Shopping CartShopping Cart | Privacy Policy | Print
Not logged in: Login | Register | Contact Us
Brazilian Cherry Grading Info Brazilian Cherry Species Info; Back

Value Wood Flooring goes to great lengths to ensure the correct representation of our flooring grades. In North America, the National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association (NOFMA) sets the grading standards.

NOFMA standards are written specifically for American Oak, but we nevertheless grade our other species in accordance with these standards wherever applicable.

Below are detailed descriptions of the grades we find are most applicable to Brazilian Cherry.

Clear Grade
The highest grade offering the most uniform look and is highly selected in order to obtain this uniformity.

Defects: None allowed including knots, splits, checks, worm holes, excessive mineral streaks or contrasting sapwood.

Color: Color selected to disallow any pieces that are too dark/light or wildly grained in order to create a harmonious color/grain selection.

In standard nested distribution packaging of 12” to 84" - 88" long, the minimum length average will be 36" and typically is slightly longer.

This grade has 3 sub-grades:

Clear Grade – All Selected Straight Grain: The same as Clear grade, but selected to include only straight graining/quarter sawn pieces which yields the most uniformed colored and grained floor.
Clear Grade – Mixed Grain: This is the typical Clear Grade and is a mix of straight grained and flat sawn graining, all color selected for uniform color.
Clear Grade – w/the Straight Grain pulled: This is the Clear Grade material left over after Straight Grain has been pulled for Clear Grade – All Selected Straight Grain, and is mostly flat sawn which yields a busier look with slightly more color variation than the Clear Grade – Mixed Grain standard.
Select and Better Grade
The second highest grade, which differs only from Clear grade in that Select grade allows more of the full range of color/grain found in a species and includes the Clear grade that develops in the production run.

Defects: None allowed including knots, splits, checks, worm holes, excessive mineral streaks or contrasting sapwood.

Color: Minimally color selected but does disallow extreme dark/light or wildly grained pieces that contrast too strongly.

Low Select Grade
The third highest grade, which contains all the pieces that are Select Grade in terms of lack of defects, but which have been selected out from the Clear grade as having too much color/grain variation. This grade is available only on an accumulation basis, (typically 10 – 15%), as it develops only as a small percentage of the grading when producing the Clear grades of flooring.

Defects: Does not allow knots, splits, checks, worm holes, excessive mineral streaks or contrasting sapwood but does allow small resin pockets.

Color: Contains all the dark and light colored pieces as well as wilder grained pieces that have been selected out from the Clear grades.

Lengths: In standard nested distribution packaging of 12” to 84" - 88" long, the length average will be approximately 28".

#1 Common Grade
This grade allows most of a given color and grain range along with most of the natural character that develops in Brazilian Cherry.

Defects: Allows small knots, splits, checks, worm holes, mineral streaks and occasional contrasting sapwood.

Color: Contains the full range of Color and Grain to be found in Brazilian Cherry. Most mills allow the silica/white spots in this grade. Lengths: In standard nested distribution packaging of 84" - 88" long, the length average will typically be approximately 26" long.

#2 Common Grade
This grade allows even more of the natural character that develops in Brazilian Cherry than found in the #1 Common grade.

Defects: Allows numerous small and larger knots, splits, checks, worm holes, mineral streaks and contrasting and stained sapwood than found in the #1 common grade.

Color: Contains the full range of color and grain to be found in Brazilian Cherry including unlimited sapwood.

Lengths: In standard nested distribution packaging of 12” to 84" - 88" long, the length average will typically be approximately 20" long.

Back
© Value Wood Flooring 2008 Photo Disclaimer (866) 776-7779