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.