Hardwoods & Softwoods

Beech Oak Ash Mahogany Teak Walnut Balsa Parana Pine Scots Pine Red Cedar Spruce Hardwoods & Softwoods

Hardwoods Hardwoods are considered to come from trees with Broad Leaves. Oak

Softwoods Scots Pine Softwoods are considered to come from trees with needles

Back Beech Beech is used in cabinet and furniture making, work benches, desks, chairs, turnery, tool handles, mallets, decorative veneers and domestic flooring. Advantages: Straight Grain, Easy to work with. Disadvantages: Unsuitable for exterior projects as it rots quickly

Back Oak Oak is used in cabinet and furniture making, boat building, barrels and flooring. Advantages: High Strength, Hard wearing, Does not rot easily, Attractive grain Disadvantages: High Cost, Difficult to work with when dry Green Oak is often used in House Building

Back Ash Advantages: Ash is used in furniture and cabinet making, hockey sticks, baseball bats, cricket stumps, turnery Hard wearing, Tough, Elastic, Attractive grain Disadvantages: High Cost,

Back Mahogany Mahogany is used for high quality cabinet and furniture making, Drum panelling, pattern making, decorative veneers and plywood. Advantages: High Strength, Hard wearing, Easy to carve, Attractive grain Disadvantages: High Cost, Many species of mahogany come form non renewable sources

Back Teak Teak is used in Boat building, Garden furniture, (where weather resistance is required) Furniture making, flooring, laboratory benches and decorative veneers. Note: It is best to use an oil finish with this timber. Teak can be difficult to glue and it's dust is known to be a skin irritant. Advantages: Hard wearing, Weather resistant, Disadvantages: High Cost, Difficult to work with.*Many species of Teak come form non renewable sources *Difficult to glue due to its oily nature Skin and repertory system irritant High mineral content make it hard to machine

Back Walnut Walnut is used for high quality furniture, boat building, musical instruments, carving and veneers. Advantages: Hard wearing, Attractive Grain Disadvantages: Very Expensing , Rare

Back Balsa Balsa is the lightest commercial hardwood. Predominately used for model making. Advantages: Light weight, Easy to cut Disadvantages: Weak

Back Parana Pine Parana Pine is a straight grained timber often used for stair cases and furniture making Advantages: Straight Grain, Stable (tends not to warp) Disadvantages: Fairly expensive

Back Scots Pine Scots Pine is often used in the building industry for Roof timbers, Stairs and Skirting boards It is also used for Telegraph Poles, fences and paper pulp Advantages: Straight grain with few Knots Disadvantages: Slow growing therefore limited availability

Back Red Pine Red pine wood is grown primarily for the production of wood used for poles, Floorboards, building timber railway ties, post, pulpwood, and fuel. Advantages: Low cost Disadvantages: Knots,

Back Spruce Spruce (whitewood) is mainly used for paper manufacture but is also used in general construction and for the production of musical instrument sound boards Advantages: Straight Grain, Disadvantages: Soft

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Hardwoods & Softwoods