Hardwoods & Exotics
Basswood
Basswood is a large and rapid growing tree of Eastern and Central North America, basswood has a soft light wood that is used in many wood products. Basswood is valued for being an exceptional wood for hand carvings.
Birch
Birch is native to North and South America and is one of the most widely used woods for veneer and plywood worldwide. Besides regular sheets of plywood, birch veneer is also used for doors, furniture, paneling, boxes, crates, turned objects, interior trim, and other small specialty wood items. It is generally easy to work with hand and machine tools and turns, glues, and finishes well.
Bloodwood
Bloodwood is an exotic species from South America that is known for its inherent luster and pale orange red to deep red heartwood color. Known to be an extremely hard wood, it is used in many applications including: cabinet work, musical instruments, carvings, billiard cues, turnings, and decorative veneers.
Brazilian Cherry/Jatoba
Brazilian Cherry/Jatoba is a tree common to the Caribbean, Central, and South America. Brazilian cherry/jatoba is a very hard wood that is used for furniture, flooring, stair parts, and decorative purposes. It features a tan/salmon color with black accent stripes that over time turn to a deep rich red color.
Bubinga
Found in Africa around the equator in swampy wetland areas, bubinga has a color that can range from pale to deep red with purple or red streaks and veins. It also has a distinct figure that usually appears to be stripes and mottles. A heavy, gummy wood, bubinga is used as veneer for wood cabinets, in fine furniture, inlay work, knife handles and turnings.
Canary
Imported from South America, canary wood has excellent sound properties and is used when making musical instruments and even speaker systems. Because of its high resistance to decay, termites, marine borers and its imperviousness to liquids, canary is a great wood to use on heavy ships and barrels/liquid holding containers.
Chenchen
Chenchen is a large, fast growing tree found throughout Africa. Chenchen’s heartwood color can vary with reds, oranges, browns along with darker stripes of blackish brown. It can be used in a number of ways including veneer, plywood, furniture components, joinery, boxes and crates. Its grain is receptive to stains but due to its density nails and screws should be pre-bored to prevent splitting.
Cherry
Grown in the Appalachian region of the United States cherry’s warm tones of deep red and brown, and its subtle grain pattern makes it an excellent interior wood for doors, windows, mouldings, and especially furniture. Cherry has a heritage as one of the original fixtures throughout the history of woodworking in North America.
European Beech
Grown throughout central Europe, the United Kingdom, and West Asia, euro beech has over 250 documented uses including cabinetry, furniture components, high-end joinery, flooring, toys, architectural millwork, and musical instruments. It is easy to work and does not usually require much sanding for a finished product.
IPE (aka Ironwood)
A South American tropical hardwood, ipe has a 40+ year lifespan for many of its applications such as decking, porch flooring, siding, interior flooring, boardwalks and outdoor furniture. Ipe has a deep red-brown color and is a remarkably hard and dense wood that offers incredible durability, especially in an outdoor/high traffic setting. Ipe is so dense that even in its untreated, natural state it has a class A fire rating, making it nearly as fire resistant as concrete or metal.
Iroko
Found in the tropical belt regions from East to West Africa, iroko is very similar to a non-related more popular species, teak. It is used for ship/boat building, interior/exterior joinery, furniture, carving, and decorative veneers. If used in its timber form it also has structural values and can be used for railroad ties, pilings, and other marine applications. It is best to use carbide tipped saws when cutting iroko due to the presence of calcium carbonate deposits (stones) in the wood itself.
Lacewood
Native to eastern Australia, this exotic lumber is planted and farmed all over the world especially in South America. It is a lighter colored, highly decorative wood that is traditionally used for paneling, interiors, and fine furniture pieces and is considered easy to work with both hand tools and machinery.
Mahogany
Grown in South America, mahogany is a classic favorite in North America. This highly popular wood is often used in furniture making, turning and carvings. In addition to being great for use indoors, Mahogany’s tropical origins also make it an outstanding exterior wood. It boasts remarkable rot resistance, making it very popular in boat building. The medium hardness of mahogany means that the lumber is easy to work with and retains excellent strength.
Makore
Makore is a beautifully grained and sometimes highly figured wood from trees that grow in Nigeria, Sierra, Leone, the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Liberia. The wood ranges from a light pink-red to a deep red or reddish brown. It is primarily used as a veneer, but is also used in cabinetry, furniture, and can also be used in marine applications.
Maple
There are many species of maple, but Berlin G. Myers Lumber Corp primarily stocks hard maple. Maple is an outstanding domestic species with a very tight grain and a consistent, creamy coloration. It is quite hard and mills very well. Used primarily for interior cabinetry, furniture, and flooring, maple is a stable and versatile species.
