Top 10 Wood Species For fine Woodworking
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- Rob Cosman gives you his top 10 favorite wood species for woodworking
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If you liked this video you should check this one out: ua-cam.com/video/U_32J60tPs8/v-deo.html
You can't trick me. This whole video about "diffrent wood species"... it is obviously just a big scheme to do more hand planing. Nice try tho and WOW number 4 really left me SHOCKED!!!
anything to plane more wood !
Is the slider bar and volume control working on your online videos. I cannot skip around within the video or change the volume within the videos. All other UA-cam videos are ok. only your site of online workshop videos.
Adler and aspen are widely used in Finland in sauna benches and as wall and ceiling panels. Some tens years ago pretty much all Finnish sauna interiors were built with them. The point is that they are soft/porous which means that they do not heat up. This way you can heat up the sauna to 170 - 180 F and you can stil sit on the bench without burning your a… Nowadays one can get heat treated adler and aspen and they make beautiful brownish panels. Just got our renovated and the seats and panels are made of heat treated aspen and boy it turned out beautiful. If you build sauna panels or benches out of hardwood you will surely burn yourself. In some sauna-related discussion thread (US) somebody asked if he could use wenge for their sauna panels - I adviced not to 😂
Where is seven?
White Pine is rarer now, due to a fungus which decimated huge stands of these interesting trees. The fungus was apparently brought in from England on a goose berry plants. I use to work for a forest company. We would only cut White Pine for about one week a year. Typically saw ends in the planer mill would usually just go to the chipper but when we cut White Pine people would line up with their pickups and would fill them with for what was waste to us. Of course we charged them for it. The forestry research has come up with a White Pine variant that is resistant to this fungus.
"Of course we charged them for it." Typical.
Interesting Trees? You NEVER Had a Friend, Huh? LOL!
24 minutes well spent, thanks Rob.
Glad you enjoyed it
With those oily exotics, you can improve the strength of the glue joints by cleaning the surfaces with acetone immediately before gluing. It strips the oil out of the surface. Great video thanks!
He mentioned the cost of tulipwood but good cocobolo is in the $50 /bf range in larger and processed (guitar back and sides) pieces much more. I’ve used both and absolutely love them. When handchasing threads on the lathe they both are so hard,fine, and oily the threads cut and work especially well.
and I assume titebond 2 would work better than titebond 3, as in walnut the failure rate of titebond 3 is considerably higher than 2 and I think it's because of the fact that it's oily
All of these woods are truly beautiful. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on them all!
What a great vid, , , we need more of these, Rob, I’ve watched in envy for years of your skills, tools, workshop and your talent that has pulled all this together, , , but I’ve never witnessed before your undoubted passion for the medium you use- the wood itself! “Weekend workshop warriors” like me get few opportunities to apply ourselves to ‘real quality builds’, making a keepsake box for my daughter is as good as it gets for me - and then you learn if you’d better chosen your materials you’d have ended up with a piece of beauty rather than something that was ‘very nice’ , , , , more of this stuff please!
Dear Bob
I’m very glad I found your channel. I’ve watched your top 10 video for favorite and least favorite. Subscribed! You and Paul Sellers are great!
first comment :D
love your content man - and appreciate your charity work (not from north america, but wounded is wounded, and compassion is a commendable human trait )
keep up the good work :)
Well said!
I love your easy-going conversational manner as if we were there with you.
Good job.
I turned a Cocobolo lidded box. Absolutely gorgeous wood. Also have turned walnut, black cherry, and shedua. Your list is much like mine, but in a different order. I really liked how you showed the wax finish
Another really interesting look at different species or wood. Thanks Rob.
A few years ago we had an old family home torn down, part of which was the original log cabin built in the 1880’s but covered over with shingles. I was given a couple of sections of log from it (I think it was northern white pine) and sawed them up into boards. There was a fair amount of cracking but I was able to get some very nice if relatively small pieces of nice clear wood out of them and made a few small mantle clocks from it. I found a couple of pockets of resin in them that still oozed when they were cut, well over 100 years since the trees were felled.
