Appendix D.—THE LEADING FURNITURE WOODS
Acacia.—Africa, Australia, and generally throughout the warmer regions of the globe. The 550 species of acacia include several valuable timber woods, among them the Australian blackwood and acacia koa (see Koa) of the Sandwich Islands. Acacia was used as a furniture wood in the Byzantine and Romanesque styles more than 1,200 years ago.
Amaranth.—Chiefly from British Guiana, South America. Also known as purpleheart tree and violet wood. It is of fair size; wood heavy, hard, and of a deep purple color not fast to light; used in marquetry embellishment of Louis XV furniture, and still popular in fine furniture.
Amboyna.—East Indies, Malay Archipelago. (Also spelled Amboina, from the island of that name, Dutch East Indies.) This beautifully figured and mottled wood has much the color of satinwood. Amboyna burl, so-called, comes from the padouk tree. (See Padouk.) It is a rich golden yellow, shot with brilliant red, and is one of the most costly woods in the world.
Apple.—The fruit wood, used in Elizabethan England and since, as an inlay.
Ash.—Europe, Asia, and North America. A large, widely distributed group related to the olive family. There are 20 species in North America, ranging from desert shrubs to the magnificent white ash of the lower Ohio valley. The wood is markedly ring-porous, and when skillfully finished is very handsome, either plain or quarter-sawed. Varieties commonly used for veneer are figured trees of American white ash, English, Australian, and Japanese ash, the latter known as "tamo." Color ranges from grayish white to nut brown in tamo; a small fiddle or peanut figure is characteristic.
Aspen.—Chiefly from Maryland and the Appalachian Mountains. (Also known as silver poplar.) Large trees, yielding some figured logs having a characteristic small block mottle figure. The wood is of light-straw color with some light-brown streaks, and takes a beautiful finish.
Avodire.—West coast of Africa, near the equator. A creamy colored wood, yielding a handsome figure in crotch or quarter-sliced veneers.
Ayous.—West coast of Africa. Cream-colored wood of a slight greenish tinge; resembles prima vera in appearance, and because of its low cost is sometimes used as a substitute for blond woods.
Basswood.—North America. (Also known as linden and whitewood.) This tree, which belongs to the lime family, has a wood of cream-white color, almost free from visible markings due to pores, annual rings, or rays. In furniture manufacture it is used for plywood cores and kitchen table tops to be left unfinished.
Beech.—Europe, Asia Minor, and eastern North America. Of the same genus as the oak and the chestnut, this tree yields furniture wood of light reddish-brown color. It has about the same weight and hardness as sugar maple.
Birch.—North America, Europe, Asia Minor, and northern Siberia. A hardy, beautiful tree, yielding a hard and handsome wood, whether in plain or quarter-sawed surfaces, or in the form of veneers. The wood is of close texture; often has a wavy grain, producing what is known as curly birch, noted for wavy figure of changing high lights and shadows.
Bosse.—Africa, French Ivory Coast. This large tree, closely resembling the cedar, has a wood light red or pink in color, which takes an excellent finish. It is used in America only as a veneer.
Boxwood.—Europe, North America, and the West Indies. An extremely heavy, tough, close-grained wood, white or pale yellow in color, used in making musical instruments and also in furniture inlay.
Bubinga.—West coast of Africa. Closely related to the rosewood, and its equal in weight, hardness, and capacity to take a high polish. The wood is slightly darker than mahogany. The veneer is usually striped, but sometimes figured, with a gorgeous black mottle. (See Kewazingo.)
Butternut.—North Central United States. (Also known as white walnut.) This relatively small tree has a short trunk which makes it difficult to get veneer logs of good length and free from knots.
Cedar.—Asia, Africa, and North America. The cedar of Lebanon has been a favorite with poets and painters for thousands of years. Other famous members of this family are the deodar or "god tree" of the Himalayas, and the thuya. Among the American varieties are the incense or white cedar, the Port Oxford or Oregon cedar, and the red or American cedar. Cedar was used as a furniture wood in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia almost 4,000 years ago.
Cherry.—Europe and North America. This fruit wood is now rare and little used in furniture making but it is highly valued by cabinet makers by reason of its handsome fine-grained texture, its freedom from warping, and its capacity to take a high polish.
