Wood Species Reference
Every species page on this site reports the same set of fields, in the same order, so two woods can be compared directly instead of by cross-referencing incompatible sources scattered across different sites. This page explains what those fields actually mean and how to read them against each other — the individual species pages themselves are where the specific numbers for a given wood live.
What's actually being measured, field by field
Density (pounds per cubic foot, measured at 12% moisture content — the moisture level wood settles to in most heated interior spaces) is the single number that predicts more about a species than any other: it drives finished weight directly, it correlates strongly with hardness, and it's a rough proxy for how much resistance a hand tool or a router bit meets cutting the material. A 25 lb/ft³ softwood and a 65 lb/ft³ tropical hardwood aren't different points on one scale so much as different materials that happen to share the word "wood."
Janka hardness (pounds-force required to embed a steel ball halfway into the wood's surface) is the number flooring and high-wear furniture specs actually care about, and it doesn't track density in perfect lockstep — some lighter species resist denting better than their raw density would suggest, because hardness is measuring surface resistance specifically, not the bulk material property density measures.
Radial and tangential shrinkage (both expressed as a percentage, green-to-oven-dry) are the two numbers behind every wood-movement calculation on this site. Wood shrinks and swells far more across the growth rings (tangentially) than through them (radially) as its moisture content changes — commonly by a factor of 1.5 to 2 or more — and that asymmetry is exactly why the same species behaves differently depending on how a given board was sawn from the log. The ratio between the two figures (tangential ÷ radial) is worth checking on its own: a species sitting at or above roughly 2.0 is a genuine cupping risk when flatsawn wide, and is usually worth quartersawing or keeping narrow instead.
Workability, gluing, finishing, and durability are qualitative fields, written from how a species actually behaves at the bench rather than derived from a lab number — whether it dulls edges fast, whether it takes stain evenly or blotches, whether the heartwood resists rot outdoors without treatment. These are the fields worth reading in full before committing an unfamiliar species to a project with a specific finish or exposure requirement, because none of them reduce cleanly to a single figure the way density or hardness do.
Cost tier and typical price per board foot sort species into budget, moderate, premium, and exotic bands. This is the one category on every species page that is explicitly an estimate rather than a citation — lumber pricing varies by region, supplier, and season in a way density and shrinkage figures, drawn from published forestry research, do not. Use the tier and the price as a planning guide for comparing species against each other, not as a quote for a specific board.
Sustainability and toxicity flag two different kinds of real-world constraint: a CITES listing (which can mean export paperwork or outright restriction depending on the annotation) and any recorded skin, respiratory, or plant-toxicity concern. Neither field is padding — a species that's genuinely restricted or genuinely irritating is worth knowing about before a project is designed around it, not after a board is already on the bench.
Domestic versus imported, and why it's more than geography
Every species page is tagged domestic or imported. The practical difference usually isn't the wood itself so much as the supply chain behind it: domestic species are typically available from more suppliers, in more grades, at more predictable prices, and generally without any export or import paperwork. Imported species carry a wider spread of everything — availability, price, and in some cases regulatory status — and that spread is worth checking before a project's budget or timeline depends on a specific board showing up on schedule.
Reading the movement coefficient without doing the arithmetic yourself
Each species page also states a derived movement coefficient for both grain directions, worked from the published shrinkage figures — the standard method divides total shrinkage by the fiber saturation point (nominally 30% moisture content, the threshold above which wood stops changing size at all) to get a coefficient you can multiply straight against a board's width and its expected humidity swing. You don't need to run that division by hand: the wood movement calculator does it for any species on this site directly from its width, grain orientation, and starting and ending conditions, and returns the number in both inches and millimeters. What's worth understanding, rather than memorizing, is what the coefficient represents — a species-specific rate of change, not a fixed allowance that applies the same way to every board regardless of width.
