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How to Assess Wood

How do you begin to identify the type of wood used for your furniture? This may seem difficult at first, but you'll find it easier as you gain experience. With practice, you may be able to recognize various woods by smell and touch as well as by color and grain. You should ask yourself some key questions:

• Consider the piece of furniture itself. About how old is it, and what style is it? Some types of furniture are made with specific woods -- ash, for instance, is widely used in bentwoods -- and most new furniture is made with woods not used for older furniture.
• Look at the color. Although color can vary considerably from tree to tree, its tone is fairly constant within a species; the color intensity may change, but not the quality. Some woods have very distinctive color characteristics -- poplar, for instance, is the only wood with a green tinge to it, and rosewood can be dark purple.
• Finally, look at the grain. Is the wood open- or close-grained? Are the pores evenly distributed, or are they concentrated at the growth rings? Is the grain straight or wavy, mottled or swirled?

Now that you have closely looked at your furniture, you might notice it is made with veneer (thin layers of wood) or a combination of woods. Both are common practices for furniture building.Wood combinations: Another consideration is that many types of modern furniture are made with two or more kinds of wood, to keep the cost down. Rare woods are used where appearance is important, such as table-tops; the more common woods are used for less conspicuous structural pieces, such as table and chair legs. This multiple-wood construction isn't always easy to see until the old finish is removed -- a table you think is walnut, for example, may turn out to have gum legs, stained to match.
Furniture made with more than one wood eventually needs special refinishing treatment. If you find yourself with a multiple-wood piece, you may have to stain and finish the common wood again to match the wood of the most conspicuous surface.
Once you are familiar with the color, grain, and construction style of your furniture, you can use that information to determine the specific kind of wood or woods used. Check out the next section for tips on how to easily identify common furniture woods.

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Woodworking Classes

Wood Characteristics

Hardness: The simplest way to describe a wood is to say it's a hardwood or a softwood, but this description can be deceptive: not all hardwoods are hard, and not all softwoods are soft. The hard/soft classification is a botanical one -- hardwoods are flowering trees; softwoods are conifers. Although most hardwoods are harder than most softwoods, there are exceptions.
In general, hardwoods are more valuable than softwoods, because the wood is scarcer. But this isn't always the case -- gum, for instance, is a hardwood that competes in price with softwoods. A more practical way to identify wood is by its grain and color.

Wood grain and color: The cell structure of a tree, different for each species, determines its grain. Hardwoods have tubular cells called vessels, visible as pores in the wood. If the cells are large, the texture of the wood is slightly rough, or open; a filler may be needed to smooth the surface. If the cells are small, the texture is smooth; these woods, described as close-grained, don't require filling. Oak, walnut, ash, mahogany, rosewood, and teak are all open-grained woods; beech, birch, maple, cherry, satinwood, gum, and poplar are close-grained. Softwoods don't have vessel cells, but for all practical purposes can be considered close-grained.

All trees have annual growth rings, made up of the cells formed during each year's growing season. The types and arrangement of the cells determine how the wood looks. There are woods with subdued and with clearly defined grains; there are straight grains, stripes, swirls, waves or curls, ripples, eyes, and mottled effects. There are colors from white and pale yellow through red, purple, and black. Every species has its own particular grain and color, and although they vary from tree to tree, these characteristics can almost always be used to identify the wood.

Furniture woods are chosen and valued for the character of their grain and color. Hardwoods usually have a richer and finer-textured grain than softwoods, but there are rich grains of all colors and patterns. Woods with very distinctive patterns are usually more valuable than woods with subdued or indistinct patterns, and the weaker-grained woods are often stained to give them character. This is why the old finish must be completely removed before you can tell for sure what wood a piece of furniture is made of.

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Carpentry Training Courses

1. Start with a simple project

 My first project was the coffee table. I didn’t add anything fancy. Nothing has been rounded, grooved, or notched. During this first project, you are just trying to learn some basic carpentry skills. In my case, I need to learn how to cut straight lines, do accurate measurements, and join two pieces of wood. The first project was more like carpentry school. Don’t waste a lot of time and money on a big project first. Make your mistakes on something simple.

 2. Get on the same page with your spouse

 If you are going to build your own furniture, it is important that you and your spouse have a good idea about what design would look best. It is also important to know your limitations. In my case, I am not going to build anything that is a piece of fine craftsmanship. But, if you just want something to put books on, then I’m your man. My wife and I agreed that we were looking for something functional and not necessary beautiful.

 3. Start with a sample product:

Get your plan I took pictures of the coffee table I wanted to build. From there, I used my photo editor (Kodak Easy Share Software) and turned the pictures into black and white. I used printed copies of the black and white pictures to write the measurements and dimensions. This really helped me visualize how each piece fit together. Before you start any building, have an idea of how much wood and supplies you will need and the type of wood you want. From there, head to the hardware store and price out the cost of your building project. If you’re building to save money, then be sure the money savings are worth the time investment.

 4. Read a book or search online

Your photo and your plan probably won’t tell you how the joints have been attached. In addition, you might not know the best cutting techniques or measuring strategies. Also, if you are working with power tools that you have never used before, be sure to read the owner manuals. Let’s just say it would be hard for me to write daily articles online if I only had nine fingers to help me type. When it comes to joints, here are a few things to keep in mind: Typically, the more complex the joint, the better it looks. Using external fasteners like nails, bolts, or screws is almost always easier, but rarely as nice looking. I borrowed a book on general woodworking and learned everything about building from books.

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