A tough, quality timber with a blue-grey patina, producing a dark finish when oiled. Used in furniture making, panelling, musical instruments, boat building, clock cases, turnery and carving. Much of the timber is cut into veneers.
					A reddish hardwood which matures to a rich, dark colour and has little grain pattern unless the tree has been ‘quarter sawn’. Used extensively in cabinetmaking, joinery, and marquetry, it has a fine texture and will finish to a smooth surface.
					A solid timber which changes colour dramatically while young. Newly machined wood is very light, but changes to a chestnut brown on oiling. Used for garden furniture, boat building, exterior woodwork and other products.
					An excellent furniture-making timber. It first appears a pale pink, which matures over several months to a warm, soft, cherry red. The grain can have some wavy figure. Used in original American Shaker furniture.
					Oak is extremely strong and durable and has been in use for centuries for making everything from furniture to boats and houses. It has some grain figure and is a mid-brown with some small flecks of red and white.
					A straight and fine grained timber, beech is an extremely hard and dense wood, and is very strong. It is the most-used hardwood in Britain and is found in nearly all furniture-making, wooden turned products and even shoe heels!
					Also a European Beech, this timber grows with a natural variation in grain and texture, hand-selected to offer a wide range of colours and patterns for use in work surfaces.
					A light, straw colour with some darker areas and textured grain, it is used in joinery and shopfitting. Known as ‘Sports Ash’, it is also used to make snooker cues, tennis rackets, hockey sticks and cricket stumps.
					Traditionally used for work surfaces, particuarly butchers' blocks. A dense, hard surface with a fine texture and cream-white colour, sometimes with a pink tinge. Used for quality interior joinery, flooring, sports equipment and musical instruments.
					Paler than American maple, it is also less dense. It has long been used for the manufacture of worktops in kitchens and dairies. Very finely textured, when first oiled it will have a yellow ‘glow’, which disappears after the first week.