"Hardwood" and "softwood" are botanical terms, not a hardness rating
Every species page is also tagged hardwood or softwood, and it's worth being explicit that this classification has nothing to do with the Janka number a few fields over. Hardwood and softwood describe the tree's reproductive structure — broadleaf, deciduous trees versus coniferous, needle-bearing ones — not how hard the resulting lumber actually is. Balsa is botanically a hardwood and is one of the softest commercial woods that exists; several softwoods used structurally, like southern yellow pine, are harder underfoot than a number of true hardwoods. Reach for the Janka figure, never the hardwood/softwood tag, whenever hardness itself is the actual question — flooring wear resistance, dent resistance in a tabletop, how much a species fights a hand plane.
Matching a species to what a project actually needs
Different projects stress different fields on this page, and it's worth deciding which field is load-bearing for a given build before comparing species on all of them equally:
- Outdoor furniture or anything exposed to weather lives or dies on the durability field — a species rated non-durable will rot in a season outdoors regardless of how attractive its grain or how favorable its price, and no amount of finish fully substitutes for genuine natural resistance in ground contact or standing water.
- Flooring and heavy-wear surfaces should be chosen primarily on Janka hardness, with density as a secondary check — a floor that dents under normal foot traffic is a design failure that shows up within the first year, not a slow one that gives you time to react.
- Anything built primarily with hand tools benefits from checking the workability notes closely rather than trusting density alone — some genuinely dense species work more pleasantly under a hand plane than a lighter one with reversing or interlocked grain, because tool feel depends on grain behavior as much as raw resistance.
- Wide panels and tabletops should be chosen partly on the tangential-to-radial ratio described above — a movement-prone species isn't disqualifying, but it does raise the stakes on getting the joinery and the seasonal timing right, which wood movement will destroy your build covers in full.
- Painted or secondary parts rarely need to spend budget on figure or color at all, which is exactly where a lower cost-tier, easy-gluing, stable species does the job a premium one would be wasted on.
How to actually use this reference to choose between two woods
The comparison that matters most rarely comes down to one field in isolation. A cheaper, softer domestic species might be the right call for painted secondary parts where hardness and figure don't matter; a dense, movement-prone hardwood might still be worth the extra joinery care for a show surface nothing else replicates. A practical way to work through a choice between two candidates: check density and cost tier first for the budget-and-weight question, check the tangential-to-radial ratio and workability notes for how forgiving the material will be to build with, and check durability and toxicity if the piece is going outdoors or will be sanded and machined in volume. Running both candidates' numbers through the wood weight calculator and the wood movement calculator with the same project dimensions turns "which wood is better" into a side-by-side comparison of actual numbers rather than a guess based on which one looks nicer in a photo.
Where the numbers came from, in brief
Density, hardness, and shrinkage figures on this site are drawn from published forestry research — chiefly the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook, supplemented by a secondary citable source for species that table doesn't cover — with the specific citation stated per field on every species page. Cost is the deliberate exception, clearly marked as an estimate rather than a citation for the reasons explained above. If a number on a species page looks off against something you've measured yourself on a real board, remember that every figure here is a species average from tested samples — a useful baseline for sizing a joint or comparing two woods, not a guarantee about the one board sitting on your bench.
Browse the full list below, or start from the wood movement calculator if you already know which species you're building with and just need the number for today's project.
Red Alder — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Red alder cuts almost like a soft pine but holds a crisp arris pine cannot — a dropped clamp still leaves a bruise you'll see under any finish applied.
White Ash — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
White ash steam-bends better than almost any North American wood, which is why Windsor chair backs use it — emerald ash borer now makes most supply salvage.
Green Ash — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Green ash density swings so much between a bottomland log and an upland one that guitar builders sort blanks by weight before they ever trust a single one.
Quaking Aspen — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Aspen fuzzes under a dull blade instead of cutting clean, and sanding just lays the fuzz down flat until the very first coat of finish stands it right back up.
American Basswood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Basswood carves in any direction without tearing, which is why carvers reach for it first — stain it, though, and the result usually goes muddy and uneven.