Chestnut.—Europe and North America. The wood is closely allied to that of the oak, which it resembles in general appearance, though it is softer and the medullary rays are finer and less pronounced. Ideal for lumber cores of hardwood plywood. Decay resistant; easily glued and easy to work. The blight in no way subtracts from the quality of the wood, but it has decreased the amount now available.
Cypress.—Europe, Asia, and North America. The common cypress is straight, tapering, and stately, but dark and forbidding in appearance. The wood is hard, close-grained, of a rich reddish hue and durable. A veneer of cypress stumps, with a highly intricate grain, is used in furniture making under the name of faux satine, or false satin.
Deal.—Scotland. The Scotch fir, used to some extent in Elizabethan England and later as a furniture wood.
Ebony.—India, East Indies, and Ceylon. Accurately, the black, heavy heartwood of a genus of tropical trees. According to legend the wood was used by the ancient kings of India not only for scepters and images, but also as drinking cups. Macassar ebony, so named from Macassar, seaport of the island of Celebes, Dutch East Indies, is notable for its close grain, intense hardness and rich hazel brown color, striped or mottled with black. It is much used in this country, where it is often known as "marblewood."
Elm.—Europe, Asia, and North America. A noble and beautiful tree, widely distributed in the north temperate zone. In this country white elm is chiefly important for furniture, with some use of rock elm and slippery elm. The wood is hard, ranging in color from reddish brown at the heart to white sap wood, and has a fine wavelike grain when plain sawed. The richly figured leather-brown burl veneers made from trunk burls of elms from the Carpathian mountains, in central Europe, are among the costliest of cabinet woods.
Goncalo alves.—Brazil. A hard and beautiful wood, closely related to rosewood. It has a rosy straw color, streaked with dark brown and black; is both sawed and sliced on the quarter, and is used for the same purposes as Macassar ebony.
Greywood or Silver Greywood.—See Harewood.
Gum.—United States. The term gum tree is applied to several unrelated gum-bearing trees in the United States, of which the wood of the red gum is chiefly used for furniture. It has a close grain, uniform texture, white sapwood, and reddish brown heartwood, the latter sometimes containing dark streaks, and known in the trade as figured gum. Tupelo gum and black gum have almost the same texture as red gum, but are white or warm gray in color. Gumwood was formerly called satin walnut in this country and still bears that name in England. Red gum is one of the most widely used hardwoods for plywood and ranks second among native hardwoods in production of face veneers and first in production of utility or commercial veneers. The sap wood is commonly called "sap gum."
Harewood (artificial).—England and the Continent. Harewood, a West Indies wood now practically extinct, was much used by eighteenth century cabinet makers. Artificial harewood, also known as silver grey-wood, is made from carefully chosen English curly maple, known there as sycamore. The logs are first cut into planks and air-dried for three months; then cut into veneer and dyed with iron salts in huge tanks under pressure, which produces a beautiful silver grey wood with a slightly metallic sheen. It is one of the most costly veneers.
Holly.—England. English white holly has been used since the time of Elizabeth for inlays. The thin veneers, having an exceptionally close texture, can be dyed to various colors. It is similar in appearance and use to boxwood, but less expensive.
Iroko.—Africa. Though not of the teak family, this wood is called African teak. It is hard, firm, of the color of a ripe cucumber, and in veneers has a waxy figure.
Kewazingo.—Africa. A veneer made in France from a species of bubinga, and cut in a peculiar way to a wavy figure. It is used as a decorative as well as a base wood in tables and case goods.
Khaya.—Africa. (African mahogany.) See Mahogany.
Koa.—Hawaiian Islands. Belonging to the acacia family, the koa is the most valuable Hawaiian tree. Its beautiful wood is of golden color, sometimes streaked with black or brown. Most logs have some figure and many have a pronounced ripple grain in veneers.
Kingwood.—British Guiana, South America. A heavy wood, related to the rosewood, and sometimes called violet wood because of its color. It is chiefly used in the form of veneers sawed from small logs, about the size of fence posts.
Koko.—Andaman Islands, East Indies. The East India walnut; has a hard, smooth texture similar to koa; not much figure, but a narrow prominent stripe when quartered; nut brown color.