I looked up Holly in the USDA Wood Handbook, and it has a moisture expansion coefficient of 0.00165 radially, and 0.00353 tangentially. So, very stable, just slightly better than white oak, though not as stable as white pine, which is about the best there is.
That’s good info!
Good research. Thanks for adding that to the conversation.
@RobCosmanWoodworking Ya know... I have a holly branch and stump in my garage. Had to trim back the tree last year. I saved it because I remember seeing this video.
might sound stupid but are we talking about holly bushes with red berries?
@@davegordon6943There's lots of holly some grow into trees some stay as large shrubs.
I found a tee tree on a logging job in 1976 that was nearly 36" in the stump. I managed to get a short piece home and have it sawn. I made a few projects with it and it was amazing to work with. Very hard! And got harder as it aged. You are the only person I've heard mention this wood! Thank you! Also, black Cherry is my very favorite. It speaks to me!
I have been waiting for this type of conversation to come up. I would love to to see deeper dives into the wood species and considerations/difficulties/strategies for working them
Great suggestion!
Koa. Koa is absolutely stunning for look, color, curl and chatoyance! And workbility is very easy.
I used a lot of Eastern white pine on and in my house. It's a joy to work with and beautiful looking too. Pleasant #1 choice.
Well ill be dipped. I work primarily with pine cut skid mill and air dry off my property. Do some oak and maple but you are right hardwood kinda makes it too easy. Excellent as usual Rob Thanks
Great video. I'm from UK and love english oak. Very old english yew turns quite dark over the years. I've used laburnum as well, nice colour with contrasting sap wood. The fruit woods, apple and especially pear are ones I use from time to time. I bought an old ebony mask at a garage sale which I've cut up for accent pieces... great with the holly. We need more videos like this..excellent.
Cherry number 10? You're breaking my heart...Great video...I appreciated learning about the characteristics of the wood species from someone who has worked them.
Great video as always. Thank you for sharing 👍🏻take care
Thanks Kent
Black walnut is my favorite. Lucky enough to have some on my property and people around me know I am looking for it. Any time we have a huge storm come through I get calls that if I will clear the downed tree I can keep all the wood. Load up the chainsaw mill and away I go. I have so much stocked up now I had to build a specific drying building for all of it. Managed to get my cookies to dry without splitting!
Thank you so much. Learned a lot
ovangkol aka shedua has always been one of my top three most favorite woods of all time.
I'm glad we share that preference!
TAYLOR guitars uses a lot of it.
Its principal use at the source is construction lumber, railroad ties and bridge supports.
Great video thanks for sharing
Thank you for the video. I did lathe work for 35 years, making bobbin for Bobbin lace, the cheapest wood came as purple heart because Utility trailer used it for the floor of trailers so the scraps were free. I still have a 2x4 in the basement. I loved Tulip wood and Cocobol, but to turn it, a mask is a must. The most expensive I turned is Pink Ivory, and boy is it ever beautiful, from white to a deep pink and all in between. Holy land olive wood has a very beautiful grain and smells of olives. I wonder why. Thank you for sharing. If you are careful, Purpleheart burns to a deep purple. I had to prove that to a man because he said it just turns black. I said too much heat.
Great video! I'm definitely going to have to nab some black cherry and holly sometime.
For my part, I've found that my absolute favorite wood to work with is grenadillo. With a simple finish of shellac and laquor, it's a beautiful, deep reddish brown, and I just love the way it smells when I'm working with it. Almost a hint of chocolate to it? I don't know how else to describe it. Just marvelous stuff.
Nice show! Very satisfying, almost ASMR watching the plane work, and as you said, a surprise ending! Farmer John, Ontario
Stay warm
Thank you for the video. I have only turned exotic hardwood into Bobbin lace bobbins.
