AVL looms are mostly made with a variety of hardwoods, all of which are kiln-dried to improve stability and workability. Ash is our primary wood for nearly all loom parts. Ash is becoming endangered due to the emerald ash borer beetle, which is why we shifted to sustainably forested ash over a decade ago. Ash falls closest to hardrock maple in strength, but is closer in density to oak. It has a nice, light coloring, somewhat similar to hardrock maple, but with bit more pronounced grain, especially with the heartwood. Its physical properties make for a very strong loom frame, and visually, a strikingly beautiful loom.Poplar is used for very long wood pieces with a need for a highly straight and true features. Mostly, you'll find poplar on the longest of our A-Series beater races. Poplar is light in color with very little grain. Black walnut is used for accent pieces, such as tool holders. Black walnut is actually quite strong, nearly matching ash in physical properties. However, we mostly choose black walnut for it beautiful contrast to the lighter coloring of ash.For wide, flat pieces with important structural requirements such as the dobby back, we use engineered birch plywood, or birch ply as it is commonly called. You might ask why not just use hardwoods for all the wood in a loom. The answer is simply that hardwoods are generally not available in the widths needed to make these wide, thin parts. Birch ply, on the other hand, is an incredibly strong, very stable wood product that has proven to be excellent for looms (and also many kitchen cabinets!). Being very light in color and with almost no grain, it fits very nicely with ash.