Lacewood.—Australia. (Also known as silky or Australian oak or selano.) This wood of a light, rosy color has pronounced medullary rays, and when quartered yields a beautiful effect of grain strikingly similar to that of coarse lace.
Lauaan.—Philippine Islands. (Pronounced la-wan', with both a's as in "arm".) A tall tree native to the Philippines, the wood of which bears a marked resemblance to mahogany. Formerly marketed as "Philippine mahogany," and now as red lauaan.
Laurelwood.—Andaman Islands, East Indies. Related to koko, and one of the finest timbers of the East. Laurelwood is a highly figured wood, gray with black stripes, and with a wavy grain.
Lime.—Europe. (Also known as linden, the North American variety is basswood.) A soft, white wood, extraordinarily well adapted for carving in high relief or in the round.
Macassar.—See Ebony. (Often, and properly, spelled Makassar.) Makassar oil, originally produced from the sandalwood of Makassar, was so much used as a hair dressing in Victorian England that it gave rise to the use of antimacassars or "tidies," as a protection to upholstered chair backs.
Magnolia.—Southeast United States. Also species are found in Japan, China, the Himalayas. The wood is fine-grained, fairly hard, white at the sap and of a pale yellowish or greenish tinge at the heart.
Mahogany.—A fine cabinet wood, is noted for variety and beauty of figure or pattern of the grain of the wood. Widely used for veneers and lumber of extreme dimensions and freedom from defect. Used for traditional furniture styles such as Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and Duncan Phyfe, and desirable for modern styles either in traditional or the lighter finishes.[32]
Three general types of mahogany are recognized: West Indian, conceded to be the hardest and strongest. Most of this type now comes from Cuba, but less than 5 percent of the American imports of mahogany are from the West Indies. The mainland Tropical American, which grows from southern Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela and appears again on the Upper Amazon and its tributaries in western Brazil and eastern Peru. Somewhat milder textured than the West Indian. A third type comes from the West Coast of Africa. This mahogany is not quite as firm textured as the American mahogany, but the trees are large and many are highly figured. Accordingly, the most of the mahogany veneers used in this country are African.
Mahogany wood is strong and tough, uniform in structure and close or moderately open grained, depending upon the locality where it is grown. Mahogany possesses a combination of physical and woodworking characteristics that have brought it into high renown as a cabinet wood. It is receptive to the finest of finishes. Freshly cut mahogany ranges from a light pink to yellow, but on exposure to light and air, quickly turns to a reddish brown or sherry color.
Mahogany has an interlocking grain which, on the quarter, usually reveals a straight stripe or ribbon figure. To a more limited degree some trees show broken stripe, rope, ripple, mottle, fiddleback, and blister figures and various combinations of these figures. Outstanding are the crotch and swirl figures obtained from sections of the trunk immediately beneath a fork or crotch in the tree. Mahogany does not produce clearly defined annual growth rings common to trees of the temperate zone. Consequently, the shell or leaf pattern in flat cut mahogany is due to the interlocking grain rather than to annual growth rings.
Maidou.—Burma and Indo-China. This tree is closely related to the amboyna, but has a coarser figure and a darker brown color. Maidou burls are hard, sound, and valuable.
Makore.—Africa, West Coast. (Also known as African cherry.) A large tree, yielding a furniture wood similar in texture and coloring to our cherry, but frequently revealing a strong black mottle.
Madrone.—California and Oregon. (Also called Madrona.) Chiefly used in in the form of burl veneer, which has a tough hard surface, intricately veined figure, and rose-pink color.
Maple.—North temperate zone. There are about 150 species in the maple family, of which 13 are native to North America. The sugar maple (also known as hard maple and rock maple) is a magnificent tree which sometimes attains a height of 120 feet. The wood is heavy, hard and of fine grain, as is that of the black maple. In veneers the maples yield many beautiful effects, including curly maple, bird's-eye maple, and the remarkable maple burls from Oregon trees. With the "natural" finish it is principally used for bedroom, porch, and kitchen furniture. Occasionally it is used in combination with other woods for exposed parts which are stained or painted and for interior parts where strength or rigidity are essential.
