Chicone Cabinetmakers Resources

Woods

We specialize in using figured hardwoods. Figured woods have rays that reflect the light, creating natural intricate patterns within the grain of the wood.

Alder (Alnus rubra)
Color: Alder, is almost white when freshly cut, but quickly becomes light brown with a yellow tinge or on exposure to air. Heartwood is formed only in trees of advanced age and there is no visible boundary between sap and heartwood.
Grain: The wood is fairly straight-grained with a uniform texture.
Uses: Furniture, kitchen cabinets, doors, shutters, moldings, turnings, and carvings .
Properties: Alder can be sanded, painted, or stained to a good finish. When stained, it blends with walnut, mahogany or cherry. It is a relatively soft hardwood of medium density that has low bending strength, shock resistance and stiffness.

Ash (Fraxinus sp.)
Color: Ash sapwood is light-colored to nearly white; the heartwood varies from grayish or light brown, to pale yellow streaked with brown.
Grain: The wood is generally straight-grained with a coarse uniform texture.
Uses: Furniture, flooring, doors, architectural millwork and molding, kitchen cabinets, paneling, tool handles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, billiard cues, skis, oars and turnings.
Properties: Ash can be stained to a very good finish. It dries fairly easily with minimal degrade, and there is little movement in performance. Ash has very good overall strength properties relative to its weight. It has excellent shock resistance and is good for steam bending.

Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
Color: Beech sapwood is white with a red tinge; the heartwood is light to dark reddish brown.
Grain: The wood is generally straight-grained with a close uniform texture.
Uses: Furniture, doors, flooring, millwork, paneling, and turnings.
Properties: Beech works readily with most hand and machine tools and can be stained to a good finish. Beech is classed as heavy, hard, strong, high in resistance to shock and highly suitable for steam bending. It shows good resistance to abrasive wear.

Birch (Betula alleghaniensis)
Color: Yellow birch has a white sapwood and light reddish brown heartwood.
Grain: The wood is generally straight-grained with a fine uniform texture. Generally characterized by a plain and often curly or wavy pattern.
Uses: Furniture, millwork and paneling, doors, flooring, kitchen cabinets, turnings.
Properties: Birch works fairly easily. It is heavy, hard and strong. It has good crushing strength and shock resistance.

Cherry (Prunus serotina)
General: Cherry helped define American traditional design. Colonial cabinetmakers recognized its superior woodworking qualities.
Color: Cherry heartwood varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and on exposure to light. In contrast, the sapwood is creamy white.
Grain: The wood has a fine uniform, straight grain, satiny, smooth texture, and may naturally contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets.
Uses: Fine furniture and cabinet making, moldings and millwork, kitchen cabinets, paneling, flooring, doors, turnings and carvings.
Properties: When sanded and stained, Cherry produces an excellent smooth finish. The wood is of medium density; it has low stiffness and medium strength and shock resistance.

Hickory (Carya sp.)
Color: Hickory sapwood is white, tinged with fine brown lines; the heartwood is pale to reddish brown.
Grain: It is coarse-textured with a fine grain, usually straight but can be wavy or irregular. Hickory is the hardest, heaviest and strongest American wood.
Uses: Tool handles, furniture, cabinetry, flooring, paneling, dowels.
Properties: The heaviest of American hardwoods, the hickories can be difficult. The wood can be sanded to a good finish. The grain pattern welcomes a full range of medium-to-dark finishes and bleaching treatments. It can be difficult to dry and has high shrinkage. The wood is known for its strength and shock resistance, it also has excellent steam-bending properties. Hickory is extremely tough and resilient, it has an even texture, is hard and only moderately heavy.

Mahogany (Swietenia sp.)
Color: Mahogany is reddish-brown and darkens over time. It displays a beautiful reddish sheen when polished.
Grain: It has a generally straight grain, usually free of voids and pockets. It can have figures that include: stripe, roe, curly, blister, fiddleback and mottle.
Uses: Fine furniture and cabinet making, moldings and millwork, paneling, flooring, doors, turnings and carvings.
Properties: Mahogany has excellent workability, and is very durable. It is extremely strong, hard, stable and decay resistant. It finishes and stains to a beautiful natural luster.

