Color Evaluation of Commercial Domestic Hardwoods (I)

Examined the color of ten species of Korean broadleaf trees were experimented based on $L^*a^*b^*$ values and color difference (${\Delta}E^*ab$) between sapwood and heartwood, in order to analyze and determine the color, a critical visual and decorative factor of the broadleaf trees that can be used for making woodcraft and furniture. According to the result, the entire sapwood and heartwood, except the heartwood of Populus tomentiglandulosa, showed positive value in whiteness, redness, and yellowness and therefore contained yellow and red. None of the species showed color difference between sapwood and heartwood that was trace (0~0.5), slight (0.6~1.5), or very much; whereas Populus maximowiczii showed noticeable color difference (1.5~3.0); Salix koreensis, Betula platyphylla var japonica, Carpinus laxiflora, and Castanea crenata, appreciable and Populus tomentiglandulosa, Juglans mandshurica, Betula schmidtii, Alnus japonica, and Quercus variabilis, much. The color characteristics of heartwood and sapwood of the ten Korean broadleaf tree species studied in this research can be used as basic data for woodcraft or furniture production, especially when replacing foreign woods with Korean ones, and also contribute to convergence researches for science, engineering, and design fields.