A Wood Education

[mac sparrow]

Hello fellas,

I'm interested to know how people came to know the different types of wood.  Exotic, natural, man made, construction, furniture making and carving.  I'm new to wood work and I'm wondering if there is an "ideal" way to find out about them?  Some of the exotic woods are very expensive and I think it these situations it's helpful to have a mentor to guide you for many reasons.

 

[jmbfestool]

I bought a wood book  [big grin] and I also downloaded a wood APP (ID wood) on my phone.

I just flicked through many pages and pictures in the book and App.

My main criteria was when I looked at each type of wood was...

Good dimensional Stability
Strength

AND MOST IMPORTANT sustainability  

Only if the wood is sustainable would I look at the picture and research some more to see if its a type of wood I would like to use or could use for a job.

I would also when going to my local timber place which has many types of wood and ask when I walked past a specific type of wood what it was called.

My mentor was a good joiner for what he did but he never really spoke about wood types because all we did was studding,roofing,kitchens,doors,skirting,flooring all the basic stuff which are normally softwood pine or oak and of course man made materials MDF etc

Jmb  

 

[wow]

I am not sure about the UK, but in the US I subscribe to a magazine called Wood Products (used to be Wood & Wood Products). They have a 'wood of the month' feature with pictures and technical information like specific gravity and lots more that I found very valuable.

Link to subscription form:

http://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/subscribe/custom-woodworking-business-wood-products-magazine-subscription/wwp-subscription

And I agree with the comment to visit your local wood supplier. IF you can go at a time that is not so busy for them, they are often willing to spend time with you to teach you about their offerings. It doesn't hurt if you buy a little wood from them every so often!!!

 

[SittingElf]

I recently bought a Lie-Nielson Toolworks DVD called "A Craftsman's Guide to Understanding Wood". It is the best work I've seen on the subject. Simply Awesome!

Chapters Include:
Intro
Basic Wood Structure
Density vs Specific Gravity
Grain Structure
Defects in Wood
Wood and Water
Predicting Wood Movement
Practical Applications

Can't recommend it highly enough. Available for $27.00 at Amazon
Craftman's Guide to Understanding Wood

Cheers,

Frank

 

[sancho57]

Just basic research and  talking to the guys.

If I want to say build a piece of furniture Ill go through a book and see what wood is good for furniture based on their different properties,
plus getting know people talking to them

basically ya just sort of pick up on it not to mention magazines, books are a big source of info

 

[batcave]

Ash trees are easy to pick out in my area. [embarassed]

I mainly use my local stuff that I have sawn up for big projects. But I have bought some to. I use the exotics for turning pens and bowls. That taught me a lot about them.

Kevin