Guide — Materials
Choosing hardwood
for bespoke furniture.
Most commissions begin with the same question: which wood? The honest answer is that there is no best wood for furniture — only the right wood for a particular room, a particular use, and a particular idea of how a piece should look in twenty years. What follows is how we think about the four species that carry nearly all of our work, and how each one changes with time.
Four Species, in Detail
(01 — 04)01Walnut
American Black / Janka 1010 / Oil Finish
- Character
- Chocolate heartwood streaked with violet and grey, cut through by pale sapwood we usually design around rather than hide.
- At the bench
- Cuts and carves cleanly, holds a crisp hand-cut joint, and takes oil without blotching. Moderately hard — kind to tools, firm underfoot as a table top.
- How it ages
- The one hardwood that lightens. Sunlight pulls walnut from near-black toward a warm honeyed brown over five to ten years, and the figure gains depth as it goes.
- Best suited to
- Dining tables, credenzas, desks — pieces meant to anchor a room.
02Hard Maple
Sugar Maple / Janka 1450 / Natural
- Character
- Pale, nearly luminous, with a tight and even grain. Where walnut reads as warmth, maple reads as light and architecture.
- At the bench
- Dense and unforgiving — it burns if a blade is dull and it will not hide a sloppy joint. That same density is why it survives daily use.
- How it ages
- Ambers gently and evenly, moving from cream toward a soft wheat tone. Slower to change than any other species here, so a maple piece looks much as it did the day it left the bench.
- Best suited to
- Kitchen work surfaces, benches, chairs, light-filled rooms.
03White Oak
Quarter-sawn / Janka 1360 / Fumed or Oil
- Character
- Rift and quarter-sawn for medullary fleck — the ray flecks that read as a faint shimmer across the board. The most honest expression of grain we work with.
- At the bench
- Hard, exceptionally stable, and closed-pored enough to resist water. Quarter-sawing costs more yield but almost eliminates the seasonal cupping that plagues wide flat-sawn tops.
- How it ages
- Deepens from straw toward a settled amber-brown, and the fleck grows more distinct as the surrounding surface darkens. Fuming with ammonia darkens it decades ahead of schedule.
- Best suited to
- Wide table tops, casework, anything living in a humid or sunlit room.
04Hickory
Shagbark / Janka 1820 / Hand-rubbed
- Character
- Unapologetically bold — near-white sapwood against tan heartwood in the same board. Dramatic by nature; there is no quiet hickory.
- At the bench
- The strongest domestic hardwood we use, and the most demanding. It dulls edges quickly and moves more than oak, so joinery has to be cut to allow for it.
- How it ages
- Mellows rather than darkens. The contrast between sapwood and heartwood softens over years, so a piece that reads as loud when new settles into something more unified.
- Best suited to
- Chairs, stools, workbenches — anywhere strength is the brief.
01Start with the light in the room
A north-facing room swallows dark timber; walnut can turn to a silhouette there. Maple and white oak give back light. In a bright south-facing room the reverse holds — walnut comes alive and pale maple can flatten.
02Then decide how the wood should age
Every hardwood changes. Choose the direction you want: walnut lightens, oak and hickory settle and unify, maple ambers slowly. A piece you intend to keep for thirty years should be chosen for how it will look in year fifteen, not week one.
03Match hardness to real use
Janka hardness is a rough guide to dent resistance. A dining table in walnut will collect marks; that is part of its life. A kitchen surface or a chair takes maple, oak, or hickory. No finish makes a soft wood hard.
04Let width and stability set the cut
The wider the panel, the more the cut matters. Quarter-sawn stock stays flatter through the seasons than flat-sawn, which is why wide oak tops are worth the extra material.
05Choose the finish with the wood
Hand-rubbed oil sits in the wood and shows grain honestly, but asks for occasional attention. A harder film finish protects more and reveals less. The species, the room, and the finish are one decision, not three.
Beyond these four, cherry, ash, elm, and select exotic hardwoods are available for custom pieces. Cherry in particular rewards patience — it darkens further and faster than anything else we work with.