American Beech — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Beech is famous for warping in the stack and again after milling, so it gets roughed oversize and stickered for a week before final dimensioning begins.
Yellow Birch — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Yellow birch's 7.3% radial shrinkage is among the highest of any domestic hardwood, so even quartersawn boards move enough to plan for in a wide panel.
Paper Birch — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Paper birch gives the whitest ground of any domestic hardwood available for dye work, and it dents more readily than its Janka number would ever suggest.
Sweet Birch — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Sweet birch smells of wintergreen under the saw and darkens to a warm reddish brown on its own, which is why it stood in for cherry for nearly a century.
Butternut — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Butternut is walnut's pale, weightless cousin at a third the density, and it's now listed endangered in Canada because of the spreading butternut canker.
Black Cherry — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
A cherry board that leaves the shop pale pink turns deep russet within a year — anything left sitting on top of it during that year prints a permanent shadow.
American Chestnut — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
American chestnut is functionally extinct in the wild, so nearly everything sold today is reclaimed lumber — check each board for embedded nails first.
Eastern Cottonwood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Cottonwood sprays water off the saw while it's still green, but it won't split when you nail near an edge, which is exactly why crate makers relied on it.
American Elm — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Elm's interlocked grain is why it won't split — the trait that made it standard for Windsor chair seats and wagon-wheel hubs — and why it tears under a plane.
Red Elm — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Red elm reads warmer and behaves better under the plane than American elm, though its coarse pores and reddish tone still make it look old off the lathe.
Hackberry — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Hackberry blue-stains within days of felling, so the pale creamy color most woodworkers actually want is only available if the sawmill moved fast on the log.
Shagbark Hickory — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Nothing grown commercially in North America absorbs shock better than shagbark hickory, which is why axe helves still get made from it over anything harder.
Pecan — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Pecan is nearly as hard as true hickory but its radial shrinkage runs two full points lower, which is why it's the hickory group's better choice for flooring.
Honey Locust — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Among domestic hardwoods of comparable hardness only black locust moves less, so honey locust holds a glued-up panel flatter than its 1,580 lbf suggests.
Black Locust — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Black locust's rot resistance rivals teak at a fraction of the price, grown wild across Appalachia — both the bark and the sawdust are recorded irritants.
Bigleaf Maple — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Bigleaf maple is the species behind nearly all the quilted figure sold on the market — plain stock cuts cleanly while quilted stock fights every tool used.
Hard Maple — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Hard maple burns if you feed it slowly and dulls carbide fast, which is why every tablesaw and router pass on it runs quicker than instinct usually suggests.
Red Maple — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Red maple does most of what hard maple does at two-thirds the hardness and two-thirds the price, cutting more easily at the direct cost of dent resistance.
Red Oak — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Red oak's pores run straight through the board — you can genuinely blow bubbles through a length of its end grain — which is why it drinks stain so deeply.
White Oak — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Tyloses plug white oak's pores shut, which is the single reason it holds whiskey, survives on a boat hull, and refuses stain where red oak swallows it whole.
Bur Oak — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Bur oak is graded and sold as white oak, sharing its pore-sealing tyloses, but moves noticeably less — 12.7% volumetric shrinkage against white oak's 16.3%.
Chestnut Oak — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Chestnut oak was historically stripped for its tannin before the log ever reached a sawmill, and it still cups and fumes exactly the way white oak does.
Live Oak — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Live oak is denser and harder than any other North American oak by a wide margin, and its low-forked, twisted grain is why the Navy built ship knees from it.
Persimmon — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Persimmon moves more in service than any other domestic hardwood on record, and almost all of what you buy is pale sapwood — the black heartwood core is rare.
Sassafras — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Sassafras smells of root beer under the saw and looks like a lighter, softer ash, with boards that stay narrow because the tree itself rarely gets big.