Morado
Morado is native to the tropical regions of South America. Its color can be highly varied, ranging from reddish/orange to a dark violet/brown, usually with darker black streaks with a naturally high luster. Overall morado has good workability, but can blunt tools due to its irregular graining. Common uses include veneers, musical instruments, cabinetry, flooring, interior trim, turning, and other small specialty wood objects.
Padauk
Padauk is grown in central and West Tropical Africa and it is known for its vivid red color. It is used for highly decorative veneers, high class joinery, furniture, cabinetry, turnings and carvings. Padauk is a strong, durable species used for hand carvings, but also has good capabilities for bending.
Peruvian Walnut
Peruvian walnut is a species native to South America. It is commonly used for furniture, cabinet, architectural and flooring applications. Peruvian walnut is desired by flooring companies mostly for its dark, almost black appearance. It will take an excellent finish and obtain a high luster. Peruvian walnut can be worked with both hand and machine tools and will glue, nail and screw well.
Poplar
The poplar tree is widespread across all of North America and Europe. Poplar grows very rapidly and to large sizes making it very sustainable. Because the wood is often painted or used in secondary applications where it isn’t visible, it is very easy to find wide, clear sections of poplar for a variety of uses. Poplar is very easy to work, is highly stable, and takes paint and stain famously well. Poplar is most commonly used in architectural millwork and is perfect for interior building or furniture applications.
Purple Heart
Purple heart is found in Central and South America. This exotic species is a worldwide fan favorite. Its striking purple color and varying degrees of blue are used mainly for specialty items which include: tips of billiard cues, high-end veneers, overlays for furniture, paneling, flooring and even jewelry. This very dense lumber with a gummy resin is not easy to work with and sharp, high-speed steel knives are recommended.
Red Grandis
Red grandis is a plantation grown lumber from Uruguay. Red grandis bears a close resemblance to genuine mahogany in hardness, density, and grain structure and is a cross between mahogany and cherry in color when freshly sawn. However, as it oxidizes and is finished, the color deepens to a rich red much closer to centuries old mahogany. Red grandis machines and turns well with a smooth finish and readily accepts paint, stain and polish. Uses include quality furniture, joinery, carvings, mouldings, doors, kitchen cabinets and flooring.
Red Oak
Red oak is a domestic product grown in North America. It is a strong species with an open grain structure that can dull cutting edges rapidly, so sharp tools are a necessity to prevent splintering. Red oak is used in many interior applications including flooring, cabinetry, and trimwork. It is used most commonly as an all-around species for retail store fixtures and shelving. Red oak will finish well, but a uniform surface can sometimes be hard to obtain without pore filler.
Spanish Cedar
Despite its name, Spanish cedar is actually part of the family that includes mahogany, and not cedar. It has beautiful coloration, attractive grain pattern and great workability with both hand and power tools. The wood’s natural aroma repels insects, and the high resin content makes it very weather and rot resistant. It is a very good choice for exterior applications and millwork. Due to its increasing popularity and combined with its slow growth rate quality, Spanish cedar is becoming harder and harder to source.
Teak
Native to South and Southeast Asia, teak is known for its lovely golden brown color, stability and extreme durability. Vertical grain teak is highly sought after for marine applications because of its consistent appearance, strength, and ease of matching across a wider surface. Its stability makes teak an attractive wood for yacht builders as well as other builders whose materials must perform under harsh conditions and within tight tolerances.
Walnut
Walnut is one of the most unique domestic species because there are no other North American species of wood with the same distinct chocolate brown colored heartwood. The wood’s beautiful color and grain has made it popular for use in applications such as flooring, furniture and interior woodwork. Walnut machines easily due to its middle grade hardness, and it is very gentle on cutting edges. It holds detail well and finishes beautifully to a deep, rich brown.
Wenge
Native to Africa, wenge is a very distinctive looking wood with dark brown heartwood which includes some veins of black and white. Although it is a dense wood, it works well with hand and machine tools. It is used as a high-end veneer, interior/exterior joinery, turnings, sculpting, and cabinetry.
White Oak
White oak is a hard durable wood with a light to medium brown color. This native lumber responds well to hand and machine tools, can be steam-bent, is easy to glue, and takes stain and finishes very well. Because of these characteristics white oak is commonly used in cabinetry, furniture, interior trim, flooring, and veneer; and due to is resistance to rot white oak can be used in boat building applications and for barrels.
Zebrawood
Found in West Africa, zebrawood has a light golden-yellow heartwood with narrow veining of dark brown to black which gives zebrawood its name. This highly decorative species is usually used in veneers, doors, cross bandings, inlays, and paneling. This hard, heavy, stable timber can be worked with machine or hand tools, but it is difficult to get a good finish due to its grain.