Elite Design Furnishings

Ash

Ash is a white-to-pale-brown colored wood with a straight grain. It's pretty easy to work with (hardness of 4 on a scale of 1 to 5) and takes stain quite nicely, but ash is getting harder and harder to find. Ash is a good substitute for white oak. 

Birch

 Birch comes in two varieties: yellow and white. Yellow birch is a pale yellow-to-white wood with reddish-brown heartwood, whereas white birch has a whiter color that resembles maple. Both types of birch have a hardness of 4 on a scale of 1 to 5. Birch is readily available and less expensive than many other hardwoods. Birch is stable and easy to work with. However, it's hard to stain because it can get blotchy so we limit its use for solid parts like chair frames

 Mahogany

 One of the great furniture woods, mahogany (also called Honduran mahogany) has a reddish-brown-to-deep-red tint, a straight grain, medium texture, and a hardness of around 2 on a scale of 1 to 5. It takes stain very well, we use one of its sub species called Okuma for a lot of our furniture 

 Oak

 Oak is one of the most used woods for furniture. Available in two varieties — red and white — oak is strong (hardness of about 4 on a scale of 1 to 5) and easy to work with. White oak is preferred for furniture-making because it has a more attractive figure than red oak.  This is one wood that can be found quarter-sawn (the most stable cutting option available). In fact, quarter-sawn white oak is less expensive than some other hardwoods like cherry, for instance. The grain has a beautiful "ray flake" pattern to it. 

 Walnut

 With a hardness of about 4 on a 1 to 5 scale, walnut is a rich brown wood that's easy to work with. Unfortunately, walnut is somewhat expensive and finding large boards for big projects is getting difficult. In spite of this, walnut is still a great wood to work with and lends itself nicely for use as accents and inlays to dress up a project.