Sweetgum — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Sweetgum is notorious for warping unless it's dried under weight, and once stable its quartersawn heartwood shows a ribbon stripe that veneer buyers pay for.
American Sycamore — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Quartersawn sycamore is the only reason to buy sycamore — the enormous rays produce a freckled lace figure sold as domestic lacewood; flatsawn, it's just bland.
Black Tupelo — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Black tupelo's grain is so thoroughly interlocked that the wood essentially cannot be split, which is why it became the traditional mallet-head timber.
Black Walnut — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Walnut fades in sunlight rather than darkening, the opposite of cherry, and most commercial stock gets steamed to push heartwood color into the sapwood.
Yellow Poplar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Yellow poplar's green streaks are mineral, not mold, and they will never fade — under a stain coat they show right through and look exactly like a mistake.
Osage Orange — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Osage orange comes off the saw a shocking fluorescent yellow and oxidizes to deep russet brown within months, so a finished piece looks nothing like the offcut.
Catalpa — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Only honey mesquite moves less among domestic hardwoods, and catalpa does it at 29 lb/ft3 — a rot-resistant outdoor wood light enough to carry one-handed.
American Holly — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
American holly stays white only if the log is felled in winter and dried fast — any delay at all lets fungal stain turn the whole board a dull, uneven gray.
Pacific Madrone — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Madrone's tangential shrinkage runs more than double its radial figure, which is why drying it slowly matters more here than with almost any other species.
Honey Mesquite — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Nothing in this table moves less than mesquite — 4.8% volumetric, roughly a third of white oak's — so Texas flooring installers lay it with almost no gap.
Baldcypress — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Old-growth cypress and today's second-growth are not the same wood: the legendary rot resistance came from heartwood extractives plantation trees mostly lack.
Alaska Yellow Cedar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Alaska yellow cedar is the hardest and finest-textured of the North American cedars, and it smells sharply of raw potato while a knife is cutting through it.
Eastern Redcedar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Eastern redcedar is botanically a juniper rather than a true cedar, and the aromatic oils behind its smell also genuinely repel clothes moth larvae for years.
Incense Cedar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Incense cedar sharpens cleanly in any direction without splintering, which is exactly why it became the standard pencil wood over everything else available.
Northern White Cedar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Northern white cedar is light enough to carry a canoe's worth of ribs under one arm, and soft enough that a fingernail alone will leave a visible mark.
Port Orford Cedar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Port Orford cedar beats every other North American softwood on strength-to-weight, which is why Japanese temple builders use it as a substitute for hinoki.
Western Redcedar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Western redcedar is the most dimensionally stable common softwood on the continent, and its extractives are a well-documented cause of occupational asthma.
Douglas Fir — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Douglas-fir's hard latewood bands wear unevenly against the soft earlywood under a plane, leaving a corrugated surface unless the iron stays sharp and light.
White Fir — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
White fir is odorless and colorless by design — everything a construction stud is supposed to be — and it dents under a hammer more than its density implies.
Eastern Hemlock — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Eastern hemlock's growth rings separate inside the log as ring shake, showing up as a crescent void in the board and downgrading more stock than any other flaw.
Western Hemlock — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Western hemlock runs straighter with far less ring shake than its eastern relative, though black flecks from healed insect galleries still show in most boards.
Western Larch — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Western larch is a deciduous conifer nearly as dense as soft maple, and its strong growth-ring contrast is loud enough that it sells as feature flooring.
Eastern White Pine — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Eastern white pine built American furniture before hardwood was affordable, and a sharp plane still leaves a burnished surface on it with almost no effort.
Ponderosa Pine — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
One ponderosa pine tree yields two different products: clear pale sapwood bound for pattern stock, and knotty heartwood that bleeds pitch for years afterward.
Sugar Pine — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Sugar pine cuts identically in every direction and barely moves as shop humidity swings, which is exactly why pattern makers reach for it over anything else.
