Sweet Chestnut is an English hardwood which used to be a cheap alternative to Oak. Good quality Chestnut is currently scarce and should not have ‘ring-shakes’ or yellow discolouration.

French Oak is grown across the whole country, but we predominantly source timber from the Burgundy and Dole regions. That’s because this area of France is close to the Swiss border and the trees here tend to grow more slowly due to the relatively harsh conditions.

Unsteamed prime-grade German Beech is imported square edged and sometimes logsawn (waney-edge). Beech is prone to heavy movement down to the denseness of the timber and also stresses within the timber that occur after machining

West African Wenge is very dark brown with close ‘black’ veins alternating with ‘pale’ bands and is therefore favoured by furniture makers.

Malaysian dark red Meranti varies in colour from pale pink / white to dark red / purple. The density can also vary substantially as there are numerous sub-species.

West African Utile is a ‘sister’ species to Sapele but usually has a more interesting grain and gives a better ‘finish’, albeit at a higher price. Widths and lengths may be a little smaller than Sapele.

Sapele predominantly from West Africa is a reddish-brown hardwood. Although some parts of the Sapele logs will produce straight-grain or ‘quartered’ effect, generally it has a more random grain appearance

West African Iroko is imported at grade FAS, mainly kiln dried. It is yellow when freshly machined which quickly changes to medium, then darker brown).

The sapwood of walnut is creamy white, while the heartwood is light brown to dark chocolate brown

The sapwood is creamy white and may be streaked, with the heartwood varying from pale yellowish brown to olive green. The green colour in the heartwood will tend to darken on exposure to UV light and turn brown.

White oak is similar in colour and appearance to European oak. The sapwood of American white oak is light coloured and the heartwood is light to dark brown.

The sapwood of red oak is white to light brown and the heartwood is often a pinkish reddish brown.

The sapwood is creamy white with a slight reddish brown tinge and the heartwood varies from light to dark reddish brown according to growing region.

Red elm has a greyish white to light brown narrow sapwood, with heartwood that is reddish brown to dark brown in colour.

The heartwood of American cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken on exposure to light

Yellow birch has a white sapwood and light reddish brown heartwood.

The sapwood is light coloured to nearly white and the heartwood varies from greyish brown to light brown, to pale yellow streaked with brown

American alder is a light brown wood with a yellow or reddish tinge. The wood is fairly straight grained with a uniform texture.