UK Hardwood
Ash - (Fraxinus excelsior)
A native English species and one of the commonest and most beloved trees in the UK. When dried it is one of the toughest hardest native hardwoods available as it absorbs shocks without splintering. It’s flexibility, straight and coarse grain pattern has made it the wood of choice for furniture makers and specialist craftspeople who make, tools, sports equipment etc.
The sap wood of ash is indistinguishable from the heartwood which ranges in colour from pale cream to light straw, with occasional small black mineral streaks.
The flat cut boards are particularly attractive because of their unusual flowery patterns while the straight grained centre boards although less visually appealing, are prized for their workability and bending capacity.
Ash trees will often develop a barrel of darker ‘olive’ coloured wood around their heart, which in older trees can develop to become a large proportion of the heartwood, which is highly desirable because of its decorative properties.
Key Uses
Interior - Furniture making
Utility - Boatbuilding, sports equipment, tool handles
Strengths
Excellent strong timber
Key Characteristics
Type - Temperate hardwood
Other names - Common ash
Alternatives - Hickory (Carya species), English oak (Quercus robur), elm (Ulmus hollandica)
Sources - Europe
Colour - Pale white to cream
Texture - Coarse and open-grained
Grain - Straight with a distinctive grain pattern
Hardness - Hard
Weight - Medium to heavy (700 kg/m³)
Seasoning and Stability - Fine but watch out for end splits
Wastage - Low, very little sapwood
Range and board width – Good
Range of board thickness - Good availability of all
Durability - Needs regular care if outside, excellent internal durability
Milling - Can chip, but the grain is rarely interlocking and tends to be straight, so you can usually find a way to cut and plane successfully
Shaping - Make shallow cuts, as the grain can tear if you try to remove too much stock in one go. Takes a good edge with sharp tools
Assembly - Will not bruise but will not give very much. Distinctive grain pattern and range of colour can make it difficult to hide joins when planking up panels
Finishing - Takes most clear finishes well
Variations - Olive or brown colouring is often seen in older trees. Some rippled ash is available, especially as veneer
Availability and cost - It is easy to find and the cost is relatively low. Wastage is not particularly high, although you must watch out for end splits
Beech and Spalted Beech - (Fagus sylvatica)
A versatile wood which machines, glues, turns and finishes well, and responds brilliantly to steam-bending. It can have a large amount of movement, so movement and wood stability must be considered
Beech’s strength, hardness, wear-resistance and excellent bending capabilities along with its low price, make this hardwood a favourite for many woodworkers.
Beech is one of the most common timbers to spalt. Spalting is a term used to describe the process by which certain fungi grow on dead or fallen trees, leaving an attractive pattern.
Key Uses
Interior - furniture, cabinet making, plywood
Veneer - Yes
Joinery - flooring, turned objects
Utility – Boatbuilding, musical instruments
Strengths
Consistent grain, easy to use, very strong
Key Characteristics
Type - Temperate hardwood shaping, takes an edge very well
Other names - English beech
Sources - Europe
Colour - Light brown with a pinkish hue
Texture - Consistent and close-grained
Hardness - Hard
Weight - Medium to heavy (45 lb/ ft 3)
Strength - Very strong, good for steam bending
Seasoning and Stability - Needs to be seasoned well
Range and board width - Good
Range of board thickness - Good with thick stock available
Durability - Needs preservative for external use
Milling - Very simple, the grain is straight and easy to work.
Assembly - Glues easily and is neither too hard nor too soft
Finishing - Takes any finish evenly and is often painted
Variations - Grain is straight, with a fine to medium uniform texture. Very smooth when sanded
Sustainability - European beech is under attack from grey squirrels who strip the bark from the trees, but it is not a threatened species. Some certified lumber is available
Availability and cost - Easy to buy and one of the cheapest temperate hardwoods at nearly half the cost of oak or cherry
English Oak - (Quercus robur)
(Quarter Cut- Highly Figured)
English oak is renowned for its beautiful dynamic grain, distinctive medullary rays and wavy patterning. Being stable and strong the wood has wild flames of grain and is used in all forms of decorative woodwork. Popular with turners for its colour, grain and unusual texture. English oak is still widely used for traditional house building, especially when green and unseasoned.
Key Uses
Interior - Structure, stairs, flooring – All parts of building
Veneer - All forms
Joinery - Fine furniture, carving, framing – Ubiquitous
Utility - Many uses when green, coppicing
Strengths
Distinctive colour and grain pattern, strong, firm and durable, dense, tough timber
Weaknesses
Heavy to handle, complex grain – Fantastic versatile timber in use for millennia
Key Characteristics
Type - Deciduous broad leaf
Other names - European oak
Sources - All our oak is sourced from Staffordshire
Colour - Light yellow brown to deep dark chocolate
Texture - Quite coarse if not handled well
Hardness - Very hard
Weight - Medium to heavy (720-750 kg /m³)
Strength - High
Seasoning and Stability - Needs great care in drying – we are the experts
Wastage - Can be high with inexperienced handling
Range and board width - Large range of stock
Range of board thickness - From traditional thinner joinery stock to massive beams
Durability - Excellent – so good we used to build all our ships from this king and queen of timbers
Milling - Needs care not to catch divergent grain
Shaping - Takes an edge beautifully for moulding and panelling, holds fine detail well
Assembly - Glues well and tight joints are relatively easy to cut. Water-based adhesives can tarnish the surface if in contact with steel clamps. Tannin based acid in the oak causes steel screws or nails to corrode so use brass or alloy fittings
Finishing - Beautiful and easy to finish with oil, wax, shellac polishes, polyurethane or lacquers. Open-grain wood is rarely filled, but English oak stains well for colour or just to darken it a little
Variations - Quarter sawn oak is traditionally used for cabinet construction. Burl oak is popular with turners and a veneer for furniture and cabinetwork. The infection by a wide range of fungi creates stunning dark timbers, such as the highly sought brown oak
Sustainability - All our oak is grown under continuous cover management; some of our ancient trees will never be felled as we love and appreciate their splendour and huge contribution to biodiversity
Availability and cost - Good English oak can be expensive and wastage rates can be high, but the dimensions and uniformity of our stock ensures we produce high yielding boards
Sweet Chestnut - (Castanea sativa)
The timber is not to be confused with the horse chestnut or the conker tree found in the UK. It grows throughout Europe and bears some resemblance to oak. Some old trees might have some spiral grain but generally, it is straight with a coarse uneven texture.