Hard Maple (Acer saccharum)
Color: Maple sapwood is creamy white with a slight reddish brown tinge. The heartwood varies from light to dark reddish brown. The amount of darker brown heartwood can vary significantly according to growing region. Both sapwood and heartwood can contain pith fleck.
Grain: The wood has a close fine, uniform texture and is generally straight-grained, but it can also occur as "curly," "fiddleback," and "birds-eye" figure.
Uses: Flooring, furniture, paneling, kitchen cabinets, worktops, table tops, butchers blocks, and millwork: stairs, handrails, moldings, and doors.
Properties: Hard maple dries slowly with high shrinkage, so it can be susceptible to movement in performance. Maple can be stained to an outstanding finish, it polishes well and is suitable for enamel finishes and brown tones. The wood is hard and heavy with good strength properties, in particular its high resistance to abrasion and wear.

Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Color: Poplar sapwood is creamy white and may be streaked; the heartwood varies from pale yellowish brown to olive green. The green color in the heartwood tends to darken on exposure to light and turn brown.
Grain: The wood has a medium to fine texture; it is straight-grained with a comparatively uniform texture.
Uses: Furniture, kitchen cabinets, doors, musical instruments, siding, paneling, moldings and millwork, turnings and carvings.
Properties: Poplar is a versatile wood. It takes and holds paint, enamel and stain exceptionally well. Poplar is lightweight and soft for a hardwood. But it is strong, durable and seasons well resisting warping once it is dried. A medium density wood, it has excellent strength and stability.

Red Oak (Quercus sp.)
Color: Red Oak sapwood is white to light brown and the heartwood is pinkish reddish brown.
Grain: The wood is similar in general appearance to white oak, but with a slightly less pronounced figure due to the smaller rays. The wood is mostly straight-grained with a coarse texture.
Uses: Furniture, flooring, architectural millwork and moldings, doors, kitchen cabinets, paneling.
Properties: Red oak can be stained to a good finish with a wide range of finish tones. The wood is hard and heavy with medium bending strength, stiffness, and high crushing strength. It is very good for steam bending. Great wear-resistance.

Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
General: Also known as buttonwood and plane tree.
Color: The sapwood of sycamore is white to light yellow; the heartwood is light to dark brown.
Grain: The wood has a fine close texture with interlocked grain.
Uses: Furniture, furniture parts (drawer sides), millwork, paneling and moldings, flooring, butchers blocks.
Properties: The wood is resistant to splitting due to the interlocked grain. Sycamore stains to an excellent finish. It has moderate shrinkage and little movement in performance. The wood is classified as moderate in weight, hardness, stiffness and shock resistance. It turns well on the lathe and has good bending qualities.

Walnut (Juglans nigra)
Color: Walnut sapwood is creamy white. The heartwood is light brown to dark chocolate brown, occasionally with a purplish cast and darker streaks. The wood develops a rich patina that grows more lustrous with age.
Grain: The wood is generally straight-grained; it may have a wavy or curly grain that produces an attractive and decorative figure. This species produces a greater variety of figure types than any other.
Uses: Furniture, cabinets, architectural millwork, doors, flooring, paneling, and gunstocks.
Properties: Walnut holds paint and stain very well for an exceptional finish and is readily polished. Walnut has good dimensional stability. Walnut is a tough hardwood of medium density, with moderate bending and crushing strengths and low stiffness.

White Oak (Quercus sp.)
Color: White Oak sapwood is light-colored and the heartwood is light to dark brown.
Grain: White oak is mostly straight-grained with a medium to coarse texture. It has longer rays than red oak and therefore has more figure.
Uses: Furniture, flooring, architectural millwork, moldings, doors, kitchen cabinets, paneling, barrel staves (tight cooperage) and caskets.
Properties: White oak stains to a good finish and can be successfully stained with a wide range of finish tones. A hard and heavy wood with medium bending and crushing strength, low in stiffness, but very good in steam bending. White Oak has great wear-resistance.