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Distribution: Central and tropical West Africa; common in dense equatorial rain forests, often in small groups.

General Characteristics: Heartwood vivid red when freshly cut darkening to a purple brown on exposure; sapwood 4 to 8 in. wide, whitish to brown yellow, distinct. Texture coarse; grain straight to interlocked; lustrous; faint aromatic scent when freshly cut. Sawdust may cause respiratory problems.

Working Properties: Saws well but requires slow feed, easy to machine but with some tearing of interlocked grain, takes a good finish, glues easily and holds nails and screws satisfactorily.

Durability: Heartwood is very durable and very resistant to termite attack. Excellent weathering properties.

Uses: Fine joinery, fancy turnery, carvings, flooring, decorative veneer, tool and knife handles.

Distribution: Baldcypress grows in swampy areas along the Atlantic coast from Delaware to southern Florida, west along the Gulf Coast to southeastern Texas and along the Mississippi river valley to southeastern Illinois. About one-half of the cypress lumber comes from the Southern States and one-fourth from the South Atlantic States. It is not as readily available as it was several decades ago.

General Characteristics:  Frequently the wood of certain baldcypress trees contains pockets or localized area that have been attacked by a fungus. Such wood is known as "pecky" cypress. The decay caused by this fungus is arrested when the wood is cut into lumber and dried. Peck cypress, therefore, is durable and useful where water tightness is unnecessary, and appearance is not important or a novel effect is desired. Examples of such usage are as paneling in restaurants, stores, and other buildings. The sapwood of baldcypress is narrow and nearly white. The color of the heartwood varies widely, ranging from light yellowish brown to dark brownish red, brown, or chocolate. The wood is moderately heavy, moderately strong, and moderately hard. The heartwood of old-growth timber is one of our most decay-resistant woods; but second-growth timber is only moderately decay resistant. Shrinkage is moderately small, but somewhat greater than that of the cedars and less than that of southern pine.

Working Properties: Baldcypress has moderate strength, hardness and pliability. Sharp tools are necessary to prevent raised grain. It nails and glues well and is high in paint holding ability.

Durability:It is rated as resistant to very resistant to heartwood decay (12

Uses: Novel effect is desired. Examples of such usage are as paneling in restaurants, stores, and other buildings. Baldcypress has been used principally for building construction, especially where resistance to decay is required. It was used for beams, posts, and other members in docks, warehouses, factories, bridges, and heavy construction. It is well suited for siding and porch construction. It is also used for caskets, burial boxes, sash, doors, blinds, and general millwork, including interior trim and paneling. Other uses are in tanks, vats, ship and boat building, refrigerators, railroad-car construction, greenhouse construction, cooling towers, and stadium seats. It is also used for railroad crossties, poles, piles, shingles, cooperage, and fence posts.

Distribution:  Most of the eastern United States, from Massachusetts west to Illinois, Arkansas and Louisiana, south to the Gulf Coast and central Florida.

General Characteristics: Yellow Poplar sapwood is white, sometimes with stripes, while the heartwood is usually tan, but can range from greenish brown to dark green, purple, black, blue and yellow. The wood is straight grained, uniform in texture and moderate to light weight. Among commercially important hardwoods in the US, it ranks in the lower third of the range of the following properties: specific gravity, bending strength, toughness, impact resistance, work to maximum load, crushing strength, fiber stress at proportional limit, shear strength, tensile strength and side hardness.

Working Properties: Yellow Poplar has the reputation of being one of the easiest of all hardwoods to work with hand and machine tools. It works well in planing, turning, gluing and boring. It is average in mortising and nail and screw holding abilities. It is poor in shaping and sanding. It holds stain and paint well.

Durability: No information available at this time.

Uses: Lumber, veneer, pulpwood, furniture, plywood, interior finish, dimension stock, gunstocks, musical instruments, toys, novelties, hatblocks, sporting goods, pallets, shipping crates, slack cooperage, particle board.

General Characteristics: Heartwood brown when freshly cut becoming deep purple upon exposure, eventually turning to a dark brown sharply demarcated from the off-white sapwood. Texture medium to fine; luster medium to high, variable; grain usually straight, sometimes wavy, roey, or irregular; without distinctive odor or taste.

Working Properties: Moderately difficult to work with either hand or machine tools, dulls cutters, exudes a gummy resin when heated by dull tools; slow feed rates and specially hardened cutters are suggested. Turns smoothly, easy to glue, and takes finishes well.

Durability: Heartwood is rated as highly durable in resistance to attack by decay fungi; very resistant to dry-wood termites; but little resistance to marine borers.

Uses: Turnery, marquetry, cabinets, fine furniture, parquet flooring, tool handles, heavy construction, shipbuilding, many specialty items (billiard cue butts, chemical vats, carving).

Distribution: : Widely distributed throughout the United States.

General Characteristics:  The sapwood of oak is white to very light brown, while the heartwood is light to dark brown in the white oak group and reddish brown in the red oak group. Oak wood has a course texture; it is heavy, straight-grained, hard, tough, very stiff, and strong. Fast-grown oak, with wide rings, is stronger and heavier than slow-grown oak.

Working Properties:  Oak wood has good working properties. It machines and glues well and holds fasteners extremely well. It tends to split when nailed, unless predrilled. Oak finishes well, but shrinks considerably.

Durability: The oaks are rated with respect to resistance to heartwood decay as follows (98):

Uses: Ships, railroad crossties, timber bridges, tannin dyes, fuel wood, hardwood dimensions and flooring, furniture, veneer, plywood, barrels, kegs and casks (white oak group), truck and trailer beds, mining timbers, containers, pallets, caskets, boxes, paneling.

Distribution:  Redwood is native to the Pacific Coast region from extreme southwestern Oregon (Curry County) south to central California (Monterey County).

General Characteristics: The sapwood of is white, while the heartwood is a dark reddish brown. The heartwood has no characteristic odor or taste. It has exceptionally straight grain, high dimensional stability and is resistant to warping. It is moderately strong in bending, strong in endwise compression, stiff, moderately low in shock resistance and holds paint well.

Working Properties: Redwood works easily with both hand and machine tools, with little dulling effect on tools. It planes well, provided the cutters are sharp and it splinters easily when working on the end grain. It holds nails well, and paints and finishes satisfactorily. It also stains well, but glues best with alkaline adhesives.

Durability: Redwood is rated as resistant to very resistant to heartwood decay.

Uses: High value building construction, heavy beams, bridge timbers, planks, siding, sash, doors, veneer, furniture, cooling equipment, plywood, pulping, particle board, shakes, shingles, grape stakes, posts and novelties (from burl wood).

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