I have an entire bedroom set made of Northern White Pine I purchased about 14 years ago. It has been an amazing set and easy to maintain....
Great information. Thanks
Great change up! You ended with one of my favorites as well
Great minds think alike!
I'm not surprised that you picked the woods you did, but you didn't list my favorite wood: butternut. It has some lovely chatoyence, though more subtle than some of the flashier woods, and it is about like pine in weight. Black cherry's my favorite wood to work because of the combo of smell, sap pockets, and chatoyence. The other favorite I have is teak, which is a bear to work (like *actual sand* size granules in there sometimes, and I've seen it take a chunk out of a freshly sharpened plane blade), but is just so great. But yeah, I don't much like working ash or oak either (notable by their omission from your list).
Best part of this video is that 100% of what you speak is experience, zero percent is second hand.
Take care Rob, David - Your tool friend in London.
good list. I've not worked with many exotics and stick mostly to North American species as they seem to suit my style. I really love walnut, cherry and maple, which are coincidently excellend tone woods for instruments.
Yellow birch is another good North American hardwood for making stringed instruments.
I learn more in one minute of your videos than I do in 99% of others’ entire video.
Learning is my favorite part of youtube.
Great video and very informative. And you sound just like Will Forte.
Really interesting topic- and maybe an idea for future videos as well.White pine and maple are my favourites for sure. I would love to hear your comments on yellow cedar.
From a British perspective, I would have boxwood, olivewood and laburnum in my top ten. Agree about cocobolo, Brazilian tulipwood, verawood and yew (although get hold of some English yew if you can, it has a much brighter orange than the Pacific piece you showed, and if you're lucky you can get reds and even purples in there too!).
Olivewood is lovely but hard to find around my area. But I love how it smells when cutting and sanding!
It may sounds really strange to you guys abroad, but here in Brazil is very difficult to buy Brazilian woods like the one you've mentioned "Brazilian tulipwood", or any other native wood.... At an ordinary wood shop you'll find pine wood (very soft, light wood, nothing to do with American pine), eucalyptus, Angelim (smells like sh*t), and others less known... Those "fancy ones" with Brazilian in their name, you will find just from very specific sellers on the internet, small measures, like knife scales, etc....
@@Lemevit kinda makes sense, if Brazilian wood sells for a high price in foreign markets why sell it for less at home.
Well my favorite 2 woods are Cherry and then I also really like very light White Ash. I love the texture and the blondness while it still has a strong figure to it like Oak. Thank you for the video.
Very nice vid.
I've used Cocobolo for pistol grips. It's great for small projects.
One of the most beautiful pieces of wood I'd ever seen though there are numerous gorgeous woods out there was a sheet if veneered Birds Eye that somehow had all the eyes colored this somewhat translucent red. And that was 54 years ago and I can still see it my mind. It still fascinates me to this day. My ex wife happened upon a Gorgeous Sleigh Bed made of a very close approximation only a more golden tone overall versus the light yellow. Of course, though mildly damaged, we bought it and I corrected the damage and made a serviceable bed with it.
Yeah, good list. A lot of those beautiful woods are expensive because they are so beautiful and in demand. But for the right projects - they really shine. If you get a chance try Japanese Hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa) but it's hard to get a hold of in the US.
I had a feeling pine and birdseye maple would your top two! But I agree, pine is severely underrated regarding its beauty, at least by us woodworkers. I think many of us (myself included) get excited to tell people we used some fancy exotic hard wood with classy adjectives in the name (figured, fiddleback, quilted, etc.) You inspired me to do more pine builds now!
For over 20 years I built painted vernacular furniture. I used a considerable amount of #1 western pines. There is no more #1, #2 has become #1 and the price is obscene and the quality is low. Luckily, I have a stash of 5/4 #1 and, if and when I get inspired, I'll get back to making a few pieces from it.