Its colour is likely to be a light to medium brown, darkening to a reddish-brown with age. Narrow sapwood is well-defined and is pale white to light brown.
Overall, it’s a good timber to use when working on a machine or with hand tools, as it also stains and finishes well.
Key Uses
Interior - Furniture, staircases
Veneer - Yes
Joinery - Internal Joinery
Utility - Coffins, casks, coppice crafts
Strengths
Grain usually straight but sometimes spiralling
Weaknesses
Doesn't season easily
Key Characteristics
Type - Temperate hardwood
Other names - European or Spanish chestnut
Sources - Europe and the Asian part of Turkey
Colour - The heartwood ranges from straw-coloured to brown
Texture - Coarse
Hardness - Hard
Weight - Weight medium, but much lighter than oak (540 kg/m³)
Strength -Moderate
Seasoning and Stability - Liable to checks, splits and honeycombing, and generally slow and difficult to season. Once seasoned it doesn’t move much.
Wastage - Potentially high
Range and board width - Good
Range of board thickness - Should be good
Durability - Medium, but some insects attack it and the heartwood won’t take preservative
Milling - Fine, it should not tear excessively and will not dull tools
Shaping - Hard enough to take a good edge or profile
Assembly - Good and glues well
Finishing - Can be polished to a good lustre
Variations - Though it can be used for decorative veneer, Spanish chestnut is used largely as secondary lumber, an alternative to oak. Its most common use is for coffins
Sustainability - There are more common hardwoods in Europe, but as the Sweet chestnut is valued for its nuts, its future should not be under threat.
Availability and cost - Spanish chestnut is not widely available, but neither is it expensive for a hardwood
Sycamore - Acer pseudoplatanus
Acer pseudoplatanus, known as the sycamore in the United Kingdom and the Sycamore maple in the United States. Sycamore is native to central, eastern and southern Europe. It is thought to have been introduced to the UK by the Romans. However, other reports suggest it was introduced to the UK in the Tudor era around the 1500s. More widespread planting occurred in the 1700s and the earliest reports of the species naturalising in the UK date from the mid-1800s.
The seed is extremely fertile, so sycamore has spread quickly across the UK and colonised many woodlands to the detriment of native species.
Sycamore tends to be used for veneer, plywood, interior trim, pallets/crates, flooring, furniture, particleboard, paper (pulpwood), tool handles, and other turned objects.
The sapwood is white to light tan, while the main wood is a darker reddish brown. Sycamore also has a very distinct freckled appearance. It has a fine and even texture that is very similar to maple. The grain is interlocked.
Overall, sycamore works easily with both hand and machine tools, though the interlocked grain can be troublesome in surfacing and machining operations at times.
Key Uses
Interior - Decorative furniture making
Veneer – Flooring, cabinetmaking turning
Joinery - General joinery
Utility - Interior trim, kitchen, utensils
Strengths
Inexpensive, even, fine texture, subtle figure
Weaknesses
Bland, softer than other pale woods
Key Characteristics
Type - Temperate hardwood
Other names - European sycamore, Sycamore maple
Alternatives - Butternut (Juglans cinerea)
Other Names - American whitewood (Lfriodendron tulipffera), sycamore (Platanus occfdenta/is)
Sources - Europe and Western Asia
Colour - Cream-white
Texture - Fine and even
Grain - Wavy or straight
Hardness - Medium
Weight - Medium (610 kg/ m³)
Strength - Bends well but not particularly strong
Seasoning and stability - Can stain if seasoned too slowly, with pink-brown colouring. Moves moderately after assembly
Wastage - Low
Range of board widths - Good
Range of board thicknesses - Good, thick boards are available
Milling - Good and tends not to chip or tear
Shaping - Takes a good edge, but it can burn
Assembly - Good and glues well
Finishing - Produces a lovely lustre, though never quite as high as with sugar maple. Takes stain and paint very well
Variations - The rippled, figured and fiddleback cuts are often used as a veneer, sometimes pre-stained, for high-quality joinery, cabinetmaking and interior design
Sustainability - You may be able to find certified lumber; it is perfectly acceptable to use non-certified wood
Availability and Cost - It grows widely and easily across Europe. This wood is not widely available,
it is relatively easy to obtain from specialist suppliers. It is not a primary lumber and is one of the cheaper hardwoods
Contact Information
If you have questions about any of our Hardwoods please call us on 01785 284718 or email sales@shelmoretimber.co.uk
