Mahogany - Oak - Ash - Red Gum - Walnut - Maple - Beech - Birch - Rosewood - Veneered Furniture.

The essential points which should be considered in the purchasing of furniture for the home are comfort, lightness, and strength. Comfort and lightness are largely matters of design, but the strength and durability of a piece of furniture is mainly due to the selection of the wood of which it is constructed. The highest skill may have gone into the making of an individual chair or table - the different parts may have been so joined that the whole structure has become one piece, but if the wood appropriate for the use has not been chosen, the careful workmanship has been wasted. The prospective buyer of household furniture, then, should have some idea of the general characteristics of the more commonly used woods so that he may have some independent knowledge to supplement information given by dealers.

Mahogany

Probably the best known of all the furniture woods is mahogany. It is so well known that a description of its appearance is unnecessary. The most expensive and best known of the mahoganies is the Spanish. The cheapest wood of this variety is the Honduras, or the Baywood, as it is commonly called. The Spanish mahogany comes from the West Indies and is very beautifully figured. The Honduras mahogany has little attractive marking and is a much softer wood than the Spanish mahogany. However, it is usually free from knots and other defects and is well adapted for furniture-making where plainness is not objectionable. Compared with the finer varieties of this wood, the grain is rather open and coarse, but it is used for much of the less expensive furniture and is often employed for the foundation work in veneered furniture of fine quality and for the backs of cabinets or other parts which are not generally exposed to view. There are many varieties of mahogany, ranging from the finest to that costing little more than the best pine. It is all good furniture wood and takes a high degree of finish.

Oak

Oak, like mahogany, is so well known that a description is not necessary. Oaks of all kinds are becoming quite expensive and are now used with care which would have astonished our colonial forefathers, to whom oak was the commonest building material. White Oak is the strongest, toughest, and most durable. It is characterized by its figure, which consists of hard, glossy marks unlike those in any other wood. Brown Oak is considered the choicest of all the different varieties. It is very hard, closely marked, and the best grade, which is called the Pollard, is much used for veneers. The lighter oaks are often successfully stained to imitate Brown Oak. Red Oak is another variety which is used often in cabinet work. It costs about the same as White Oak, but is usually of coarser texture, is more porous, less durable, and is often brittle.

Walnut

Another wood which years ago was considered very common and is now classed among the most expensive varieties of furniture materials is Black Walnut. It is of coarse texture, but is heavy, hard, stiff, and very strong. The narrow sapwood is whitish and the heartwood is chocolate brown.

Brought Out the Beautiful Grain of the Wood.

The Reproductions of Colonial Furniture Have Broad Unornamented Spaces Which Show the Fine Finish.

(Courtesy of Mrs. Henry Dunlop).

The wood is durable and takes a good polish, and is so handsome that it has become the favorite cabinet material in this country. Although, in colonial days, Black Walnut was also used as an ordinary building material, it has now become so scarce that at the present time it is too expensive for most furniture, and is employed largely as a veneer. Because of its strength and elasticity walnut is especially desirable for gunstocks, and the recent demand for the wood for this purpose both at home and abroad has considerably reduced the available supply.