Beyond the signature six, we regularly mill and finish: Red Oak (1,220 Janka) — the most widely used hardwood in American furniture, with open, cathedral grain that reads warm and familiar. Soft Maple (950) — lighter and more workable than hard maple while still holding detail and taking finish cleanly. Poplar (540) — surprisingly strong for its weight, and one of the best paint-grade species available; its tonal range from cream to green-grey is wild in person. Birch — tight-grained and fine-textured, long favored for cabinetry interiors. Beech — dense and even, the traditional joinery wood of European furniture. Alder — fine, neutral grain; clean and quiet as a surface. American Elm — interlocked grain that resists splitting even when stressed, which is why it was the wagon-wheel wood for two centuries. Sycamore — dramatic medullary ray flecks that rival quartersawn white oak. American Mahogany — straight-grained, stable, the benchmark species for fine furniture for three hundred years. Teak — naturally oily cellular structure that resists moisture and decay without treatment. Holly — the whitest wood native to North America. Yellow Birch, American Chestnut, and more.

These are the species that make clients stop mid-sentence when they see the board. Pecan — the heaviest of the hickories, with even bolder sapwood-heartwood contrast. Butternut — coarse and light-colored, sometimes called white walnut; similar figure to black walnut but with a warm, golden tone. Sassafras — spicy-aromatic, ring-porous, the wood of the original American dugout canoe. Osage Orange — one of the densest woods in North America; so hard and rot-resistant it was used for fence posts that outlasted the fence. Black Locust — more naturally rot-resistant than teak by some measures; dense, tough, and underused. Mesquite — dense, irregular, wild grain from the American Southwest; no two boards move the same way. Honey Locust, Hackberry, Cottonwood, Aspen, and Quartersawn American Elm — its ray flecks rival sycamore, and the interlocked grain means it holds together under stress that would split a straight-grained species.

Softwoods have tighter growth rings and less porous cellular walls than hardwoods — they behave differently under the plane, take stain differently, and read differently in a room. We mill and finish: Douglas Fir — one of the strongest softwoods by weight-to-strength ratio; the backbone of Western American timber framing for over a century. Southern Yellow Pine — dense for a pine, with bold resinous grain and a warmth that reads almost like a hardwood. Eastern White Pine — the wood that built colonial New England; light, easy to work, and beautiful under a clear oil finish. Hemlock — straight-grained and stable, used in heavy timber construction. Cypress — naturally decay-resistant, used in wet and exterior environments for centuries; the bayou wood. Red Cedar — its aromatic terpenes actively repel insects; it's not just beautiful, it's biologically functional. Spruce — light and resonant; the species of choice for guitar soundboards and violin tops, chosen specifically because it transmits vibration without dampening it. Larch — dense and durable for a softwood, with a warm, golden tone.

Every species decision involves at least four variables: aesthetic (color, figure, grain character), movement (how much it expands and contracts seasonally, and in which direction), durability (Janka hardness, shock resistance, surface wear), and finish compatibility (how it absorbs oil, how it holds paint, whether it needs grain-filling). Those four variables interact differently for every application — a kitchen island has different demands than a bedroom dresser or a library built-in.

All 50+ species we carry are USA-sourced and milled in our Philadelphia-area shop. During your consultation, we'll walk you through the candidates for your project, pull actual boards, and show you both milled and oiled samples of each — because a species you love on a website can read completely differently as a real board in your hands. That conversation happens before anything gets cut.