Cherry
The heartwood of cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and exposure to light. In contrast, the sapwood is creamy white. The wood has a fine uniform, closed straight grain, satiny, smooth texture and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets. The wood is of medium density and strength.
Hickory
Hickory is the hardest, heaviest and strongest American wood. The sapwood of hickory is white, tinged with inconspicuous fine brown lines while the heartwood is pale to reddish brown. Both are coarse-textured and the open fine grain is usually straight but can be wavy or irregular.
Rustic Hickory
Rustic hickory is the same as hickory except mineral streaks, knots, pitch pockets and other natural character marks and defects are allowed to give it that rustic look and feel.
Hard Maple
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. The wood is hard and heavy with good strength properties.
Birds-Eye Maple
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. The wood is hard and heavy with good strength properties.
Poplar
The sapwood is creamy white and may be streaked, with the heartwood varying from pale yellowish brown to olive green. The green color in the heartwood will tend to darken on exposure to light and turn brown. The wood has a medium to fine texture and is straight-grained. The wood has a medium density.
Red Oak
The sapwood of red oak is white to light brown and the heartwood is a pinkish reddish brown. The wood is similar in general appearance to white oak, but with slightly less pronounced figure due to the smaller rays. The wood is mostly straight-grained, with a coarse texture. The wood is strong, hard and heavy.
White Oak
The sapwood is light-colored and the heartwood is light to dark brown. White oak is mostly straight-grained with a medium to coarse texture, with longer rays than the red oak. White oak therefore has more figure. The wood is hard and heavy.
Quarter Sawn Oak
Quarter sawn is the way that the wood is cut, the wood will still have the characteristics of the red or white oak whichever one you are using. The log is cut lengthwise into quarters, then into a series of parallel cuts, with the middle cut being perpendicular to the tree’s rings.
Walnut
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. 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. Walnut is a tough hardwood of medium density.
Glossary
Figure – Any distinctive appearance on a longitudinal wood surface resulting from anatomical structure, irregular coloration or defects.
Gum Pocket – An excessive local accumulation of resin or gum in the wood.
Heartwood – The wood from the pith extending to the sapwood, darker in color due to gum, resins and other materials which make it less susceptible to rot.
Mineral Streaking – Mineral deposits formed in the wood as the tree extracts nutrients from the soil. These deposits cause blackish-blue streaks in the grain.
Pitch Pocket – A typically lens-shaped space, containing liquid or solid resin that extends parallel to the annual growth ring in certain coniferous woods.
Pith – The soft core in the center of a log.
Sapwood – The lighter colored wood on the outside of a log, this wood is more susceptible to rot than the heartwood.