Marblewood or Marble-heart.—See Ebony.
Movingue.—Africa, west coast. A straw-colored wood resembling Java teak, but more yellow in color. In veneers it produces mottled wood and fine feather crotches.
Myrtle.—Northern California and Oregon. A greenish-yellow wood, which when used in veneers has the peculiarity of showing the characteristic figuration of plain, butt, and burl woods in a single small area. Chiefly used in burls.
Narra.—Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. Red narra varies in color from deep red shadings to attractive rose tint. Yellow narra ranges through the brilliant browns to golden yellow. When cut on the quarter the appearance is not unlike quartered unfigured satinwood.
New Guinea Wood.—A recent popular importation. Brown to light gray with definite black lines. Large trees produce wide, long veneers. A highly figured wood with straight narrow stripe. Resembles oriental wood, but slightly lighter. Usually cut on the quarter.
Oak.—North temperate zone. Of the hundreds of species of oak, 84 are found in the United States. Some of the splendid forest oaks reach a height of 150 feet. In the trade, oak lumber is classified as white oak (cut chiefly from the white, chestnut, post, burr, over-cup, and swamp chestnut oaks), and red oak (cut chiefly from the red, Shumard red, scarlet, black, and yellow oaks).
English brown oak is taken from certain English white oak trees, the wood of which has become brown from an infection of microscopic fungus which feeds on the tannin in the wood, leaving a brown residue which gives the wood the appearance of fine tortoise shell. Many of these trees were sturdy specimens hundreds of years before the Norman conquest in the year 1066.
Pollard oak is the term applied by English cabinet makers to oak burls. The veneers are choice and costly. Its uses are legion, but in fine furniture it has great strength, durability and attractive appearance.
Oriental wood.—Queensland, Australia. (Also known as Queensland or Australian "walnut.") These huge trees resemble the Australian silky oak and the American blue beech. The wood, which is comparatively new on the American market, resembles walnut in appearance, and the veneers, quarter cut, yield stripe, fiddleback, and mottled effects.
Padouk.—Burma and the Andaman Islands. (Also known as Vermilion wood.) A beautiful wood of reddish golden color with prominent ribbon stripe. (See Yomawood.)
Pearwood.—Europe and North America. The fruit wood, much used by seventeenth century furniture makers.
Peroba.—Brazil. The largest family of fine Brazilian woods. Peroba Rosa has a pink color, somewhat resembling that of tulipwood, while Peroba Blanca resembles satinwood. The veneers have a fine grain and take a remarkable polish.
Poplar.—United States. The cabinet wood known as yellow poplar, whitewood, and poplar in this country, and as canary whitewood in England, comes from a tall North American tree known as the tulip tree. The wood is of fine grain, uniform texture, and of a color ranging from the yellowish white in the sap to yellowish green, purplish brown, or iridescent blue in the heart. It closely resembles magnolia, but is somewhat softer. Must not be confused with the rarer Brazilian tulipwood.
Prima Vera.—Central America. While not a mahogany, prima vera is generally known as white mahogany. The wood is of cream color with a greenish cast, and resembles stripe mahogany in texture.
Purpleheart.—See Amaranth.
Redwood.—Northern California. (Also known as Sequoia.) Chiefly used in furniture in the form of veneers cut from the huge trunk burls, which yield sheets 5 × 6 feet without defects. The wood has a strikingly veined figure and a light brick-red color.
Rosewood.—Brazil, eastern India, and Madagascar. Brazilian rosewood, also known as Rio rosewood, was formerly extensively used in making piano cases and musical instruments, and is still sometimes known as piano-wood. Color varies from brownish yellow to deep red, with black growth lines. The veneer is generally cut rotary, but also sliced on the quarter or across the heart. East Indian rosewood, sometimes known in veneer form as malabor or Bombay rosewood, is one of the finest cabinet woods. It varies in color from clear yellow through the reds to purple, with dark stripes. Madagascar rosewood, also known as faux rose, is a heavy hardwood ranging from pale pink to dull red in color, and revealing a fine pin-stripe in veneer.
Sapele.—West African coast. Most Sapele logs are cut on the quarter and produce a straight stripe that in width is about halfway between the stripe of mahogany and stripe of satinwood.
