I was recently asked what was the best timber for making woodtype - the quick answer is any 'diffuse-porous' timber.
Diffuse-porous? What's that?
Diffuse-porous refers to type of pores in the trees growth rings - pores are of similar size across the growth ring, from the earlywood to the latewood, resulting in a smooth, uniform grain. Due to their smaller, evenly distributed pores, these woods are often referred to as "closed grain".
Woodtype uses the endgrain so diffuse-porous timber is ideal as it doesn't show the grain when printing, using a wood like oak (a 'ring-porous' wood) which has an 'open grain' would show the growth rings when printed with.
In the UK, common diffuse-porous timbers include beech, sycamore, birch, poplar, hornbeam and lime.
In the USA, common diffuse-porous timbers include beech, maple, birch, sweetgum, aspen, and tulip-poplar.
Although there are hardwoods traditionally associated with making woodtype - Maple in the USA - Swiss Pear in Europe - Hornbeam and Boxwood in the UK - these traditions are based around the availability of native species - and in an age of climate responsibility we should all be looking for native timber species to use rather than importing timber.
What timber do I use?
I've made the decision to only use English hardwoods for making woodtype, I then know the provenance of the timber - where it comes from and how it was processed - this has lead me to use some great native diffuse-porous species like pear, hornbeam and sycamore - all from little sawmills in the UK where they know the trees they are milling and can tell you when the tree was cut down (or what storm brought them down) and how long the timber has been seasoned for.