National Hardwood Magazine - July 2011

Western Alder Grades
At NHLA Convention
In Nashville
BY DAVID SWEITZER
Western Red Alder, the most prolific Hardwood in
the Pacific Northwest, moves East to make its presence
known at the 2011 NHLA Annual Convention
& Exhibit Showcase, September 21 – 24 in
Nashville. Although the Eastern domestic market
uses Alder extensively, there are many who don’t
know about the several grades not shown in the
National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA)
grade rulebook nor appreciate its superb workability
characteristics. For these reasons, the Western
Hardwood Association (WHA) will be at the meeting
again this year to present its program on Friday,
September 23, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Highlighting the free luncheon meeting will be a
visual presentation of several grade descriptions,
cuttings, and applications for Alder. The more common
grades include Superior, Superior One Face,
Custom Jacket Board, Cabinet, Custom Shop, Jacket
Board, Com Shop, Premium Frame, Rustic,
Standard Frame, Economy, and Utility. Since selecting
the proper grade for a particular application is
crucial to the bottom line of any manufacturing business,
both the salesman and the customer need to be
familiar with the grades.
While proper selection of the grade is extremely
important, workability characteristics are equally
important. Alder scores very high in machining,
resistance to splitting, joint strength, gluing, sanding/polishing,
finishing, and dimensional stability.
Western Alder is a close or fine-grained Hardwood,
extremely uniform in its light tan or honey color
with no color difference between heartwood and
sapwood. Alder features a light pattern, which adds
to its popularity for printing and matching Alder
solids with many species of veneers without bleaching.
It is ideally suited for cabinets, fine furniture,
furniture frames, pallets, plywood, veneer, specialty
items and paper products. Alder is milled random
lengths, typically 8’ and 10’, random widths to 10”,
and thicknesses of 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 8/4, 10/4, and
12/4. It is available in S2S, and custom millwork in
S4S, cut stock, turning stock and laminated stock.
David Sweitzer has been the Secretary/Manager of
the Western Hardwood Association since 1975.
Contact information: email – wha@westernhardwood.org
web – www.westernhardwood.org,
phone – 360-835-1600 fax – 360-835-1900.
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