Wood Database

Lovely long grain, easy to plane, excellent stiffness to weight ratio. Used for necks for classical guitar & lutes, internal linings etc. Also cigar boxes and humidors. Cedrela grown in Africa is usually wider grain and can be fluffy in texture and less stable than South American. The latter is hard to find in Britain, it can bleed spots of resin.

Wonderful texture for carving, super straight and strong. Our stock is from very fine grain old growth split blocks with hundreds of years growth. Used for soundboards.

Cherry has sufficient density to make for a hard lustrous surface, USA Cherry often has narrow dark streaks which are only a visual defect. When quarter sawn, excellent for back & sides and lute ribs.

Super hard oily fine textured. Excellent for all the usual Rosewood applications, but probably best of the lot for fine wood turning. In very short supply and of course expensive.

Works easily, but brittle and fissile compared to other ‘softwoods’. Wonderfully aromatic. Principally used for flamenco guitar back & sides. Expensive because most is discarded as too knotty.

Curiously, Ebony planes very well, as the African logs are usually very straight. Indian Ebony often has pale mineral spots and can be tougher to work. For most applications it needs to be carefully dried and quarter sawn, otherwise it shrinks, cracks and cups drastically. A very important wood with many applications, where wear and tear is involved. Chiefly fingerboards, pegs, also backs & sides. Some Ebony produces beautiful colours and patterns, so good for drop tops. Macassar Ebony is more lustrous with black and brown colours but limited supplies.

Lovely, fine grain, but very difficult to dry without staining or distorting. Good for head veneers when dyed black and edge binding when straight and white.

Very tough but otherwise good to work with if stock is from a straight tree. Traditionally used for its mechanical strength, cogs, tools etc. Great possibilities as an Ebony substitute if dyed.

Easy to work, similar to lime. Can grow with burrs and ripples, otherwise rather plain. Used for solid guitar bodies.

Easy to work and takes stain well. A good cheaper alternative to Mahogany, used for solid bodies and necks.