Timber Types - Selected Timber Species In Common Use In The UK

A star rating system has been used to give compative costs for difefernt species. 1 star being the least expensive, 5 star the most expensive.

Ash - A pale-coloured quality hardwood, used for furniture, joinery, sports equipment and small handles. Commercially available from North America and Europe. Cost 3 star.

Beech - A reddish-brown hardwood, widely used in the furniture industry, particular for turned chair legs. Very widely used in Europe, where it is commonly found. Also available from North America. Cost 3 star.

Birch - A pale-coloured hardwood, used predominantly in making plywood. Also used in furniture and small turned items. Commercially available in large quantities from Europe and Scandinavia. Cost 1 star.

Cherry - A rich-brown very high quality hardwood, available from North America. Used in top class funiture and joinery. Cost 5 star.

Douglas Fir - A pale yellow straight grained softwood from north America. Used for joinery as an alternative to hemlock. Cost 2 star.

Elm - A high quality hardwood, very traditional to the UK furniture industry. Now in very restricted supply mainly due to Dutch Elm disease. Cost 5 star.

Hemlock - A pale yellow softwood from north America, which due to the size and age of the tree produces a much better grade of timber than most other softwoods. Used extensively in joinery. Cost 2 star.

Mahogany - A deep red high quality hardwood from central and south America. Used for high quality joinery and furniture. Now rarely imported due to environmental concerns. Cost 4 star.

Maple - A pale coloured, hard, heavy hardwood from north America. Used extensively in very high quality wooden floors (eg: sports halls) and also in specialist joinery. Cost 4 star.

Meranti - Also known as lauan or shorea. Variants - dark red meranti (DRM) and light red meranti. A coarse textured brown hardwood from the far east. Used in joinery and furniture as a less expensive alternative to mahogany. Suffers from the same environmental concerns as mahogany and thus imports have reduced substantially. Cost 3 star.

Oak - A straight grained coarse, hard and heavy hardwood. Actually not one timber but several, including north American red oak, north American white oak and European oak. The trees in the UK are European oak, which produces the fabulous quality timber used in traditional British furniture and joinery. However, homegrown oak is very expensive and availability of the material is inconsistent. Imported European Oak from France and Germany or north American white oak are now widely used as substitutes for homegrown oak. There is also north American red oak, which as its name implies is more reddish in colour. Cost 4 star (homegrown 5 star).

Pine - Actually not one timber but many different species of softwood, all are pale in colour. The most commonly used species in the UK is Scots Pine, which as its name implies is native to Scotland. However, whilst UK produced Scots Pine is used within the UK timber industry the majority is imported from Sweden and Finland. Within the trade Scots Pine is frequently referred to as "redwood" or less commonly "red deal". Cost 1 star. Other types of pine in common use in the UK are maritime pine, corsican pine, radiata pine and eliotis pine. All are quick growing varieties from temperate regions. Generally these species are regarded as inferior to the better grades of Scots Pine, which is grown slowly in the colder climate of Scandinavia. Pine has an infinite number of uses including construction, furniture and joinery. Cost 1 star.

Sapele - A reddish-brown hardwood from west Africa. Used in joinery (especially doors) and furniture as a less expensive alternative to mahogany. Suffers from the same environmental concerns as mahogany and thus imports have reduced substantially. Cost 3 star.

Spruce - Referred to in the trade as "whitewood" to distinguish it from "redwood" (see above). Very similar to pine and whilst tradesmen can easily tell the difference most laymen would regard it as identical to pine. Again there are several different species, the most common in the UK being Norway spuce, which is sourced primarily from Sweden and Finland (there is extensive UK forests of spruce that is used to make pulp and low grade construction/fencing products). Generally regarded as marginally inferior to pine/redwood, spruce/whitewood is used extensively in the construction, joinery and furniture industries. Cost 1 star.

All photographs reproduced by kind permission of Richard Burbidge Limited. This site is sponsored by Richard Burbidge Limited