There are about 200 species of maple that grow in Central Europe, North America and Asia. The ones coming from Europe have a really fine fiber with highly decorative grain and a pale yellow shiny colour. Elegance, medium hardness and resistance make the maple pretty good for decorative works with a really refined finishing: it is commonly used for inlaid works, cabinet works, turning and instruments. The necks of the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster were originally an entirely maple one piece neck.
This tree, in different species, is native of the western Himalaya and the Mediterranean region. The cedar gives a very valuable wood and sought-after since ancient time. Phoenicians used it to build their boat, King Salomon used it to build the Jerusalem Temple, Sumer, Egyptian, Romans , Greeks , and all the ancient used this soft, workable , homogeneous and firm wood that since than naturally grow on their lands. Lebanon Cedar is the most known species, represented on the Lebanon flag; it has a bright gold colour with regular grain and many gnarls. The cedar has a spicy-resinous scented wood: a nice smell for humans but not for insects and termites. It is used a lot for furnishing and decorative objects.
The yellow pea-flowers in pendulous racemes in spring is the reason of the name of this tree. This tree, very common in European woods, gives a very valuable wood often called ‘fake ebony’ because of his quick oxidation taking a quite dark colour. The duramen is very hard heavy resistant and a dark chocolate brown, in opposition a butter-yellow sapwood. While been pretty hard has a good elasticity and easy to bend by heat; for this is similar to yew also used in arches making. Intensely used in the XVI century and in Medieval times, today is almost unutilized for his small size (the trunk diameter is about 15 cm).
The Dominican Republic symbol and drown on the Belize flag, the mahogany is often confused with species less valuable coming from Africa. Mahogany gives an hard dense workable, rust and woodworm resistant, reasons for many cabinet makers choose it. It is reliable for veneer, furnishing, boat, turning, making of stringed instruments. Since the beginning the Gibson Les Paul guitars are made with American mahogany, like some of the Paul Reed Smith guitars and some parts of Ludwig drums choosed by the Beatles. While The tighter grain of maple generally yields a brighter tone the mahogany produces a particular warm and deep sound richer in basses.
It is the most exported wood of the Africa due to his size: it can grow up to 40 meters with a trunk 1-2.5 meters of diameter. The gaboon grows only in west Africa in Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and Rio Muni. It is a weak wood and very porous in need of a special finish. Its lightness makes it great to use in boat and furnishing works. The alburnum is grayish while the duramen has streaks from the pale pink to the pinky brown; If properly worked gives a nice shiny iridescent look.
In the 60’s this wood used to be called as ‘tanzania’s oak’. In fact, this tree is not an oak and comes from Ivory Coast. With an even browny-blonde colour, pinky shades and few dark grains the Tanganyke is principally used for woodwork because of his resistance, stability and workability. It is also a good wood for turning. It has a brilliant, fine and even structure; generally the fibers are strait and the rare waviness makes pleasant variegated effects.
A valuable wood with a unique look ,yellowish colour and black grains, very hard, dense, humidity and scratch resistant .Depending on the age species and area of origin (Spain, Greece, Northern Africa, Italy, Holy Land) the olive wood has characteristic and look slightly different: it changes in compactness and intensity of colour and grains. Olive wood emits a strong and unmistakable smell that never totally fades away even after long time. It is a very beautiful wood thought it is not so easy to work for his high number of gnarls and his grains usually not so straight.
Coming from equatorial Africa and Congo river area, the wengè duramen is very dark in color with a distinctive figure and a strong partridge pattern. the sapwood can have yellow stripes The wood is heavy and hard, suitable for flooring staircases cabinet making and even if pretty rare for inlay. It is usually used for electrical guitars and bass guitars while in Africa is used for drum making. In woodturning it is very rarely used for his strait but rough fiber that makes it very difficult to work His surface, unhomogeneous at touch, is Appreciated to many people but, for the same reason, this wood needs a really careful finish.