North Castle Hardwoods Grading & Quality
At North Castle, we have worked carefully for 30 years to develop custom grades. These are designed to give furniture makers, fine woodworkers and crafters the best quality and yield from our lumber.
Our material is of unique quality that is consistently a few notches higher than the national standards for production. We have organized our quality into two easily understandable grades for woodcrafters, so you know exactly what to expect when ordering from North Castle Hardwoods. We also offer upgraded dimensioned wood products.
North Castle Hardwoods C2F (Clear 2 Face)
Our Clear 2 Face is our fine quality grade. Specially set aside, out from our standard premium stock, this grade is designed to offer exceptional quality for fine wood crafting and furniture making. Clear on one face with minimal character on the reverse, this grade is particularly suited to creating an even and consistent appearance for your entire project where both faces of the wood will be visible and where color consistency is important.
Key Features of C2F:
- Clear on one face, free of defects
- Minimal to no sap on clear face (or minimal to no heart for Maple)
- Near clear on reverse face with minimal character
- Minimal sap on reverse face (or minimal heart for Maple)
- No visible surface-checking or end-checking
- Some natural characters in grain such as curly or flame or burls may appear on either side.
North Castle Hardwoods C1F (Clear 1 Face)
Our C1F is our standard premium grade with the same better-face grade as C2F, but allowing for some minor defects and character on reverse face. Cut from pre-sorted logs, this standard grade offers “better than Select and Better” quality in a number of important areas for woodworkers and crafters. When purchasing this grade, you can expect to see a clear board on one face with a clean appearance and possible natural character on the reverse face.
Key features of C1F:
- Clear on one face (better face)
- Minimal to no sap on clear face (or minimal to no heart for Maple)
- Clean appearance with some possible natural character on reverse face
- Limited sap on reverse face (or limited heart for Maple)
- No visible surface-checking or end-checking
Considerations for difference species
White Oak: Due natural tendencies during drying, especially for plain sawn cuts, white oak may show some surface checking. Although we will kick out any boards with excessive surface checking, some surface checking can be expected. We will not ship boards with visible end checks.
White Ash: Due to the grading standards of white ash, reverse faces may have more heart than other species.
Dimensioned Lumber (Dimensional Lumber)
Our dimensional lumber comes from boards set aside during our sorting process. Boards that doesn’t make our other standard grades are cut to remove defects. They are surfaced and upgraded to premium S4S lumber, ready to use in any woodworking projects. Our Dimensional Lumber has been straight line ripped both edges, jointed on one face and planed flat for minimal to no warping.
Key Features of Dimensional Lumber:
- C2F grading
- S4S lumber (surfaced/sanded on all sides)
- Precision machined to a tight tolerance in all dimensions
- No wane (all sides are parallel)
Thin Stock
Our Thin Stock follows C2F grading standards, and has been resawn from Dimensional boards. You can expect parallel faces, but due to the flexibility of the Thin Stock we cannot guarantee an absolutely flat board (some bow along the face may occur). Any bowing in excess of 1/8" will not be shipped.
Key Features of Thin Stock
- C2F grading
- Surfaced 4 sides
- Machined to tight tolerances
North Castle Hardwoods Dimensional Products and Packaging Specifications
Dimensional Lumber Tolerances
Thickness
We sand our dimension pieces on precision wide belt sander to a very tight thickness specifications.
Width
Both edges are finished parallel, straight-line ripped on a dedicated precision glue-line rip saw. Widths are rounded down to the nearest 1/2” and measured in 1/2" increment from 2.5” to 6.5”. This means that 5” dimension board is finished at anywhere between 5”less 1/32” to 5-31/32” (5-1/2” less 1/32”), etc. We leave the extra width to give you the maximum advantage. If you would like us to finish the pcs at any specific width, please specify and we will edge them to your requirement.
Length
You will have two clean ends. There will be an overlength of 1/4” to 2”. If you require any specific length, we can trim the piece for you, in which case the original length of the board prior to trimming will be used for measurement.
Thickness: (+/-) 1/64”
Final dimension after thicknessing / planing.
Width: (-) 1/32”; (+)1/2” max
Final dimension after precision straight line rip 2 edges.
Length: (-) 0; (+) 0.25” ~ 2.0”
Final dimension after cross-cut.
Quality Specifications
Sapwood/heartwood Content
Dark wood: Walnut. Cherry, Red Oak, White Oak have minimum 95% heartwood on one face. Walnut is always steamed to provide maximum color stability.
Maple (white wood) dimension product, on the other hand, has minimum 95% sap on one side and very white on reverse face as well.
White Ash is not color sorted, but generally very white. Heartwood in this species is generally light brown and we do not include dark brown or gray in the heartwood. We make sure the color of sapwood and heartwood blend very well.
Clarity: generally clear both faces and both edges. The reverse face may allow small natural character, if any. Ends are defect-free. So, you are getting 100% usable wood that’s precision machined and color inspected.
Environmental Concerns
All our dimension products are carefully kiln dried and precision machined. After final machining, they are kept in climate-controlled storage and shielded from humidity variation and other elements that may be harmful to the wood, waiting for final packaging and shipment.
Packaging
Our packaging reflects how much we care about protecting your dimension product you order from us. For protection from shocks and rough package handling, we first wrap them in foam sheets. We then insert them in a moisture resistant poly tube and seal it air-tight to prevent them from natural movement of wood caused by shrinkage and expansion. The wood you receive will be flat and true to dimension without showing significant cupping or warpage. The package will leave our warehouse perfectly flat.
