ALDER LUMBER: 8/4 Wood 2024

Alder Lumber Grades: Why are they different than other hardwoods?

With over 25 years in the hardwood lumber business, I have always know alder wood grades as different than those of oak, maple and ash. However, I wanted to find out why they were different. Thus, I reached out to one of the largest Alnus rubra sawmill operations in the world, Northwest. 

On April 2, 2020, Northwest Hardwoods Marketing Specialist Jacob Schriner gave us a brief history on how their alder proprietary grades evolved.

Here is the article/blog we put together around the grading of Alder.  Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns or would like anything else. Thank you! Jacob Schriner.

The History of Grading   

Over 50 years ago Northwest Hardwoods entered the hardwood lumber business with a single sawmill in Arlington, WA that focused on cutting Alder. At this time it was considered a low value, little known hardwood. Accordingly, it was used for a variety of different applications and  considered an inferior wood. Unlike cherry, red oak and hard maple to name a few.

The lumber was graded from the better face and had unlimited cuttings, compared to eastern hardwoods which have a limited number of cuttings by grade.

There were five standard grades of alder:

• Select & Btr,
• #1 Shop
• #2 Shop
• #3 Shop
• Frame

Northwest Hardwoods envisioned Alnus rubra developing into a highly valued hardwood comparable to more well-known eastern hardwood species. To
accomplish this, NWH employed a strategy called Consultative Selling.

Making New Alder Grades

Consultative selling is a technique where salespeople and quality control people sit down with customers and ask them what they want and need in a product to best fit their businesses.

The general feedback on Alder was positive. However, the standard grades were not aligned with the customers’ needs. For example, the #1 shop was a clear one face grade where the back could be sound (have small knots on the back of the cuttings). This grade simply did not work for cabinet makers.

Proprietary Wood Grades

This was the inception of proprietary grading. NWLH separated the #1 shop
into two separate grades: Cabinet and Custom Shop. Cabinet grade is graded from the worst face and yields 66.67% clear face cuttings.  Custom Shop is graded from the better face and yields 66.67% clear face cuttings.

Cabinet manufacturers immediately saw the value in the Cabinet Grade and other customers, like furniture makers who could use one face cuttings saw the value in the Custom Shop grade. This same approach was used to create the Premium Frame and Standard Frame grades for the upholsters. Premium Frame, which was graded for a small tight defect structure was used to produce long front, back and top rails in upholstered furniture. 

Standard Frame was used for the shorter cuttings in upholstered furniture.

In the case of Superior grade alder, NWH was asked to provide a grade that went above and beyond the specs of Select & Btr, which at the time the highest grade of alder offered. The resultant product was named Superiors. This continues to be the highest grade of (sic widely available) alder on the market today. 

Once this new proprietary grading system was in place the market began to adopt these new names and specifications. Once the customers started demanding these application specific grades, it did not take long for all alder producers to conform to this grading structure.

NHLA Reaction to New Alder Grades

Eventually, the NHLA asked members to vote on formally adopting NWH core proprietary grades and eliminate the prior grades of
Select & Btr, #1, #2, #3 SHOP and Frame.

Today, one can see Superiors, Cabinet, Custom Shop and other NHLA grades described in the NHLA Rule Book.