Grades of Woods
At BRI we only use the best possible materials in our cabinetry. Not all wood is equal. I am not talking about red oak versis maple or how cherry wood compares to red mahogany. That is a personnel choice, regardless of the cost difference, there are a lot of excellent quality woods out there that will give you years of beautiful service. But did you know that wood is sold in graded increments, based on species specific climates and priced on current supply and demand? Yep, it is a traded commidity.
Example: Red oak lumber from warmer climates is different from red oak lumber in colder climates. Cold climate wood is in general higher quality than warm climate wood because of the grain characteristics that develope between the two. One grows much faster than the other. Trees that develope quickly in general have grainer characteristics than the same species that is produced from colder climates where the growth is much slower. With fast growth wood you generally see a lot more wild swings in graining and color traits. Where as in slow growth wood the grain patterns are more consistant and tighter. This applies to all types of wood. Fast growth wood is usually a bit cheaper than slow growth for obvious reasons.
Plywoods: Case work is done in plywoods that are veneered in the type of wood you are interested in. Plywoods are very stable by their design and provide the best possible combination of strength, stability and uniformity over lumber for case work. But then it gets complicated. Veneered plywoods come in many different grades. The grading is very wide, A to D with variances in between. Such as Shop grade. There is no letter grade on it, just shop. Meaning general overall suitability for shop work.
At BRI we only use northern grown lumbers and A-1 sliced veneeres for best possible overall quality. When you look at our cabinetry and you see the vivid characteristics in the wood, it is not that we were lucky on that one piece or that one cabinet and canopy came out better than average, it is because we only use the best possible materials for the job. Cost a bit more, but we feel it is worth it and looks worth it too. Our customers seem to agree as well.