I have not seen or used the eastern or northern pines. Would like to try it.
Pine has amazing technical properties and can have some beautiful grain at an excellent price, that's why I built a massive Roubo style workbench out of it! Very underrated wood.
yes but pine will not get you commissioning high end pieces as it doesn't sound like a very interesting wood at all.
Thanks for sharing Rob.
I want to use some Holly myself now.
PLEASE make your big bench plans available soon.
They already are. I made that from th eplans for Frank Klaus workbench in Landis' workbench book
Enjoyed this video, thank you.
thanks for watching
Good info. Thank you
Interesting. Thanks for making this video. I am not a wood worker, but I love shopping for wood that I use for knife handles because I'm a knife maker. I usually go for woods that are super hard and self polish when I sand them to 1000 grit and even finer. I use tung oil and furniture wax for finishing, and I'm thinking of using Minwax polyurethane for some of my handles. A friend of mine gave me some walnut because he is a sculptor, and walnut was too hard for him to carve. It is so, so, beautiful. I like Bocote, Goncalo Alves, Spalted Tamarind, Purpleheart, Wenge, Cumaru, African Paduk, and Ambrosia Maple. I have made some pretty handles out of black palm, but it is harder to work with.
Awesome video !!
really enjoyed this video, of course, I enjoyed all the others too! :D
Beautiful everything.
I love seeing all these woods in a video! Have you ever seen black locust oxidize to a green color?
I absolutely love carving letters in clear white pine. Second to that would be pattern grade Honduras mahogany. Wonderful video. Great information.
(And a hat tip to your camera person) 👍
I’ve been enjoying Bolivian rosewood recently. Black limba and zebrawood are working pretty well for me too. I was using poplar as my secondary, but I’m trying to simplify and stick to three woods or less per project.
Bolivian rosewood, Not a dalbergia/rosewood
AKA: Libidibia Ferrea, Scientifically known as Machaerium spp.
Pau Ferro, Iron Wood, Juca, Morado, Leopard (for the speckled bark), caviuna, Santos Rose wood
Beautiful wood. I have some very large planks now aged 35 plus years. 1 1/4" x 10" x 12 ft .... just off quarter.
Musical instrument quality.
Out here in the PNW, Douglas Fir aka Doug Fir, is really the closest we get to white pine. I agree that the softwoods take the nicks and dings more in stride. Other cool woods here are myrtle wood, broad leaf maple, and we’re fortunate to have walnut groves around and the trees are harvested when they die (fungus gets them at about 100 years). But the most unique wood I’ve gotten was old growth reclamation area juniper. It’s cut down to help restore the natural grasslands in eastern Oregon. The juniper is very water hungry and disrupts the ecosystem. It’s fantastic for outdoor use because it has a high tannin content and resists rot better than almost any commercially available cedar.
I live in So Oregon in the middle of Doug Fir country.
Doug Fir is dense, pronounced grain and annular rings. Difficult to dent with your thumb nail.
Sometimes difficult to work, brittle, prone to cracking if not cured/dried correctly.
Beautiful stuff. Quarter sawn it makes excellent furniture
+1 on Myrtle... Also known in Northern California as Bay Laurel.
@@amanderik Umbellularia californica ( California bay laurel) AKA Oregon Myrtle
Not a fan.
I just "found" quarter sawn Sycamore and absolutely love the look of it. I only used it for the white squares of a chessboard so far, but I will definitely be seeking it out. Super cheap too, my yard has 8/4 for $7.75/bf.
yes! i recently made a sort of decorative charcuterie board as a thank you gift out of sycamore harvested in San Juan Capistrano, California. there was just no end to the figure and grain and who-knows-what in that piece of wood. amazing!
It's my favorite too. Beautiful grain patterns. I use it a lot in knife handles. Just did one on a Damascus blade with the sycamore sandwiched between bloodwood. Just gorgeous.
