4.3 The Six Wood Cuts

The carpenter’s yard has six piles of wood. One splits clean and straight; another holds the nail with a stubborn bite. Each timber has its own name and purpose.

When you walk the valley, you notice that not all trees grow the same way. The Swiss Pine on the north slope grows tall, straight, and tight-grained. The Hearth Oak near the stream bends in wide, soft arches. The IBM Birch in the swamp splits in perfectly regular, uniform blocks.

If you build a cabin, you do not use the same wood for the structural beam and the hearthside bench. You choose your timber.

Standard Garden provides six classical wood cuts (our Temperaments). They are not arbitrary coats of paint; they are the visual DNA of the wood:

1. The Construct (International / Swiss Pine)

Rigid. Mathematical. Clean.

This is wood cut with high-precision steel blades. The lines are dead straight, the grain is invisible, and the surface is planed smooth as glass. It uses clean, modern sans-serif typography.

• Use it for: Technical structures, clean architectural logs, and minimalist journals where the layout must stay out of the way.

2. The Blueprint (Technical / Monospace Birch)

Regular. Uniform. Safe.

Every block is identical. The wood has a clear, rhythmic grid pattern, like graph paper. It uses monospaced typewriter-style fonts and safety orange markers.

• Use it for: Assembly manuals, terminal output logs, lists of tools, and repair guides.

3. The Letter (Humanist / Hearth Oak)

Warm. Organic. Tactile.

The wood has a deep, rich grain that runs in soft waves. The color is cream, and the edges are rounded by hand tools. It uses soft, warm serif typefaces.

• Use it for: Letters to friends, personal logs, recipes, and poetry written by candlelight.

4. The Chronicle (Editorial / Newspaper Spruce)

Authoritative. Contrasting. Bold.

This timber has sharp, dark veins running through light wood. The contrast is high, and the headings stand out like drop-forged iron. It uses traditional, heavy-set serif typefaces.

• Use it for: Authoritative essays, journalism, manifestos, and stories that demand attention.

5. The Treatise (Academic / Marginal Elder)

Annotated. Aged. Scholarly.

A fine, dense wood that has weathered in the shadow of a library. The pages are wide, with deep side margins for notes, annotations, and corrections. It uses iron gall ink colors and classic book typefaces.

• Use it for: Research files, thesis logs, annotations, and long academic logs.

6. The Exhibit (Gallery / Spatial Willow)

Invisible. Spatial. Receded.

The wood is planed so thin it seems to disappear. It leaves maximum negative space, pulling the frame back so that only the image or the specimen is visible.

• Use it for: Visual portfolios, photo essays, and artwork presentation.

Gardener’s Note: For the precise CSS classes, font stack bindings, and style variables associated with each Temperament, consult [3.4 Design Temperaments](file:///Users/francisfontaine/Documents/GitHub/utopie/apps/stnd.build/modules/manual/content/4-graphics/3.4-design-temperaments.md) in the Manual.