I’m about to bid on a project that involves the trim being Alder.
Having never worked with this species I would like to know
if there are any peculiar behaviors that Alder has that I
may want to know about in advance.
Any and all input appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Richard
Replies
Alder is a fairly soft wood. It resembles cherry in appearance, and it machines very well. It usually takes stain well.
Thank you for the immediate response.
The input has definitely helped.
The "fuzzy sanding" thing has me a bit concerned though.I will only be installing the Alder trim, not finishing it.
That will be left up to someone else. Thankfully!!!! Richard
Like the others have said, Alder can be a nice wood. It isn't as hard as other species, but I've never had any major problems with "fuzzy sanding". I've mostly used it as trim where I wanted an accent color.
This dresser is made from birch with alder trim. It wasn't stained - it just got two coats of poly.
Alder is a chameleon wood, you can make it look like anything. It machines easily, paints and stains well and is largely the material to use for any paint grade project. aloha, mike
Alder is one of the "blotch prone" woods, so the usual precautions are advised. A major positive for alder is that once you get around the blotching, you can finish it over a wide spectrum, "maple tone" to "walnut tone" if you get my drift.
It can seem a bit fuzzy. I've only made a couple/three things out of it, am thinking about using some kind of sanding conditioner next time, to make the fibers stiffen up a bit.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Saw some professionally made cabinets in Alder recently. They were unique in that the knots were left in and in many cases had small openings through their hearts left by the drying and checking process. The finish was very warm and deep and the small knots gave the doors and panels a very unusual and appealing effect.
HCB
I have installed my fair share of alder trim and built a few pieces of furniture out of it also, it usually has a fair bit of knots comes no longer than 12 feet is light weight cuts and machines well ,glues well and is fairly stable , if dry enough when you start. Its prone to blotchy finish so we usually pre condition the wood so it does'nt take so much stain.natural oil makes the wood light to medium reddish brown . people call it the poor mans cherry but I don't think it looks like cherry , especially when their side by side, cherry is definitely darker and seems to have a tighter grain plus much less knots . Red alder is fun to work with and easy on the tools.
Tim
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