Beautiful Types of Wood: Color, Figure and Species

The USDA Wood Handbook (chapter 3) says the decorative value of wood depends on its color, figure and luster and on how it takes stains and clear finishes, with the final call left to the viewer. The most admired woods score high on one of those:

• Deep color - black walnut, black cherry, purpleheart, padauk, bloodwood, ebony.
• Strong stripes - zebrawood, wenge, rosewoods, black limba.
• Figure - birdseye and curly maple, quartersawn white oak, burls.
• Luster - sapele, which the Handbook says finishes well, and African mahogany, on which it says an excellent finish is readily obtained.

The sections below group them by what you see, with the Handbook's descriptions where it has them.

The Handbook defines figure as the pattern of wood: ordinary features such as growth rings on a plainsawn board or ray fleck on a quartersawn board, and rarer patterns from unusual growth such as birdseye, wavy grain and burls.

How the log is sawn decides which one you get. The Handbook's Table 3-1 says quartersawing brings out figure from pronounced rays, interlocked grain and wavy grain, while plainsawing brings out figure from the annual rings. That is why:

• Quartersawn white oak shows ray fleck, and quartersawn sapele shows narrow, even stripes from its interlocked grain (Handbook).
• Hard maple is often selected for birdseye, curly or fiddleback figure for furniture and novelty items (Handbook).
• Flat-sawn Indian rosewood shows an attractive figure from darker streaks at the end of each growth zone (Handbook).

Figure is a property of the individual board, so a figured board of a common species is often more striking than a plain board of an exotic one.

• Purple - purpleheart (Peltogyne): the Handbook says freshly cut heartwood is brown, turns deep purple on exposure to air and eventually dark brown on exposure to light.
• Red and orange - padauk, which Ocooch Hardwoods describes as a striking bright orange; bloodwood, a rich blood red (Ocooch); bubinga, pink to vivid red or red-brown with purple streaks, turning yellow or medium brown with a reddish tint in air (Handbook).
• Pink - pink ivory from southern Africa, pale shell pink to vivid hot pink (Duffield Timber).
• Black - Gaboon ebony, jet black (Ocooch); African blackwood; Macassar ebony, dark brown streaks on black (Rowden Atelier).
• Brown with black streaks - wenge, and Brazilian rosewood, which the Handbook describes in shades of brown, red and violet irregularly streaked with black.
• Gold - teak, yellow-brown to dark golden brown and turning rich brown in air (Handbook); canarywood, almost rainbow colored with dark red streaks (Ocooch); yellowheart, a consistent vibrant yellow (Ocooch).
• Near white - limba, gray-white to creamy yellow brown, valued for blond furniture (Handbook).
• Domestic classics - black walnut, and black cherry, whose heartwood the Handbook describes as light to dark reddish brown with a distinctive luster.

Most vivid colors fade or darken with light and air, so a finished piece rarely keeps the color of a fresh-cut board.

Wikipedia's article on African blackwood says it is often cited as one of the most expensive woods in the world, along with sandalwood, pink ivory, agarwood and ebony. Ocooch Hardwoods calls Gaboon ebony among the most expensive and difficult woods to source.

Before buying, check the legal status. Wikipedia states that every Dalbergia species (the true rosewoods, including African blackwood) is protected under CITES: Brazilian rosewood in Appendix I and all others in Appendix II. Afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) is also CITES Appendix II and listed as Endangered by IUCN. Duffield Timber adds that UK and EU timber regulations require due diligence tracing and recommends FSC or PEFC certification. Our African wood types page covers these species in detail.

Beautiful woods are the ones most often substituted or mislabeled. The Handbook notes Indian rosewood is very similar in appearance to Brazilian and Honduran rosewood, and many plain woods are stained to imitate walnut or cherry. Photograph a freshly planed end grain and a face in daylight. WoodLens compares both against its species library. Our species pages show black walnut, black cherry, purpleheart, wenge and sapele.

This page was drafted with AI help, and every figure was checked line by line against the sources listed.