Alabaster
Alabaster, quarried in both England and Italy, got its name from the Ancient Egyptian word “a-labaste”, which refers to vessels of the Egyptian goddess Bast. She was represented as a lioness and frequently depicted as such in figures placed atop these alabaster vessels.
Arizona Desert Ironwood
Arizona Desert Ironwood is in scarce supply due to its restricted distribution making prices for this wood extremely high for a domestic hardwood, or par with many high-end exotic imported hardwoods.
Aromatic Cedar
Cedar thrives in ridges, hills and mountains. It is an extremely hardy tree that will not warp or bend over time. It grows in cracks, clay and alluvial soils where other trees dare not venture. It grows in small clusters; one rarely sees a large forest of Cedar. It is also a natural insect repellent.
Black Palm
Black Palm comes from the tough outer rings of a palm tree native to Australia and Southeast Asia. Despite it being somewhat difficult and sometimes painful (bacon grease like feel) to work with, this wood makes for a phenomenal looking finished product.
Black Walnut
Black Walnut trees grow up to 150 feet with long, straight trunks up to a yard in diameter. Their black or dark gray bark is deeply marked with furrows and ridges. Their compound leaves, smooth on top and fuzzy underneath, can be up to 18” in length.
Bloodwood
The Bloodwood tree, originating from Brazil and Bolivia, can actually drop off a branch when times get tough in the desert to save energy. Dark red stock is getting harder to find. It is extremely dense and has a pronounced blunting effect on cutters.
Burl
I love working with burl. It is known to most as the deformed, unappealing knots on trees caused by injury, viruses or fungi. It is also found quite often in the twists of roots. Once the wood is turned down, the grain is a beautiful and unique swirling pattern.
Camphor
Camphor, native to southeast Asia and throughout tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, smells strongly of menthol when cut. Its color is generally light brown, frequently with shades of gray, red and olive green. Burls are commonly seen and are considered highly decorative. Its aromatic oils are used in both culinary and medicinal applications. Camphor is sometimes used in trunks and chest where valuables are stored as this wood wards off moths.
Cherry
Cherry wood is known for its distinctive color. Cherry trees grow in the eastern part of the United States, mainly the Appalachian Mountains, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. This wood is typically a light to dark reddish brown color and is a fairly heavy wood, averaging 35 pounds per cubic foot. This wood is used for carving and cabinetmaking.
Cocobolo
Cocobolo can be seen in a kaleidoscope of different colors, ranging from yellow, orange, red, and shades of brown with streaks of black or purple. It is in limited supply, and is also in relatively high demand, and is likely to be quite expensive. Cocobolo is one of today's most prized lumbers for its outstanding color and figure.
Cottonwood
Cottonwood trees can have a lifespan of 100 years. They are dioecious, which means they have male and female flowers on separate trees. The females produce the cottony covered seed while the males produce pollen.
Cypress Knees
Cypress Knees, generally seen on trees growing in swamps, are distinctive structures forming above the roots. These projections are sent above the normal water level, vertically from the roots. An early assumption of their function was that they provided oxygen to the roots that grow in the low dissolved oxygen waters typical of a swamp.
East Indian Ironwood
The East Indian Ironwood, an evergreen, is often planted as an ornamental for its fragrant white flowers that yield a perfume. They are also a source of very heavy hardwood used for railroad ties.
Flame Box Elder
The red in Flame Box Elder is all natural and is actually caused by the ambrosia beetle which brings a fungus into the wood and spreads it as it burrows. The Cheyenne Indians burn the wood as incense for making spiritual medicines and during Sun Dance ceremonies. They also mix the boiled sap with shavings from the inner sides of animal hides and eat them as candy.
Hackberry
Hackberry, also known as Sugarberry, has a heartwood that is light brown to gray. Its wide sapwood is a contrasting light yellow. In terms of outward appearance, Hackberry bears a close resemblance to ash; anatomically, however, it's closest to elm with the pores arranged in wavy tangential bands.
Hormigo
The Hormigo is a tree that grows in humid forest zones. It is a subtropical tree commonly used to make musical instruments. Its bark is smooth, straight and cylindrical. Its yellow flowers grow in bundles and its fruit are small membranous smooth vines and have only one seedling.
Indian Rosewood
Indian Rosewood, distributed from India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, can vary from a golden brown to a deep purplish brown with darker brown streaks. This wood has a distinct, rose-like scent when being worked. It has been used extensively on acoustic guitars since the mid 1960s as a substitute for the now-endangered Brazilian Rosewood.
Ipe
Ipe (pronounced ee-pay), also called Brazilian Walnut, is typically found in South America and some parts of Central America. It is extremely dense and durable and can be difficult to work with due to its hardness. It has the same fire rating as concrete and steel, meaning it resists flames much longer than softer woods, and is so dense that it doesn't float in water.
Koa (Curly)
Koa grows only in Hawaii, and can only be harvested once the tree has fallen due to natural causes, which makes it very rare. This wood has a remarkable "cats eye" effect or shimmer which gives an illusion of depth to the wood. Depending on the angle one views the wood, it can take on several completely different looks.
