Anyone worked with parawood?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Pie

The Cellar is such a wealth of information! So glatt, what wood would you recommend?

I'd actually ask the place you deal with. Tell them what you want in the table. And what color you want it to eventually be. They might have a glut of one species that would end up being cheaper than another.

Maple is nice, cherry is too, but expensive. I'm partial to walnut, but it's a taste thing and has similar open pores. Oak is good too, but you might want to consider filling the pores before finishing it. There are several ways to do this. You can use a filler like this. Or start off with a thick layer of shellac, or just build up multiple layers of varnish or poly, sanding between each application.

I tend to think of historical Shaker furniture as being made of maple, but I'm not sure if that's actually true.