Materials
Australian Silky Oak
Overall a fairly easy wood to work with, though there may be some difficulty in planing, with tearout occurring. Northern Silky Oak also has a medium to high blunting effect on cutting edges.
Black Walnut
Typically easy to work provided the grain is straight and regular. Planer tearout can sometimes be a problem when surfacing pieces with irregular or figured grain. Glues, stains, and finishes well, (though walnut is rarely stained). Responds well to steam bending.
Cherry Wood
Extremely popular with cabinetmakers. Cherry is easy to work, fine textured, strong and fairly durable. Highly rated in all working properties including wood bending and turning. Becomes darker and richer with age.
Claro Walnut
Claro Walnut is a commercially important tree species that’s used as rootstock on walnut orchards. The robust roots of Juglans hindsii are well-suited to the California climate, and are combined with grafts of English Walnut (Juglans regia) to produce a higher yield of walnuts.
Cypress
Baldcypress is the state tree of Louisiana, and is an icon of southern swamplands. So named because the trees are deciduous (unlike most conifers), and have the peculiar trait of dropping all their needle-like leaves each the winter.
Elm
Once one of the largest and most prevalent of the North American elm species, preferred as an ideal shade tree for urban roadsides.
Eucalyptus Paper Bark
The Eucalyptus (Gum) tree is the most well-known of Australian trees. It is the tree from which the Koala eats, and from its branches the Kookaburra laughs. It also has some very interesting characteristics.
Eucalyptus Rainbow Bark
The tree is sometimes called Rainbow Eucalyptus because the tree’s bark is frequently multi-colored as outer patches are shed, producing an interesting array of hues. Deglupta is also sometimes sold under the trade name Kamarere.
Eucalyptus Robusta
Eucalyptus robusta, commonly known as swamp mahogany or swamp messmate, is a tree native to eastern Australia. Growing in swampy or waterlogged soils, it is up to 30 m (100 ft) high with thick spongy reddish brown bark and dark green broad leaves, which help form a dense canopy.
Hawaiian Koa
Although Koa is naturally quite abundant on the islands of Hawaii, most Koa forests have been cleared for grazing pastures; and since young Koa seedlings are edible for grazing animals, most new trees are prevented from growing to lumber-harvestable size.
Jackfruit
The jackfruit has played a significant role in Indian agriculture for centuries. Archeological findings in India have revealed that jackfruit was cultivated in India 3000 to 6000 years ago. It is also widely cultivated in southeast Asia.
Kamani
The tree known in Hawaii as kamani has a broad distribution throughout southern Asia and Africa, and it has many other names; its scientific name is Calophyllum inophyllum, and three of its more well-known names are tamanu, poon and Alexandrian laurel.
Lychee
The lychee has a history and cultivation going back to 2000 BC according to records in China. Cultivation began in the area of southern China, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Wild trees still grow in parts of southern China and on Hainan Island.
Longan
The Dimocarpus longan tree is a medium-sized evergreen that can grow up to 6 to 7 metres (20 to 23 ft) in height. It is somewhat sensitive to frost. Longan trees prefer sandy soil.
Maple
The maple is one of North America's most versatile and best-loved deciduous trees. Depending on the variety, maples are used for rough construction or in the making of fine furniture.
Mango
Known much more widely for its fruit, Mango trees also yield beautiful and valuable lumber. The wood is considered very eco-friendly, as some Mango plantations harvest the trees for lumber after they have completed their useful fruit-bearing lifespan.
Monkey Pod
So named for the spiral-shaped fruit pods which the tree bears. Outside of Hawaii, one of the most common names for the species is Raintree, which is due to the leaves’ tendency to fold up at night or during periods of rainfall, allowing rain to pass through its broad canopy to the vegetation below. Trees are commonly planted in tropical regions as an ornamental shrub or shade tree.
Norfork Pine
First thing to keep in mind with the care of Norfolk pines is that they are not cold hardy. They are a tropical plant and cannot tolerate temperatures below 35 degrees F. For many parts of the country, the Norfolk Island pine tree cannot be planted outside year round.
Ohia
Ohia is a very common species in Hawaii. According to folklore, Ohi’a was the name of a warrior that was transformed into a tree.
Rosewood
Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining but found in many different hues.
Teak
Sometimes called Burmese Teak, this name is used to differentiate natural-grown trees (typically from Myanmar, aka Burma) from Teak grown on plantations. Used extensively in India and within its natural range for centuries, Teak has grown into a worldwide favorite.
Tropical Ash
Tropical ash was originally introduced in 1880 as a shade tree, but has been planted in Hawai‘i as a forest and watershed cover tree since the 1920s. It grows to about 80 feet in height and three feet in diameter.