Lignum Vitae
The Lignum Vitae, found in Central and northern South America, has a heartwood color that can range from a pale yellowish olive, to a deeper forest green or dark brown to almost black. Its grain has a unique feathered pattern when viewed up close. Lignum Vitae is regarded by most to be both the heaviest and hardest wood in the world. It has been used for propeller shaft bearings on ships, and its natural oils provide self-lubrication that gives the wood excellent wear resistance.
Live Oak
The Live Oak tree, a southern symbol of strength, is the state tree of Georgia. The U.S.S. Constitution reportedly received its nickname, "Old Ironsides," during the War of 1812 because its live oak hull was so tough that British war ships' cannon balls literally bounced off it.
Mahogany
Mahogany, distributed from west tropical Africa, has a heartwood that ranges from a very pale pink to a deeper reddish brown, sometimes with streaks of medium to dark reddish brown. This wood is often used for veneer, plywood, turned items, furniture, interior trim and boat building.
Maple (Curly)
Maple, the most common wood used for musical instruments, is known for its strength and beauty. It is also used to manufacture items such as baseball bats, billiard sticks and bowling pins. Maple's sugary sap gives the wood a sweet aroma that is ideal for smoking meats.
Marblewood
Native to Northeastern South America, Marblewood has a yellow to golden brown heartwood with irregular brown, purple or black streaks. Its sapwood is paler than the heartwood and is a solid yellowish color lacking contrasting streaks.
Mesquite
Mesquite covers about 100 million acres in the southwestern states of America and Mexico. Over 50 million of those acres are in Texas. The tree's root system can grow more than 100 feet down in search of water, making it a hardy survivor in harsh climates. Native Americans used to make sewing needles from the thorns and used the inner bark to make baskets and fabric. Early pioneers used Mesquite for fence posts and wagon wheels. Mesquite slabs even served as street and walkway paving.
Mexican Ebony
The Mexican Ebony tree is native to the Mexican states of Sonora, Sinaloa and southern Baja. In natural settings, these trees are found growing in arroyos, desert slopes and valley floors. They cannot be naturalized in desert landscape settings and will require some summer irrigation. It is armed with small cat-claw like thorns. Cream colored blooms appear in March and April. When turned, this wood smells like cinnamon.
Mopane
Native to southern Africa, Mopane has a dark reddish brown heartwood with black stripes and a well-defined pale yellow sapwood. This wood is often neglected and overlooked, though its density and durability are virtually unrivaled. It is generally considered to be difficult to work on account of its incredibly high density but it is excellent for turned objects.
Oak
White Oak has a heartwood that is a light to medium brown, commonly with an olive cast. Red Oak tends to be slightly redder, but is by no means a reliable method of determining the type of oak. The White Oak is the state tree of Connecticut, Illinois, and Maryland. Connecticut's state quarter was minted with a picture and inscription of a famous White Oak tree, The Charter Oak.
Padauk
Padauk, found in the tropical forests of equatorial Africa as well as India, Indochina, the South Pacific and even southern Florida, can grow to more than 100 feet tall with trunk diameters reaching more than three feet. The leaves of some Padauk species provide protein in human diets as a substitute for green vegetables. All Padauks bear distinctive, round, inedible fruit banded by a flat wing that gives them a flying saucer-like appearance.
Pau Ferro
Pau Ferro (pronounced pow ferrow), also known as Bolivian Rosewood, is found in Brazil. Its beautiful chocolate brown coloring has a natural high luster. The wood has been used in various capacities as a substitute for the endangered Brazilian Rosewood.
Pink Ivory
Widely considered one of the rarest and most difficult woods to find, Pink Ivory is prized for its striking color. Pink Ivory trees are said to be both rare and valuable and have been rumored to be "rarer than diamonds", typically making it very expensive. According to folklore, the tree is considered royal to the Zulus in South Africa, where it originates.
Purpleheart
Several species of Purpleheart are becoming increasingly rare and is nearing extinction where they were once abundant due to overharvesting. It is extremely dense and water resistant. The trees are prized for their beautiful heartwood which, when cut, quickly turns from a light brown to a rich purple.
Snakewood
It's obvious how Snakewood gets its name. Found primarily in the rain forests of a small South American country just north of Brazil, Snakewood is one of the worlds most sought after woods making it undoubtedly one of the most expensive woods around.
Spalted Pecan
This particular Spalted Pecan came from a fallen limb off of a tree in East Texas that has been in my family for over three generations and is over 100 years old. Spalting is any form of wood coloration caused by fungi. This kind of spalting is called "zone lines". It is an interaction zone in which different fungi have erected barriers to protect their resources.
Walnut
Walnut's cooperative working characteristics, coupled with its rich brown coloration puts the wood in a class by itself among temperate-zone hardwoods. To cap it off, the wood also has a good dimensional stability, shock resistance and strength properties.
Zebrawood
Zebrawood, found in West Africa, tends to be fairly expensive, though not as prohibitively expensive as other exotics such as Ebony or Rosewood. Its heartwood is a light brown or cream color with dark blackish brown streaks vaguely resembling a zebra's stripes.