• Alder - Associated Hardwoods, Inc.
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Alder

Alder

Alnus Rubra, commonly known as Red Alder, is a deciduous tree native to western North America. Alder is also valued for its wood, which is light in color and relatively soft. It is commonly used in the production of furniture, cabinetry, and veneer, as well as for pulp and paper manufacturing.

Grades
Thickness

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Red Alder is almost white when freshly cut, but quickly changes on exposure to air, becoming light brown with a yellow or reddish tinge. Heartwood is formed only in trees of advanced are and this is no visible boundary between sap and heartwood. The wood is fairly straight-grained with a uniform texture. 

WORKING PROPERTIES

Red Alder machines well and is excellent for turning. It nails, screws and glues well, and can be sanded, painted or stained to a good finish. It dries easily with little degrade and has good dimensional stability after drying. 

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Red Alder is a relatively soft hardwood of medium density that has low bending strength, shock resistance and stiffness. 

RATINGS 1 TO 5 (BEST)

Machining: 5

Nailing: 4

Screwing: 4

Gluing: 4

Finishing: 5

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Value-Added Services

  • ROUGH CUT LUMBER

    Rough cut lumber comes straight from the mill through the dry kiln in the form of planks. This is a version of lumber that has been kiln dried with no further processing.


  • SURFACE 2 SIDES (S2S)

    Surfaced Two Sides (S2S) is rough lumber that has been dressed on the top and bottom of the board in order to meet the requested thickness. Associated Hardwoods has state-of-the-art planers that dress the boards to meet the customer's exact specifications.

  • S2S/RIP-TO-WIDTH

    Rip-To-Width lumber is where both sides of the board are ripped to a customer's specified width after surfacing. Also available S3S, straight line ripped one edge after surfacing.

  • S2S/RIP/CUT-TO-LENGTH

    Rip-To-Width/Cut-To-Length is where the board is manufactured and defected to a customer's unique specifications.

  • S2S/GLUED-TO-SPEC

    Glued-To-Spec is where boards are ripped & cut and glued into a panels.

NHLA Grading Rules

The NHLA grades are based on the percentage of clear-defect free wood on a board. The measurements of this percentage are referred to as clear-cuttings.

Other than the FAS grades, the grade of the board is determined from the percentage of these clear cuttings and do not consider defects outside of the clear areas.

Learn more about NHLA Grading with this downloadable resource.

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NHLA Grading Rules