Selecting Intarsia Wood

08/12/2009 17:20:00 Mike Mathieu

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Preserve the beauty of your work by understanding the effect of time

Preserve the beauty of your work by understanding the effect of time

For me, the best part of an intarsia project is picking out the wood to use. I spend hours matching up different colors and figures of wood. Often, woodworkers don't realize the vibrant wood they use in their project will change over time. Careful wood selection and a knowledge of how aging affects the color of specific woods will help your intarsia project stand the test of time.

I have been very fortunate to be able to use many different types of woods in my intarsia. I have learned a lot about the color changes wood goes through as it ages. When I created my first rose box, I used pink ivory for the rose. It was the most beautiful wood I had ever seen and it made the perfect rose. Unfortunately, pink ivory turns brown. I did some research and found bloodwood. As the name implies, the wood is red, and best of all, it stays red.

To save you the expense of choosing wood through trial and error, I'm sharing what I have learned from experience. Please note this is not a complete list, but it does provide a range of colors to help you make the most of your intarsia projects.

Species	Color and figure	Intarsia uses	Effects of time
African padauk	reddish orange	orange background wood	darkens with age
American walnut	nice brown color	good general dark wood	no change
Apple	tan	flesh tone	darkens with age
Ash	wide open grain, light with tan stripes	landscape	no change
Bird's-eye maple	light tan	great accent wood	slight darkening with age
Bloodwood	red	anything red	no change
Bubinga	brick red with wild grain	good general wood	no change
Canarywood	yellow with orange streaks	great accent wood	darkens with age
Cherry	reddish tan	frames and boxes	darkens with age
Cocobolo	wild grain, variety of color and shades	good background wood	darkens with age
Species	Color and figure	Intarsia uses	Effects of time
Ebony	black	anything black	no change
Fishtail oak	reddish brown, unique grain	tree trunks, bird feathers	no change
Holly	almost pure white, tight grain	anything white	no change
Honduran mahogany	nice grain, reddish brown	frames, boxes	darkens with age
Ipe	greenish brown	background	darkens with age
Jatoba	nice grain, reddish brown	background	darkens with age
Kingwood	purple with black stripes, wild grain	background	darkens with age
Lacewood	light brown to silver, unique grain	water, bird feathers	no change
Hard maple	light tan	good general wood	darkens slightly
Osage-orange	bright yellow	not recommended due to change	turns dark brown
Species	Color and figure	Intarsia uses	Effects of time
Pau amarillo	yellow	fall leaves, anything yellow	no change
Pear	peach color	flesh tone	darkens with age
Pernumbuco	bright orange with black stripes, rare	anything orange, fall leaves	no change
Persimmon	light tan with tight grain	cloudy skies	no change
Peruvian walnut	uniform chocolate color, nice grain	anything brown	no change
Poplar (green)	variety of shades available	anything green, trees	may darken to brown with age
Purpleheart	purple	mountain tops, anything purple	darkens with age
Sycamore	tan, light unique grain	feathers on birds	holds color well
Tulipwood	red on creamy background, beautiful grain	sunset, sunrise, flower petals	no change
Wenge	black with brown stripes, coarse	good dark wood	no change
Zebrawood	black lines against tan background	good background wood	darkens slightly