterns.
CHERRY (domestic)... Cherry has all of the qualities of walnut, but is lighter in color. If one doesn't want a dark or a light wood, and prefers a medium colored wood, Cherry is the perfect choice. Cherry has the distinguishing characteristic of developing a darker, richer color tone with age.
WENGE (exotic) ...is a heavy, hard, dark wood, sometimes almost black. It is more difficult to work with than other more common woods, but it provides a perfect contrast to virtually any wood because of its dark color.
ZEBRANO (exotic) ..or zebrawood, is harder to work with than many woods because of the different properties between the light and dark bands. It is quite hard and can be unstable, but its striking light/dark grain pattern make it spectacular regardless of its application.
CANARYWOOD...often displays beautiful shades of yellow and red when freshly cut. As it ages the "bright" colors becomes more subdued, although they retain their contrast. Canarywood is has excellent workability and is a wonderful wood to work with..
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