Western White Pine — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Western white pine moves noticeably more than its eastern cousin — 11.8% volumetric shrinkage against 8.2% — so wide panels need extra movement allowance.
Lodgepole Pine — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Lodgepole pine's blue-grey beetle-kill streaking is a fungal stain that carries no strength penalty at all, and it has become a selling point in its own right.
Longleaf Pine — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Longleaf pine is the densest of the southern pines and the source of reclaimed heart pine, a genuinely different material from anything growing today.
Southern Yellow Pine — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Southern yellow pine is what the yard sells pressure-treated, and it twists as it dries down from the treatment plant unless you sticker it right away.
Redwood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Redwood combines extreme dimensional stability with extreme softness, cutting like butter and crushing just as easily under a careless clamp near an end.
Sitka Spruce — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
No commercial timber beats Sitka spruce's strength-to-weight ratio, which is why it framed early aircraft and still tops the best acoustic guitar soundboards.
White Spruce — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
White spruce is the workhorse of Canadian construction lumber, moving more in service than Sitka spruce and noticeably more than any of the cedars, too.
Spf — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
SPF is a grab-bag by design — the bundle at the yard mixes several species together, and you only find out which board is which once you've cut into it.
Hem Fir — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Hem-fir arrives wetter than SPF because hemlock holds so much water, and studs framed from it are notorious for shrinking after the wall is already closed up.
Tamarack — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Tamarack is a deciduous conifer of the northern bogs, and the natural knees where its root meets the trunk were the traditional source of grown boat frames.
Honduran Mahogany — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Honduran mahogany still sets the standard every cabinet timber gets compared against — eighteenth-century case pieces built from it still have tight joints.
African Mahogany — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
African mahogany is sold as mahogany but its interlocked grain tears where genuine Swietenia planes clean — a difference the bargain price never mentions.
Sapele — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Sapele's ribbon stripe on quartered faces is exactly why it won't plane cleanly — the grain reverses direction every few millimeters by simple definition.
Utile — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Utile is sapele's larger, calmer sibling, carrying a broader and less regular stripe with enough less interlock that a sharp plane can sometimes get through it.
Makore — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Makore's fine, poreless texture takes carved detail beautifully and blunts a jointer knife in a single board — the silica hiding in the wood does both jobs.
Iroko — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Iroko is sold as African teak and comes close to teak's stability, but it hides hard calcium deposits in the grain that can destroy a planer knife instantly.
Afrormosia — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Afrormosia works much like teak without teak's silica, so it holds an edge on the tool instead of taking one off — and it reacts with iron in damp conditions.
Wenge — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Wenge throws splinters that fester, which isn't folklore — they're notorious for going septic and are hard to spot against dark skin or a dark workbench.
African Padauk — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
African padauk leaves the saw an unreasonable orange-red and oxidizes to a muddy purple-brown within a year or two — no finish stops the shift, only slows it.
Bubinga — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Bubinga's CITES listing carries a 10 kg allowance for finished goods, which is why a bubinga box crosses a border freely while the raw lumber does not.
Zebrawood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Zebrawood's stripe only shows on a properly quartered face — a flatsawn board wastes the money — and its 17.8% volumetric shrinkage warps it unpredictably.
Gaboon Ebony — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Gaboon ebony is the blackest wood in commerce, and its 20% volumetric shrinkage means end checks develop in an unsealed blank within a single week of milling.
Macassar Ebony — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Macassar ebony dries far better than its African cousin — 14.2% volumetric shrinkage against 20% — and no two boards ever share the same black-and-brown stripe.
African Blackwood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Clarinet and oboe makers use almost nothing but African blackwood, because it machines more like brass than timber and holds a bore to a thousandth of an inch.
Movingui — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Movingui carries silica the way makore does, so it dulls edges fast, but its 10% volumetric shrinkage suits it nicely to wide, stable interior panels.
Obeche — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Obeche is lighter than western redcedar despite being a tropical hardwood, and it's one of the better-studied wood-dust asthma agents in European sawmilling.