Nice job on the video. That Bird's Eye Maple is the best.
Those black spots are mineral deposits!
You have just solved my confusion with the block of maple that ive been working through. I thought it must have little stones or something in it, because ive seen sparks come off it a few times. It has definitely dulled a few of my blades.
Good video no messing .
Great Afternoon ROB, I LIVE just North of Corpus Christi my closest hardwood dealer is 3hours away in Houston or San Antonio.. So when a customer says get hardwood from the Blue or Orange store it's going to be red oak or poplar and I'm not impressed with either. Keep up the Great work.!!
Thank you
Cherry is my favourite. I love working it with hand tools, finishing it au naturale (people who stain cherry should be banned from woodworking), and watching it turn a beautiful colour.
Gosh I was hoping beyond hope to hear Rob talk about one of his favorite species of rare woods and say, "This stuff is hard to find, it doesn't just grow on trees, ya know."
One of my favorite woods is Osage orange very hard on tools good for small projects, pens, and great tool handles.
I love hedge apple, my father made traditional Native American recurve short bows with it. He would back them with Rattlesnake skin, sinew, and rabbit skin glue and hunt deer back home in SW Nebraska with all traditional gear including knapping the arrowheads from scratch. Probably the coolest dude that ever lived, the real-deal mountain man. 🤙🏼
Built a jewelry box out of hedge. Ruined a jointer blade. Wonderful orange color. I also inlaid a cribbage board track into a piece of walnut. Weird color combinations.
Enjoyed this one Mate. Being in Australia all of those timbers are expensive lol. Would love to get some birdseye maple one day just for fun. My favourites would be, in no order of preference, Tulip Oak, Northern Silky Oak, QLD red cedar, PNG Rosewood, Tassie Oak, River Red Gum (makes the most beautiful rocking chairs), Western Australian Jarrah, Hoop pine (you wood like this Rob as the texture and colour are just spot on), Tassie Blackwood, Southern Silky Oak. For a fragrant timber you can't go past the good old camphour laurel albeit it is classified as a pest tree in Australia it is good for lining boxes to ward off silver fish and the like :)
I imagine you have woods we have never heard of and would love to try out too! Hell just in that list I would have to look up most of them. Hopefully you can try out some of these woods he mentioned in the video. I take for granted things like birdseye maple (which I've even seen used in pallet woods!) and how not everyone has access to it.
My friend Tony from Melbourne brought me some Jarra....Harder than woodpecker lips!
All those Aussie gems plus Coastal Rosewood - great for decorative mouldings on boxes and smells amazing when planed. Quarter sawn Vic Ash is like Holly and perfect for drawer sides.
@@RobCosmanWoodworking Lol I'm in Queensland Australia and there's another timber here called Ironbark and the name says it all heavy and hard but a beautiful red colour to it Harder than a Science Degree 😂
I am still in love with maple... curly one i just love
I mostly avoid the exotics for price reasons, though they can be useful for accents. I've similarly not done a lot of work with Walnut.
I'm just in love with Cherry, though; machines well, smells great, nice (and understated) grain pattern, suitable for full-sized furniture pieces, medium density, beautiful color. And here in the northwest, it has been cheaper than Maple, recently.
thanks for the info
you bet
It's interesting to hear from such an experinced woodworker that after all the exotics and tropicals, the top three are walnut, maple, and pine. They're classics for a reason I suppose! My personal list would have to have cherry in the top 5 as well - I just love the look. Might have to try and get some tulipwood eventually - haven't seen it before and it's just georgous.
Walnut is eye-catching and a delight to work with, maple has such deep yet subtle beauty and is very affordable, and pine can have beautiful bold grain plus the smell and price can't be beat.
