In the realization of my parts, I use painting or dyeing; Only very seldom.  I always try to find the wood which will give me the desired effect.  Am I being lazy? I don't think so; there are so many different colors that it is often possible to find the colour that will match the color I need and this will preserve the pleasure of the natural color of wood.

Do not hesitate to forward me any correction or any further information who could improve this page.

On teh web site of  Langevin & Forest, we can find a French-English correspondance of the wood names.

Here are some of the species I use:

Mahogany Brazil	Purple Hearth Brazil	Bocote (Satine, Cardinalwood) Brazil	Bubinga (Essingang, Ebana, Waka, Akume) Cameroun
Figured Bubinga Cameroun	Canary (Turara, Putumuju) Brazil		Aromatic Red Cedar Canada
Cherry tree Usa and Canada	Chakte-kok (Reahearth) Mexico / Central America	Red Oak (Spanish Oak) USA and Canada	Cocobolo (Nambar, granadillo) Mexico / Central America
Cumaru (Almendrillo, Champanha, Sarrapia, Tonka) Brazil	Hard Maple (Sugar Maple) East of USA and Canada	Flamed Maple	Soft Maple (Big leaf, Pacific Maple) North-West of USA and Canada
Birdseye Maple USA and Canada	Ash Canada	Goncalo-alves (tigerwood, urunday-para, mura, bois de zebre, chiatao, guarita, urunday, aderno) Central and South America	Norway Beech
European Spalted Beech The black lines are created by a water-borne fungus entering the dead wood.	Jatoba (Brazilian cherry) Brazil		Lacewood (Lourou Faia) Brazil
Lyptus South America	Wild Cherry Canada	Bolivian rosewood	African Walnut African
Olive Méditéranean	African Padouk (Camwood) Afrique	Pau Amarello (Yellowhearth) Brazil	Pernambuco (Brazil wood, bahia , para, Brazil ironwood, brasiletto) Brazil
Pine Canada	Pear	Bloodwood Brazil	Shedua (Amazouk) Gabon, Central America
Sycamore	Teak	Wenge (Pallissandre, Dikela) Central Africa	Zebrawood (Zebrano) West Africa
Some pieces of wood have special textures which make the happiness of the handymen and craftsmen, like "Birdseye", "Flame" and the "Curly" one. On the left, you see waved maple, in the center, flame maple and on the right, birdseye maple (results from a disease of the tree). Below, you can see an assembly which shows well the difference between the three.
Curly Flame Birdseye

For the name of the species, you can consult the table on the Gilmer Wood Company web site. Several of these photographs come from their site.

Another very interesting site is this one on the exotic woods.