Birch
Betula lutea

Birch is especially popular for furniture, fixtures, fine cabinets, flooring, doors, and interior trim. Birch is also one of the most popular of the decorative woods available in plywood form. Birch veneer is used extensively in cabinets and furniture.

Moderately heavy, hard and strong, excellent machining and finishing characteristics, wood closed porous, annual growth well marked, heartwood is reddish-brown, sapwood is yellowish-white with a trace of pink. 

Ponderosa Pine
Pinus ponderosa

Because of the huge supply available, the ease with which the wood is worked and its excellent dimensional stability, ponderosa pine is our most important planing mill species. Many large sash and door plants use it almost exclusively. On-the-job fitting of sash, doors, cabinets, trim and mouldings is relatively easy because the wood yields readily to hand tools.
Most ponderosa pine is painted, but there is an increasing tendency to finish it with varnish or lacquer. Clean looking and attractive in its natural color, it accepts stains remarkably well, especially the gelled stains, which do no cause blotching.

A lightweight wood with straight grain and fine, even texture. Machines to a good, clean surface and is slightly resinous. Heartwood is light tan, sometimes with an almost orange cast. Sapwood is white. 

Poplar
Liriodendron tulipifera

Poplar is soft enough to be a favorite wood for working with hand tools. Few woods are more desirable for paint and enamel finishes, and Poplar can be stained to simulate more costly woods in clear finishes. Poplar has been used for almost every conceivable purpose, limited only by lack of strength for some requirements. Used for painted and stained furniture, patterns, kitchenware, musical instruments and toys.

Moderately soft, low density, texture fairly fine and uniform, close-grained, small pores, diffuse porous, annual growth distinct to indistinct, heartwood pale olive-brown to yellow-brown with dark streaks, sapwood off-white to grayish-white, wood works well with either hand or machine tools and is relatively stable. 

Red Oak
Quercus rubra

Almost any article that can be made of wood has been manufactured from Red Oak. A popular decorative and furniture wood, Red Oak is prized for soft texture as well as for workability. Red Oak is attractive, durable and requires minimal care. No other wood is as handsome and lasting for residential flooring. Red Oak is not waterproof.

Very hard, heavy and strong, fairly easy to work, density considered, turns, carves and bends well, sanding and finishing qualities and stability excellent, wood ring porous, heartwood not particularly durable under conditions of decay. 

Cherry
Prunus serotina

Woodworking Uses
Cherry is a premier American cabinet wood which used to rank second to Walnut, but has been outselling Walnut for the past 3-4 years.

Moderately heavy, hard and strong, machines and sands to glass-like smoothness, tree is deciduous; wood diffuse porous and close-grained, annual growth visible but not pronounced, with exceptional stability, heartwood reddish-brown, sometimes with greenish cast; sapwood yellowish-white.

Maple Soft
Acer rubrum

Woodworkers often request Soft Maple as a lower cost alternative to the very popular Hard Maple. The furniture industry consumes large quantities of Soft Maple as a secondary wood. Odorless and tasteless, this specie is suitable for food containers.

Medium density, hardness and strength, machining and finishing properties are good, good stability, fine texture, close-grained, wood does not require filling, annual growth inconspicuous, heartwood color varies from pale tan to reddish-gray, sometimes streaked, sapwood is white to off-white. 

Walnut
Juglans nigra

One of our best carving woods; few woods respond more agreeably to both hand and machine tools. Unsurpassed finishing properties are so inherent that even an amateur finisher can expect excellent results. Used in fine furniture, fixtures and cabinets, and musical instrument cases. Durable, with a very high degree of dimensional stability.

Moderately dense and hard, strong in comparison to weight, excellent machining properties, superb finishing qualities, open pores require filling in conventional finishing, annual growth clearly marked, texture fine and even, polishes to high luster, heartwood variegated dark, chocolate brown, sometimes with purplish cast, sapwood nearly white. 

African Mahogany
Khaya Ivorensis

Wood connoisseurs regard genuine mahogany as superior in working, finishing, and other technical properties, while the wood of the African species tends to be more prominently ribbon-figured. It is not uncommon to see fine furniture in which the exposed structural parts are of genuine mahogany and the veneers are African mahogany.

The texture of African mahogany is slightly coarser than genuine mahogany and hense a little more absorbent. The same stain will produce different colors on the two.