Each species of wood exhibits a unique personality — some are easy going and fun to work with, others hardheaded and quick to snap. Woodworkers must psychoanalyze this manic material, turning character flaws into well-balanced furniture. To help you interpret wood’s many moods, I’ve compiled a little list of the most common species and their notable traits.
Lumber is split into two major groups: hardwoods and softwoods. Curiously, these classifications don't reflect the density or durability of the tree, rather the structure of its seeds. So while most hardwoods are in fact hard, somehow balsa is allowed to masquerade in the same category as ebony. That's as if I were allowed to play for the Yankees just because I knew how to spit. Below are some common hardwoods:
White Ash: Easy to work especially for steam-bending and laminating projects. Light grain finishes and stains beautifully. Fun fact: used to make baseball bats.
Birch: A highly affordable choice used in the production of plywood sheets and firewood. Also a favorite for woodturning and instrument making.
Cherry: An American classic. Salmony in color at first, but turns brown when exposed to sunlight. Prolonged contact with power tools can cause the wood to burn.
Mahogany: A rich history of use in fine furniture. Currently difficult to come by due to preservation laws and logging shortages. Takes finishes and stains terrifically.
Sugar Maple: A very strong wood with straight grain and beautiful white coloring. Special varieties include curly maple and bird's eye maple.
White Oak: A highly durable wood with rich figuring. Can be tiresome to work with hand tools. Known for its use in Arts and Crafts style furniture.
Walnut: Spectacular grain coloring. Heartwood is a purple-tinged brown, sapwood is cream colored. Takes polish extremely well. My personal favorite.
Now for some softwoods...
Douglas Fir: Water resistant and commonly used as a building material. Given Santa's seal of approval for use as Christmas trees.
Pine: Yellow colored with straight grain turns a rich amber over time. Softness allows for easy shaping, but wood is susceptible to denting.
Poplar: An affordable hobbyist’s wood, great for model-making. Few knots due to limited number of branches.
(Images: 1 Flickr member mr*sha*mme*r licensed for use under Creative Commons, 2 West Coast Hardwoods, 3 Fence Fabric, 4 Vandersteen, 5 Oceanside Aluminum, 6, Wood Magazine, 7 Wood Wonder, 8 Edgewood Cabinetry, 9 Lambeth Custom Door, 10 Victorian Salvage, 11 Banks Hardwood)
Johnny is currently blogging his experience as a student at Maine's Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. You can keep track of his projects on his blog, Woodlearner.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Very helpful Johnny. Really enjoy your posts, very educational.
view Jeff Flemings's profile
Gotta say...Woodwise is quickly becoming my favorite part of AT. I've already learn a good deal. Thanks!
http://www.donkeehouse.com
view bitdot's profile
i love mahogany...and most dark woods, really. what gives different woods distinct coloration?
view cbauch's profile
If you want to find out more about wood and who practices sustainable forestry The Forest Stewardship Council's website has a lot of really good information and resources for wood (building materials), paper and furniture that are certified FSC products.
http://www.fscus.org/productsearch/retailers/?category=1
view LoriSF's profile
any personal experiences (both good and bad) you can share from working with these different types of woods? Any pitfalls we should watch out for?
view elee's profile
We recently purchased a mango wood table (Basque collection from Crate & Barrel). We love the honey color and bench seating, but have noticed that it knicks really easily (we're talking a light toss of keys and setting down a purse on it made scrapes). Is there anything we can apply to make it tougher? The beeswax/orange oil polish restores the color the scrapes took off, and makes the knicks less noticeable, but they're still there...
view 925juliebean's profile
@925juliebean
The only thing that could harden it up is a coating of some kind. Lacquer helps quite a bit. I made a crib out of cherry, which is moderately hard, but you could still ding it without too much effort. After adding a layer of lacquer, it's hard as a rock.
@elee
with regards to most of the woods, the hardwoods all work very nicely, but some are harder to work than others. everything listed is pretty easy on your tools. its not until you get into more weatherproof woods, like teak, where your tools get worn down because of silica (i.e. sand) in the wood fibers that grinds your cutting edges down. mesquite is another particulary difficult wood to work. these basic domestics don't really have any downfalls when it comes to working them. finishing is another matter, and some of these woods (cherry, pine, soft maple) are prone to blotching when staining. two ways around this are to use more of a gel stain instead of a penetrating stain, and another is to do a very light washcoat of shellac which will help to seal up the pores, but of course the stain won't penetrate nearly as deeply.
@cbauch:
the color differences are just due to the heartwood of that tree. chatoyance, which causes things like pommele, curl, ribbon striping, etc., is due to the direction of the wood fibers themselves. figured wood is a whole other post though and can take up quite a bit of space.
view Brian K.'s profile
Love the wood posts. I'd love to learn more about figured woods.
view jacasi's profile