Different Kind Of Wood And Their Uses

Alder - clogs - 'turned' articles - foundations for buildings in wet ground, eg. Venice - water troughs - fencing stakes Ash - golf club shaft - inexpensive 'country' furniture - as a veneer - Bentwood furniture and where curved wood is required eg. covered wagon frame - axe handles, it is strong enough to resist the shock of the blow but also cushions the shock to the user - cart shafts - hurdles - walking sticks - boat paddles - billiard cues - cricket stumps - spears - arrows - ladders - chassis of morgan motor car Beech - bentwood furniture - lightweight often used as drawers - takes paint well and often used for gilded furniture - spinning wheels - Sheraton turned beech to make imitation bamboo furniture - carpenters tools, esp. mallets and handles - foundations of buildings where the ground is very wet, eg. Winchester cathedral Bentwood - several varieties of trees which take heat, pressure or steam and then bent into a shape for a furniture part, eg. Windsor chair back Birch - modern Swedish furniture - besom brooms - used as a veneer - sap used for wine - bobbins and spools for cotton spinning - clothes pegs - bowls - spoons - wood-block floors Blackthorn - mayoral stick - walking sticks - chimney sweeps brooms Box - small tools - fine 'turned' articles such as chessmen and bobbins - moving parts in machinery Chestnut - very resistant to rot and often used in fencing - usually too 'soft' for cabinet making but often used as inlay - poles for scaffolding Elder - whistles - pea shooters Elm - has a twisted grain which gives great strength - wheel hubs - floor boards (has a tendency to warp) - seats of Windsor back chairs - mains water pipes in towns - keels and rudders in boat building Fruitwood - is apple, pear etc. Hawthorn - mill-wheel teeth - veneer for furniture Hazel - hurdles - baskets - golf club shaft - pegs - with thatch Holly - shuttles for hand-weaving - small tools - 'turned' articles - inlay patterns on furniture Hornbeam - hardest British wood - cogs in wind and water mills - anything needing a screw thread - musical instruments Larch - boat planking Lime - easily carved and used for ornamentation on furniture, especially by Grinling Gibbons - dug-out canoes - spoons and ladles - strong fibrous underbark (bast) used for robes, sandals and nets in the Stone Age Maple - bowls - drinking vessels - pipes - harps Oak - most furniture up the 18th century - deckchairs - boats and ships, particularly 'men-of-war' for the Royal Navy - wooden frame houses - carved work esp. Jacobean - tanning leather - wine casks - field gates - charcoal Pear - golf club head - tea caddies - 'treen' household ware - picture frames - 'country' furniture - carved pieces - woodwind instruments Wooden Salt and Pepper PotsPine - telegraph poles - fences - waterwheels - picture frames - town drains in Georgian times Poplar - cotton reels - clogs - matches - baskets - floorboards - cruck of timer framed buildings Rowan - beams in houses (if large enough) - handles of tools Soft woods - are open-grained and are conifers, eg. spruce, fir, pine Spruce - violins - often used for painted furniture Sycamore - rollers for domestic mangles - plates and food utensils - snuff boxes - welsh love spoons Walnut - elaborate carving in furniture, esp. Renaissance - gun stocks (good shock absorbency) Willow - cricket bats - wickerwork, eg. baskets - furniture - coracles Yew - bows (tree is poisonous and was grown in churchyards so that cattle could not reach it) from Neolithic times to present day - barrel hoops - Windsor back chairs - nails for Viking longboats.