Wood identification and qualification
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- This topic has 8 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 5 months ago by David Perrott.
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4 September 2015 at 9:01 am #130074
Hi community,
Finding wood is not very difficult. Be it scrap wood in the skip or a gift from friends and family or otherwise. I also like to take a fallen tree from the forest sometimes.
What I find hard is to identify WHICH wood it actually is that I have in my hands..
I would like to ask some reading recommendations and 3 categories come to my mind:
– Identifying (timber)wood based on color, markings, fiber structure etc.
– Identifying wood based on natural characteristics of the tree like leaves, bark etc.
– Upon identification, what are the structural features, qualities, challenges to the real woodworker?Looking forward to your input!
- This topic was modified 8 years, 8 months ago by Igor Kerstges.
4 September 2015 at 2:27 pm #130088I recently read this book – very good and instructional on all aspects of wood, including identification. The main thing I learned – the only foolproof method to identify a cut piece of wood is looking at the end grain through a microscope.
Understanding wood : a craftsman’s guide to wood technology by Hoadley, R. Bruce.
7 September 2015 at 2:17 am #130133Igor, I thought I had bookmarked a website or two that talked about identifying wood, but can’t find them. Maybe a quick web search will help you to identify certain woods.
I found the quickest way to up your knowledge of what’s what is as simple as going and looking at some at a yard – it’s really hard to tell in thier rough stage (I had some chestnut before that was so grey it looked like aged fencing material) but they usually have a prepared section that’s great for getting you familiar with woods. I found that woods like Walnut you expect to be so much darker, but pre finish they can be suprisingly light coloured (by comparison).
Hope this kind of helps,
Elliott
8 November 2015 at 1:31 am #132129If I don’t I write the hardwood name on lumber I bring home I often have a hard time remembering what it is. I find that over time, even boards from the same tree sometimes can look so dissimilar that I second guess my labels. I also like to look up the species in a few books I have to try to narrow the species etc.
There are a couple great books you can put on your workshop shelf too. My favorite is “The Woodbook” and you can find it here:
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/classics/all/44406/gallery.romeyn_b_hough_the_woodbook.htm
Thanks for that recommendation @chadmagiera ive been looking at wood id books on amazon to help study and identify species and this looks to be the best to me im going to purchase this book.
Someone above mentioned the wood database, which is really great. But if you specifically want a book, Eric Meier, who created the wood database, has recently published the info as a book.
This book was written to largely answer your points 1&3 from the perspective of a craftsman.
– Identifying (timber)wood based on color, markings, fiber structure etc.
– Upon identification, what are the structural features, qualities, challenges to the real woodworker?It covers 250-300 different types of lumber including structural and physical properties such as stress loading, elasticity, humidity movement, etc.
You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Identifying-Using-Hundreds-Woods-Worldwide/dp/098224603X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447444738&sr=8-1&keywords=wood+meier
13 November 2015 at 9:03 pm #132360It can be real tricky to identify wood in its raw state, but when its gets finished…. It can be pretty tough. You can make a wood look like so many different types of wood. I see so much used (and cheap) furniture listed as mahogany. I know its not but what it is I have no idea.
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