When dealing with fine hardwoods and custom craftsmanship, as ImportAdvantage does every day building and delivering top-quality TV lift cabinets, many customers prefer to educate themselves in the terminology of wood and woodworking. So ImportAdvantage has compiled this resourceful glossary to increase your appreciation of the details we put in every TV lift cabinet we design.








  • Air Dried: Lumber dried naturally by the air.



  • Bookmatch: layers of veneer arranged side by side to resemble a mirror.



  • Common Grade Lumber: Lumber with defects, used in construction framing.



  • Dovetail Joint: A joint where the fingers are shaped like a doves’ tail, used to join pieces at 90 degrees.



  • European Hinge: A hidden style hinge fastened to the door with a cup hole.



  • Finger Joint: Long, tapered fingers used to join material together.



  • Grain: The appearance, size and direction of the alignment of the fibers in the wood.










  • Hardwood: Lumber from trees with broad leaves.



  • Heartwood: The wood from the pith extending to the sapwood, darker in color due to gum, resins, and other materials which make it less susceptible to rot.



  • Janka Test: A hardness test and rating measuring pounds of pressure required to press a steel ball .444 inches in diameter one-half way into the wood.



  • Knot: The portion of a branch or limb that is embedded in the wood.



  • Molding: A strip of material with a profile cut on the facing edges, used for trimming.










  • Ogee: An S shape that is made by making one cut to produce two identical pieces.



  • Primary Wood: This is the wood on the main or primary surfaces of a piece of furniture. Woods of lesser value, that are on the sides or not seen is called Secondary Wood.



  • Raised Grain: The roughened condition of sanded wood when the hard latewood rises above the soft early wood when moisture is applied.



  • Sapwood: The lighter-colored wood on the outside of a log.



  • Tongue and Groove: A joinery method where a board has a protruding tongue on one edge and a groove on the other, the tongue of one board fits into the groove of the next.