Satinwood.—Puerto Rico, and Island of Ceylon. This finest of cabinet woods was obtained by the eighteenth century masters from the West Indies, but little is now to be had outside Ceylon. Whether straight-grained or figured, satinwood has an incomparable beauty and fire.
Snakewood.—Brazil. This term is applied to several woods, of which the most striking is the handsomely mottled wood of the South American leopard tree. It is used only in veneer.
Sycamore.—United States. This name is applied to the native American plane tree, although the term still is applied to the ancient Egyptian and Asia Minor mulberry. Sycamore wood, generally known in Europe as maple, is reddish-brown in color and when quartered is handsomely figured. It has interlocked grain and is therefore difficult to split.
Tamo.—Japan. (Native name for the Japanese ash.) Veneers cut from figured logs reveal an extraordinary wavy-like figure, and are beautiful and costly.
Tanguile.—Philippine Islands. A Philippine hardwood similar to red lauaan (see Lauaan) and like the latter at one time marketed as "Philippine mahogany."
Teakwood.—Region of the Gulf of Bengal. A hardwood of extreme durability, with white sapwood and a beautiful golden-yellow heartwood which on seasoning becomes dark brown, mottled with still browner streaks. The teak tree is native to India, Burma, and Thailand, and the wood is known to have been used in India for more than 2,000 years. It is one of the most enduring woods, and instances are recorded of teak beams which lasted more than 1,000 years.
Thuya.—Algeria, Africa. (Formerly and properly spelled "thuja.") This is the botanical name for the arbor vitae, or tree of life, of the cedar family. In Europe the thuya burl is considered to share with amboyna the distinction of being the finest of all woods. The veneer is of reddish brown color, with a characteristic figure remotely suggestive of the feather crotch, and speckled with small round "eyes." It is used in Europe chiefly for fine cigarette and jewel cases.
Tigerwood.—Africa, west coast. (Also known as African or Benin walnut.) An inexpensive but handsome veneer wood, ranging from golden-yellow to dull brown in color, with a wide and pronounced ribbon stripe. The crotches are large and good.
Tulipwood.—Brazil. An extremely hard wood of pinkish-red color, much used since the seventeenth century for marquetry.
Vermilion wood.—See Padouk.
Violet wood.—See Amaranth and Kingwood.
Walnut.—North temperate zone of America and Europe. American walnut is produced commercially from Wisconsin and Southern Ontario to Kansas, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. It is widely used for lumber and veneers.[33]
Its use as a cabinetwood for furniture began in the late fifteenth century and has continued from that time until the present. The wood's natural color, within its outer band of creamy sapwood, ranges through a gamut of soft grayish browns whose deepest note is pale chocolate sometimes lightly tinged with violet.
Dean S. J. Record, Yale University says: "Walnut is one of the finest cabinet woods in the world. It has stood the test of time. Trace its use back through the centuries, and it will be found a medium of expression for what successive periods have considered most beautiful and worthy in furniture design. As one lover of the wood phrases it, 'from the massiveness of the Flemish, the elegance of the Italian and French, and the balanced beauty of the eighteenth century English walnut, by its inherent qualities, has been the one cabinet wood that fulfilled all demands.'" This record resulted from walnut's unusual combination of physical and mechanical properties.
It is widely used not only for the most costly furniture, but for the medium priced as well, because of another important feature—its great variety of figure types. These vary from the severely plain straight-quartered walnut, commonly seen on modern furniture and architectural woodwork, through sliced wood, rotary, many types of stumpwood, to the swirls, burls, and highly figured crotches.
In addition to the American species, imported varieties such as French, English, Italian, and Circassian, are still used occasionally. However, more than 99 percent of all America's needs are supplied by our own American walnut, which ranks somewhat higher in strength properties than the European variety.
Yomawood.—Burma and the Andaman Islands. (Also known as Burmese Padouk.) This is one of the most beautiful woods, varying in color from deep crimson through cherry red, pink and red-brown to brown. The figure is commonly of the straight ribbon type, but some veneers show a cross figure, a little like that of figured satinwood.
