The best furniture begins with the best lumber. We offer three species of lumber: Western Alder, American Black Walnut, and African Mahogany.

ALDER

Western Alder thrives in the low, moist conditions of the Pacific Northwest in Western Oregon, Washington, and Nothern California. Western Alder is a close or fine grained hardwood similar to Cherry, Birch, and Maple. It has a density or hardness comparable to Appalachian Soft Maple.

This wood is extremely uniform in its light tan or honey color and there is no color difference between heartwood and sapwood. This makes Alder much easier to match and finish, because kiln dried Alder presents no problem with sap, mineral streaks, dark color, or stain.

WALNUT

The sapwood of walnut is creamy white, while the heartwood is light brown to chocolate brown, occasionally with a purple cast and darker streaks.

Walnut can be supplied steamed to darken the sapwood or left unsteamed. The wood is generally straight grained, but sometimes with wavy or curly grain that produces an attractive and decorative figure.

Walnut works well with hand and machine tools. It also nails, screws, and glues well. It holds paint and stain very well and can be polished to an exceptional finish. It dries slowly and care is needed to avoid kilning degradation. Walnut has good dimensional stability.

MAHOGANY

IMPORTANT: Due to the harmful effects the harvesting of mahogany trees has on our environment, Bausman has elected to discontinue our mahogany option. We will only build items from mahogany until our current supply is depleted. For more information on our commitment to environmentally responsible production, visit our protection page or use our contact page for specific questions.

Mahogany is an excellent cabinet and veneer species because of its long trunk form, rapid growth, and attractive pink-red to deep red-brown lustrous wood, often with interlocking grain and ribbon striping.