Wood, Woody, Would He?

Cocky Little Dude

Today we're gonna talk about the application of wood in your home.  Perhaps even different uses in different rooms.  Give me a chance here, we'll get down to business. 

How wood grows: At the very center is the pith, which is much softer and possibly a different color than the surrounding heartwood. Heartwood is made up of dead cells that no longer serve any purpose except to support the tree. Next is the sapwood, which carries water, minerals, and plant sugars between the roots and the leaves. Outside the sapwood, close to the surface, is the cambium, a thin layer of living cells. These cells manufacture the wood as they grow. The cambium is covered by a protective layer of bark. The cambium grows rapidly at the beginning of each growing season, creating light colored springwood. As the climate warms, it slows down and produces darker summerwood. This later growth is somewhat denser and harder. As the weather turns cold, the cambium becomes dormant until the next spring. This cycle produces distinctive growth rings.

Walnut is one of the most versatile and popular cabinet making woods. It grows in Europe, America and Asia. Walnut is strong, hard and durable, without being excessively heavy. The wood is light to dark chocolate brown in color with a straight grain in the trunk. Walnut stumps are often dug out and used as a source of highly figured veneer. Walnut shows a wide range of figures, including burls, mottles, crotches, and butts.

Mahogany, also known as Honduras mahogany is a tropical hardwood indigenous to South America, Central America and Africa. Mahogany which comes from the Caribbean is thought to be the hardest, strongest and best quality. Logs from Africa, though highly figured, are of slightly lesser quality.

Mahogany is strong, with a uniform pore structure and poorly defined annual rings. It has a reddish-brown color and may display stripe, ribbon, ripple, or mottle figures. Crotch mahogany figures are widely used and greatly valued. Mahogany is an excellent carving wood and finishes well.

 

 Oak is the most widely used hardwood. There are more than 60 species of oak grown in the U.S., which can be separated into two basic varieties; white and red. The red variety is also known as black oak (a reference to its bark). Oak is a heavy, strong, light colored hardwood. Prominent rings and large pores give oak a coarse texture and prominent grain. Oak also has conspicuous medullary rays which can be seen as "flakes" in quarter sawed oak lumber.

Wood from a tree crotch is characterized by a swirling, irregular figure and used for furniture and veneers. This particular grain pattern is sometimes called “feather crotch.” Men grab at their crotch and often check out the crotches of others they are attracted to. Just a curious observation of terms, which will continue.

Wood grain of different types are beautiful. Incredible woodworking has been done for hundreds of years. Many times when restoring old homes layers of paint must be stripped away to reveal  architectural details.  Men love wood grains, they also love strippers. Just another observation.

Before

After

Often when designing a home the woodwork is not up to snuff. Painting is the solution, making ugly fade away. Just mention this to the husband and he strokes out. I let the wife fight this battle, afraid of a black eye. Pictured above is a good example of how painting ugly removes an eye sore. Not my work so I didn't suffer a black eye, flawing my handsome face.

Now to the nitty gritty. We all known the implication of the word woody.  Woodies can also be used in different rooms of the house, just like woodwork.

Percy Sledge
"When a Man Loves a Woman"