Limba — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Limba is what Gibson called korina and built its Flying V guitars from — light, soft, open-pored, and forgiving under every tool in the shop except a dull one.
Teak — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Silica in teak dulls a blade faster than its density alone would suggest, and its natural oils fight both glue and film finishes at the same time, always.
Merbau — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Merbau's yellow mineral deposits sit in the pores like grains of sand and nick a blade, and rain on a fresh deck leaches red-brown tannin onto the concrete.
Jarrah — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Jarrah is prone to nearly every drying defect there is — collapse, checking, honeycomb — and commercial stock is routinely steamed to fix it before sale.
Spanish Cedar — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Spanish cedar smells like a cigar box because it genuinely is the cigar-box wood, and that same resin bleeds to the surface for years after a piece is finished.
Ipe — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Ipe is dense enough to sink in water, and a deck screw driven straight into it without a pilot hole will snap its own head off before the screw even seats.
Jatoba — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Jatoba is marketed as Brazilian cherry and shares nothing with actual cherry but the name — it runs roughly three times as hard and photo-darkens just as fast.
Cumaru — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Cumaru smells faintly of vanilla because the same tree also yields tonka beans, and it's usually specified as the more workable alternative to ipe on a deck.
Purpleheart — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Purpleheart gums a blade with its own resin as heat melts it out of the wood, and the vivid purple everyone buys it for browns under UV within a few months.
Bloodwood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Bloodwood holds its red color better than padauk does, darkening only slightly instead of turning brown — the dust stains everything nearby red in the meantime.
Canarywood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Canarywood ships wildly variable — one board yellow, the next streaked orange and black — and all of it settles into a more uniform amber-red within a year.
Goncalo Alves — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Goncalo alves is sold as tigerwood for its unpredictable dark streaking, and it's one of the few dense exotics that polish smooth straight off the cutter.
Leopardwood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Leopardwood's ray flecking only appears on a properly quartered face, and its 2.5 tangential:radial ratio makes any flatsawn board cup noticeably badly.
Katalox — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Katalox approaches ebony's color and hardness at roughly a quarter of the price, which is why fingerboard makers reach for it as a legitimate substitute.
Chechen — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Chechen's other name is black poisonwood, and it's earned honestly — the living tree's sap causes blistering dermatitis, though dried lumber reacts far less.
Macacauba — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Macacauba's 6.5% volumetric shrinkage at 68 lb/ft3 is remarkable stability for the density, which is exactly why marimba makers trust it to hold its pitch.
Cocobolo — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Cocobolo feels waxy in the hand because of an oil that does three things at once — it repels rot, it defeats glue, and it sensitizes many who cut it for years.
Brazilian Rosewood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Brazilian rosewood sits on CITES Appendix I, the strictest tier the whole system has, so commercial international trade in it has been closed since 1992.
East Indian Rosewood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
East Indian rosewood is the working rosewood of the guitar industry — the one still legally buyable — and noticeably less oily than cocobolo to build with.
Pau Ferro — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Pau ferro became the standard fingerboard substitute once CITES restricted true rosewoods, and it's close enough in feel that most players can't tell.
Bocote — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Bocote's zebra-striped figure depends entirely on where the log gets cut — the swirling partridge-eye pattern only ever appears near an old branch collar.
Ziricote — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Ziricote's prized spider-webbing and its worst seasoning checks both form in the same figured areas, so an expensive set needs inspecting before you resaw it.
Olivewood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Olivewood comes from orchard trees, so you buy short, crooked billets full of included bark rather than clean boards — and it checks badly if dried too fast.
European Boxwood — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
European boxwood has the finest, most even texture of any wood in commercial use, and box blight has now made supply intermittent across most of Europe.
Lignum Vitae — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost
Lignum vitae behaves less like timber than a self-lubricating bearing — its own resin ran ships' propeller shafts for a century without a drop of added oil.