Wood Samples

Cherry - Walnut - Maple - Mango - Sapele - Bubinga

We specialize in certain woods for certain furniture. While the Brendan Rocker and Ottoman is built in all woods, other pieces are typically built in specific woods. We do make most chair parts in advance in reasonable size batches, hence our "standard" woods. The Pacific Rocker is standard in Cherry, Walnut and Eastern Maple. Barstools are standard in Cherry, Walnut or Figured Western Maple. Dining chairs are standard in  Cherry, Walnut and Eastern Maple. We can always make up a custom wood piece however the time to make the piece may take longer. We do not practice mass-production. Each person can and does build from start to finish, but we work in teams on small batches. 

Fabric Samples

Cherry Prunus Serotina

This traditional wood is native to North America, we get our Cherry from the Appalachian plateau of Pennsylvania. A strong, close-grained hardwood, it deepens to a rich reddish brown patina with age. Sunlight merely accelerates this inevitable process. Sun will eventually start to bleach the color, so maintain the richness of Cherry by avoiding windows! It will darken within weeks or months to a red-brown color. Direct or reflected sunlight hastens this darkening yet in the end the wood will reach a darker state with or without sunlight. Sunlight hastens the natural darkening process which inevitable occurs so the color will eventually even out if exposure to sun is uneven. Fading and lighter colors can eventually result from very prolonged exposure to sunlight. This American wood is a classic in fine furniture. Cherry is a selection in all our furniture. 

Black Walnut Juglans nigra

This is commonly used "Walnut" from the eastern United States. With time Black Walnut will lighten to a tawny brown color.

A large tree  which is a member of the Olive family growing to 115 feet in height. The wood is white, strong, and straight-grained. The name White Ash apparently derives from the glaucous undersides of the leaves. Ash trees only live to hundred years. It is the timber of choice for production of baseball bats and tool handles. The wood is also favorable for furniture and flooring. due to it's strength.

We use two kinds of maple. Broadleaf Maple or Acer macrophyllum is used for the Brendan Rocker, Barstools and Benches and is selected for intense figure and interesting color. We typically make our Maple dining chairs in Eastern Sugar Maple Acer Saccarum, also known as Rock Maple. Western Broadleaf Maple is a warmer color than the more common eastern Sugar Maple, which is more white.  Most people do not want the figured Maple for an entire set because it is quite busy visually.  Figured Maple on any Dining chairs is a special order and additional cost will apply.

Up to 120 feet tall and 9 feet in diameter, Broadleaf Maple has played an important role in the Pacific Northwest for millennia. It’s range extends from coastal, central British Columbia, Canada, all the way south to Southern California, U.S.   I get my Maple from a local sawmill in Concrete WA which specializes in Figured Maple for stringed instruments.

Historically, Broadleaf Maples were an important resource to First Nations peoples, who carved the wood and used the huge leaves as a cooking tool. Today this Maple is an important wood for furniture, flooring and boatbuilding. One in a hundred trees contain exotic grain like Tiger Maple and fiddleback, or a wide range of twisted and curly figure. It is a tough strong wood which cuts nice and clean, with excellent machining qualities. Broadleaf  Maples tend to be found in dry to moist sites that suffer from fire, erosion, logging, and other disturbances. They are found in low to middle elevation forests in monoculture stands or within mixed Douglas-fir/Hemlock forests. Maple is also the principal forest species in areas where the land is burned or logged.

Open-grained and streaked with pinks Mango is undoubtedly  the most striking and rich woods we use. Moderate in density and hardness and "Tropical" in appearance due to it's lack of seasonal growth rings. Mango is prone to scuff marks. Greenish yellow when freshly sawn, I have to control the moisture during the drying process to encourage the pinks, purple and gray colors. Cultivated circum-globally I get my Mango from a one person sawmill operation on the island of Hawaii and is typically cut from residential areas. Mango is only available as a standard wood in the Brendan Rocker and Ottoman. Mango in any other furniture might require 3-4 months extra time depending on what we have in "loose" Mango boards.

Sapele Entandrophragma Cylindricum

Sapele is very similar to African mahogany yet harder and denser, with a fine, interlocked grain. It may also yield a wavy grain that produces a distinctive rowed figure on quartered surfaces.  Found in lower tropical rain forests and tropical semi-evergreen rain forests throughout Africa, including West Africa, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Zaire and Angola, it works and finishes nicely, holding it's deep reddish color well over time. I have chiosen to use Sapele because of it's excellent machining properties and durability. A relatively common and rapid growing tree it is under commercial pressure from worldwide demand. While not endangered, the conservation status of Bubinga is “vulnerable” or “threatened” so we must use it with care.  

Bubinga Guibourtia Demeusei

also known as African Rosewood or Buvenga

An exotic wood from equatorial east Africa, Bubinga (or Kevazingo) is known for its deep brownish-red color and dramatic highlights ranging from golden orange to dark purple, as well as it's great strength and density.  Its grain is very fine and interlocking. Bubinga trees, which grow near lakes and riverbeds as well as marshes, are fairly large, with logs weighing up to 10 tons due to the wood’s density. While not endangered, the conservation status of Bubinga is “vulnerable” or “threatened” so we must use it with care.