Alder hardwood, known for its fine grain and uniform color ranging from light tan to reddish brown, is a popular choice for furniture, cabinets, millwork, and other woodworking applications. For many years, it has been the choice for knotty appearance grade applications like lake houses, mountain chalets, ranch houses, and other applications where the natural knotty look is a desired feature. At Cascade, we make three grades where knots and other naturally occurring defects are a feature. These grades, Premium Grade, Rustic Grade, and Standard Frame Grade, represent a spectrum from smaller defects, appearance-focused lumber, to grades with larger, more prominent defects offering a significantly more “rustic” appearance. Understanding the differences between the three grades suitable for knotty appearance grade applications can help manufacturers deliver on customer expectations or guide a distributor to recommend the ideal grade to their customers.

Alder Premium Grade (PRE)
Alder Premium Grade, sometimes referred to as Premium Frame, is a high-quality structural appearance designed for applications where a cleaner rustic look is desired. It typically yields 83 1/3% structurally sound cuttings, graded for rustic appearance from the heart of high-grade logs. This grade allows small, tight face knots, ensuring minimal defects while maintaining structural integrity. Characteristics include uniform color, consistent grain, and options for wider, and width-sorted lumber, allowing manufacturers to dial in their needs to maximize yield. It is ideal for furniture, millwork (mouldings and interior doors), in cabinetry doors, drawer fronts, and face frames, and other appearance-driven projects where a balance of aesthetics and strength is needed. Thickness options from Cascade include 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, and 8/4, with minimum widths around 4″ and lengths starting at 7′. In the 4/4 Premium, Cascade’s innovative width sort program is offered pulled-full-to-width (4” = 4-5”, etc.) in 4”; 5”; 6”; 7” and 8”. In addition, the new rip line at Cascade is allowing many customers to order moulding blanks in volume, prompting us to keep 5-3.4” ripped two-edge Premium in the warehouse as a stock item.

Alder Rustic Grade (RUS)
Alder Rustic Grade, also known as Knotty Alder in some contexts, emphasizes natural character for a more textured, designer appeal. It shares the same color and grain as higher grades but reclassifies defects like knots as desirable features. Characteristics include fairly uniform color with grain variations, open and closed knots of various sizes, bark pockets, and checking. Allowed defects encompass knots (with slight cracks that don’t allow light through), season checks, and other natural imperfections that contribute to the rustic aesthetic. One can normally differentiate Rustic Alder from Premium Alder from the spike knots that are allowed in the Rustic grade but not allowed in Premium. This grade is also suitable for furniture, interior doors and trim, and projects where a knotty, character-rich appearance is preferred. It can sometimes be difficult to use in cabinetry as the face frames and door rail widths common in contemporary cabinetry are too narrow to effectively display the characteristics of Rustic Alder.

Alder Standard Frame (FRA)
Alder Standard Frame is a lower-yield grade focused mostly on structural applications, providing boards for upholstery frames. There is a part of the market that prefers Standard Frame where more character is acceptable. This can present seasonal challenges, as in late summer and fall where log stain and sticker stain are more prevalent in Alder, some manufacturers are surprised when the Standard Frame they buy has more discolored boards than in other times of the year. Allowed defects are more extensive, such as bark pockets, season checks, slight surface shake, firm tight pith, stain, worm holes and wane limited to 25% of width and 50% of length. Side bend is capped at 1″. This grade is used primarily for upholstery frame construction, but is also used for joinery and rustic appearance applications where defects add character without compromising basic strength. It offers a cost-effective option for many cost-conscious applications.

The best way to see the differences between Premium, Rustic and Standard Frame is to virtually unstack boards from each using the innovative Cascade Grade Selector. Found at https://cascadegradeselector.com the Grade Selector also allows users to print a PDF of the specification sheet for each grade which offers a handy reference guide on the cutting sizes, grade descriptions and allowed defects in each grade.