MWP General Wood Information

Species
Wood species refers to the type of wood is at hand. The name of the wood generally comes from the tree it comes from. Midwestern Wood Products Co. mainly utilizes Poplar, Red Oak, and Cherry. All three of these species of wood are refered to as hard woods.

Poplar
Poplar is a mild grain wood which is naturally light in color. It is preferred to be used for painting due to its mild grain. It can be stained medium to dark colors to match most other types of wood such as cherry, or walnut. Poplar is soft compared to hard maple, thus easier to work with.

Natural Poplar                   Stained Poplar

Red Oak
Red Oak is a grainy wood wich is has a redish tent to its color. The grain patterns usually lend it self to a casual to formal feel. It is a hard wood witch has a lot of strength.

Natural Red Oak                Stained Red Oak

Cherry
Cherry is a mild grain wood which naturally has a reddish tent to its color. It is a hard wood which some times has an iridescent look to it. Cherry is generally an expensive wood which is used for a formal feel.

Natural Cherry                  Stained Cherry

Plywood
Plywood is a type of board. It consists of a veneer of the desired species of wood, along with layers of various species of wood hidden below the surface. The layers of wood have varying grain direction as well as glue between them. This creates a very strong board that does not expand a lot with humidity. Due to the layers of wood, the edge of the plywood should be hidden.

Red Oak Plywood Edge

MDF
MDF or Medium Density Fiber board is a board made of compressed fine wood particles. There is no grain direction associated with MDF. Paint adheres nicely to the face of MDF, but not on the ends.

MDF Corner

Building Material
Wood is a building material which has unique properties. A basic wooden board is shown below.

A board has a length, width, and thickness. Like how metal expands and contracts with temperature changes, wood will expand and contract with moisture changes. The main direction in which the board size with vary the most with moisture change will be the width of the board. The Length will vary some, but the width will vary the most.