One of the main decorative properties of wood is its color. However, it is not always permanent. Under the influence of various factors, wood changes the color or tone of the existing color. The color change of the wood often occurs unevenly on the surface of the ridge or board. Sometimes one part of the wood acquires a new color, while the other retains the former.
Some tree species change color under the influence of atmospheric oxygen; so, the wood of a freshly chopped alder blushes. Wood discoloration also occurs as a result of prolonged exposure to atmospheric conditions. In this case, wood, as a rule, acquires a darker shade. So, for example, pine wood in rooms becomes brown, and in the open air – gray or silver-gray. Yew becomes so dark that it becomes like an ebony. The only exception to conifers is spruce, whose wood retains white color for a relatively long time.
Some species of trees change their color from being in the water. Oak wood, lying for hundreds of years at the bottom of the river, gets a dark, almost black color (stained oak). Yew wood takes a beautiful purple-crimson color from being in the water, and birch wood turns gray.
Most wood species used for decorative purposes acquire more intense shades of their inherent color as a result of steaming before cutting into plywood.
Many species change the color of wood under the influence of fungal lesions. At the same time, the mechanical properties of wood often hardly change or they change so insignificantly that it does not matter when using it for finishing work. So, blue is very common in pine wood, the shades of which are so diverse that the wood is used in mosaic works (Fig. 1). Some diseases of the oak (in the initial stage without damage to the wood) give a pinkish and reddish-brown color of sound wood. Other species (birch, beech, maple) have the so-called false core, whose wood has a fairly intense color.Names of vices such as rubble and hard dark, also indicate a discoloration of the wood.
The color of the wood changes depending on the age of the tree. Young wood is always painted lighter. The dependence of color is also observed on climatic conditions and the place of growth of the tree. The wood of the northern pine is distinguished by brownish-red tones, the wood of the southern pine is pinkish and even light yellow.
Domestic tree species, depending on color, are classified according to the prevailing shade of the natural color of the sound part of the wood in a state prepared for production purposes (in the form of boards, plywood, logs).
Yellow wood: – light (slightly yellowish, pinkish or reddish) – birch, spruce, linden, aspen, hornbeam, maple, fir, euonymus; – light yellow (lemon) – samsite, barberry, scoopia; golden yellow – maklura, mulberry; – reddish: (brownish) – yellow – hawthorn, bird cherry, Karelian birch; – pinkish-yellow – aylanthus, ash.
Brown wood: – light brown – cedar, poplar, elm (core), sucker; reddish (or pinkish) -brown – beech, larch, alder, pear, plum, honeysuckle; – brownish brown – chestnut, mountain ash; yellowish brown – acacia. Brown wood: – tan – oak, elm, velvet tree; red-brown – cypress, thuja, cherry, elm, pine; pinkish-brown – juniper, apple tree, cherry, gledicia; – dark brown – walnut, apricot. Red wood – yew. Pink wood: – yellowish pink – laurel cherry, plum; dark pink – chinara (plane tree), hop-horn. Orange wood is buckthorn. Purple wood – lilac, privet (core). Black wood – stained oak.
Greenish wood – persimmon, scam, holly, pistachio. For decorative purposes, a large number of different types of wood can be used, each of which has its own shade. In addition, the natural color of each breed can be modified under the influence of the above factors. Practically for the execution of woodwork, you can find all the basic warm colors, and an unlimited number of shades.
