Wood Guide

Every Holland Bowl Mill bowl starts as a solid chunk of Michigan hardwood.

The wood you choose shapes the look, feel, and character of your bowl for decades to come. No two boards grain the same way, so no two bowls turn out quite alike. But that's just character. Every wood we use meets the same standard for durability, backed by the same lifetime guarantee. Pick the one you love. You can't go wrong.

Beech

Light tan, subtle fleck, modern feel

Cherry

Warm reddish-brown, deepens with age

Ebonized Cherry

Dramatic near-black exterior, warm cherry interior

Maple

Pale, clean, consistent grain

Walnut

Dark, rich, dramatic — high variation

Beech

Beech is the quiet one — understated, clean, and surprisingly beautiful up close. Its light tan color and subtle ray-fleck pattern give it a refined, modern character that complements contemporary kitchens without trying too hard. And like all of our woods, it's built to last a lifetime.

Cherry

Cherry is a wood that gets better with time. Its warm, reddish-brown tone deepens and richens with light exposure over the years — a bowl that looks beautiful on day one looks even better a decade later. Its smooth, flowing grain and satiny finish make it one of the most beloved choices we carry.

Ebonized Cherry

Ebonized Cherry starts as the same American black cherry we've turned for decades — then we take it one step further. Using heat, we darken the exterior to a deep, near-black finish that still lets the underlying grain show through. The result is striking: a bowl that's dark and sculptural on the outside, with the warm natural cherry interior you'd expect from Holland Bowl Mill. Because the ebonizing is a surface treatment on the exterior only, we recommend hand-washing and avoiding abrasive scrubbers on the outside to preserve the finish.

Walnut

Walnut is the most dramatic of our four woods. Its deep chocolate tones and sweeping grain patterns make every bowl feel like its own piece of art. No two are alike — and that's the point. The natural contrast between heartwood and sapwood creates light-to-dark variation that some customers love, and others prefer less of.

Maple

Maple is clean, pale, and consistent. Its fine, tight grain gives it an almost luminous quality — the kind of wood that brightens a kitchen and goes with everything. It's also one of the hardest domestic hardwoods, which means it holds up beautifully to everyday use without showing wear.