The wood of the Alder is light, quite brittle when young and easily worked. It is often worked while still green and will turn well on a lathe. The cream colored newly cut wood turns a pink orange whilst working on it. This ‘bleeding’; causes the more mature wood to be beautifully tinted and veined. It was therefore much sought after by furniture makers. In the Highlands of Scotland, it was used a lot for making chairs and thus came to be known as ‘Scottish mahogany. Cabinet makers were especially fond of the roots and knots of Alder wood. Mrs. Grieves reports that it was also used for cart and spinning wheels, bowls, spoons, wooden heels, herring-barrel staves, etc. On the European continent it was used for cigar boxes, because of it reddish cedar like appearance. In Lancashire it was used to make clogs for the textile mill towns and it was similarly used in South Scotland. The bodgers, working in the coppices and woods, cut the green Alder into roughly the right size for clogs. They then left it to season and send the material on to the workshop to finish the clogs.  In ancient Ireland, Alder was used to make pails and other dairy equipment.
Green Alder branches can make good whistles and panpipes, an important attribute for a tree to possess in the days before mass entertainment.