What Is Alder Wood
Most of the higher grade lumber is used for furniture cabinetry and turned products.
What is alder wood. Ever since it remains the body wood for the majority of Fender electric instruments. Alder is carefully manufactured dried and inspected to ensure flat straight and stable lumbermaking it ideal for moldings millwork as well as furniture and cabinets. It was and still is a very good choice.
Red alder is rated non-durable to perishable regarding decay resistance and freshly cut logs should be quickly converted into lumber and dried to prevent staining or decay in the wood. It used to be a poor boys maple but with the advent of modern milling and kiln technology it has come into its own as a hardwood for cabinetry and furniture. Fender adopted alder for electric instrument bodies in mid-1956 probably for no other reason than it was there.
Alder is an attractive close-grain species with a nice uniform color a fine texture and uniform density says Miller. It even supports a market for character wood using the knotty stained and void containing boards that used to go to the chipper. Although classified as a hardwood alder is one of the softest of all hardwoods and is more commonly referred to as a semi-hardwood.
The term alder is used to describe trees and shrubs in the genus Aldus which is widely spread throughout the temperate zones of the Northern HemisphereThere are a number of uses for alder wood ranging from smoking fish to furniture and it is an enduring and popular wood especially in the United States. Owing to its malleable texture the wood is commonly known as a semi-hardwood. Alder dries to an even honey tone and can be finished to resemble more expensive fine-grained species.
Identified as a popular finish hardwood alder wood is one of the softest hardwoods on the market after of course pine and poplar wood. Homeowners who want to pick the best wood for their wooden furniture are often confused when it comes to alder wood as they wonder if alder is a hardwood. Alder is a common wood used in cabinet making.
The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs a few reaching a large size distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species extending into Central America as well as the northern and southern Andes. What is Alder Wood. Alder is a hot commodity.