Zebrawood.—Africa, west coast. (Also known as Zebrana.) This highly decorative wood has been used since the early eighteenth century. The trees are large, and the veneer logs are imported in squares 4 to 5 feet square and 20 feet or more in length. The wood is light in color, and when cut on the quarter the veneers reveal dark stripes of extraordinary straightness, which makes the wood a favorite for matched diamond veneers. The name is derived from the resemblance of this wood to the skin of the zebra.
Appendix E.—COMMON RUG TERMS[34]
Burling.—An inspection treatment after weaving, to straighten up sunken tufts, to clip off long tufts, and otherwise add to finished appearance of fabric.
Chenille.—A soft tufted or fluffy cord of cotton, wool, silk, or worsted, made by weaving four warp threads about soft filling threads, afterward cut.
Filling.—Threads thrown across the warp to fill up space between knots.
Ground color.—The prevailing color against which other colors create the motif or design.
Jaspe.—Broad irregular stripes of two shades, usually a lighter and darker shade of the same color, used either as an effect in plain goods or as a ground frame (sometimes in top colors as well) of figured goods. It is produced by dipping a skein of yarn twice in the dye, first the entire skein in the lighter shade and then a portion of it in the darker shade. Various types of fine or broad jaspes are obtained by the twist given the yarn. From the French word meaning marbled. Linoleum: A two-toned pattern resembling marble.
Jute.—Fiber from inner bark of jute plant, used as base for cheaper rugs.
Pick.—The weft thread shuttled through the fabric crosswise of the loom between the warp threads. The weft serves to tie in the yarn that forms the surface tufts or loops. The number of picks per inch is indicative of the closeness of the weave; for example, a high class Wilton has about 13½ picks per inch. In the Axminster weaves, the word "row" means the same as "pick." (See Wires.)
Pile.—Projecting fibers or tufts on surface of rug; the nap.
Pile weaving.—In which there are two warps one with the weft forming the base and the other, formed into loops over wires, making the pile. In Brussels, the wire is pulled out leaving the loop intact. In Wiltons, there is a knife at the end of each wire which cuts the yarn as the wire is drawn out, making each loop a tuft. The pile is closer on Wiltons than on Brussels, as 13 wires are used to the inch, 8 being customary on Brussels.
Pitch.—Indicative of closeness of weave, considered in connection with "pick" or "rows." Pitch means the number of warp threads per inch measured crosswise of the loom. The warp threads run lengthwise of the fabric and interlock to bind in the weft, thus fastening the surface yarn. The closer together the warp threads the finer the weave; for example, good Wilton rugs are 256 pitch, meaning that there are 256 warp threads to each 27 inches of width of carpet, or 1,024 in a 9 by 12 rug.
Quarter.—Unit of loom width, 9 inches, or ¼ of a yard. The standard carpet width is ¾, or 3 times 9 equals 27 inches. Yard-wide carpet is known as 4/4; 9 feet wide as 12/4; 15 feet wide as 20/4, etc.
Shot.—The number of weft threads (see "pick") considered in reference to the tufts or loops of surface yarn. Two-shot means that there is one weft thread between each row of pile tufts. Three-shot means three weft threads to each row of tufts, one on the back and one on each side. Three-shot, requiring more material and more loom motion, adds to the cost, but increases durability.
Staple.—The general fibers of wool or cotton, considered as an index of quality; for example, a single fiber judged by itself as to length, thickness, and resiliency denotes the quality of the batch.
Stuffers.—Coarse yarn (usually jute) running lengthwise of the fabric that is caught by the weft and warp and bound into the fabric to form a thick, stiff, protective backing.
Top colors.—Colors forming the design, as distinguished from the ground color.
Tuft.—A bunch of flexible fibers like hairs, united at the base. Fine Wiltons contain 18,000 tufts to the square foot.
Warp.—Threads running the long way of rug, between which the weft, or woof (cross threads) are woven.
Weft.—Threads running the short way of the rug.
Wires.—Metal rods inserted between warp at same time weft is inserted, crosswise of loom. When withdrawn, resulting loops compose the pile. Number of wires is also used as index of quality.
Woof.—Same as weft.
Worsted.—Selected wool yarn made from long fibers, combed parallel and twisted hard. Three pounds of raw wool provide one of worsted.