Beech in Europe is like Oak in North America. It grows every where and gets used for just about everything. It works especially well with accent woods that have a contrasting color, like Mahogany. We pretty much always have plain sliced, plain quarter (rift) and figured in inventory. We favor steamed over unsteamed as do most of our customers. Figured sometimes has such strong character that it will display some lighter grain tones. This is a great wood that isn't that hard to work with and can be used in large doses with little consequence other than having the ability to look very clean and fresh.