Being in Missouri, i am fortunate to get quite a bit of black walnut. I make some boards for projects (Alaskan mill) but it makes beautiful bowls. Recently acquired a large quantity of Ash (large tree next to my home died) and was given some Maple by a friend who had same problem. Pretty well set up for a good bit of time :-)
mmm nice, that'll be fun. whatcha gonna make?
have not decided yet, stacked to air dry ( I have no kiln) so plenty of time LOL@@the420xtc
new subscriber here. very informative, thanks! i think Sam Maloof liked Yew also. is Yew a hardwood or softwood? i missed that if you mentioned it.
Another interesting one, didn't expect your #1 to be #1, but do agree, does age well and takes sharp tools and careful skill to work. Also wanted to say thanks for you initial comment that you could just have pieces of planed and oil/wax finished pieces of wood about your house for "decoration/display", I have a few such pieces, the nicest of which is a 1.75"x1.75"x 6" piece of Lignum Vitae, sap and heart wood, that's just planed as smooth as I could get it and then Fed n Wax applied to it, absolutely gorgeous and weighs more than steel it seems 😀
I am sure it weighs a ton, bet you its beautiful
@@RobCosmanWoodworking it sure is beautiful and just weighed it for curiosity and it's 410g/14oz, so pretty hefty for such a small piece of wood, definitely don't want to build a boat out of this stuff 😆
removed a bunch of it from a stern tube on an old ship once. shipyard hauled it off as trash
My family comes from Belize and when our family was new my dad had a large amount of a species locally called Mayflower. It has the texture of Honduras mahogany with a more blonde coloring.
Limba ?
I think pine is the best overall wood for furniture. It's good to learn techniques and show off some skills, cheap where I live, ages well, and smells nice. I've made a few projects for humid rooms like a bathroom with pine that has lots of sap and it has stood up well. Something about having translucent pieces in a board just looks nice to me.
Totally agree! And thanks for doing our translations
@@RobCosmanWoodworking Sure thing! I will send you more every Sunday. I hope you like them :D
I think the reason holly is so expensive is because it's mostly found in the southeast, here in the northeast we've cut down only two. After seeing the price, when we did a job on another holly, I took the whole tree with the exception of a few leads that were dried out as well as the bottom. It was a larger holly tree with a max width of only about 12". I don't think they grow much wider. I've yet to mill the logs, I just brought them home recently, but I'm looking forward to making some lumber. I mostly just mill wild cherry, black walnut, and oak.
I worked for a tree service in north Florida. We cut down a holly with a 2 foot diameter about 50 feet tall.
Holly carves beautifully and takes detailed carving too .
I may not get this exactly right but I read an explanation about birdseye years ago that said these were limbs that were unable to fully form, because of the tree's growing conditions or some inherent weakness or disease, so the tree sort of goes into overdrive to try to create limbs. Somewhat like the way burls form. Always fun to find them in different species unexpectedly.
Thanks Rob, love the video! By the way, have you tried Australian Blackbutt?
I love you 😊 Thank you
Nice summary. Of course we all have our favourites, and I kind of figured yours would be pine. Mine is cherry.
Cherry is a super nice domestic
We used to heat with wood years ago and I set aside some Holly to use one day, it's for sure dry just need to mill it up.
I guessed right! I would love to see you make one of those cylindrical chests.
Thats not a video for UA-cam but for my online workshop
I find that when using oily woods like cocobolo that if you clean your glue surfaces with acetone first it dries up that natural oil and gets you some better adherence
New to wood working and I work with Doug fir a lot, I like the red that comes out with age.
Curious your thoughts on it.
Wow these are nice woods. I hope I can find a source for these, hard to find woods in 1/8" thickness for my projects. And my band saw isn't good enough for re-sawing.
I'm a guitar guy so familiar with exotic woods. Cocobolao is available with some incredible figuring that looks like spider webs or tortoise shell. I love maple for musical instruments, especially archtop guitars and mandolins. Of course Honduras mahogany, red spruce, and east Indian rosewood are the staples of instrument building.
I'm surprised that white pine is his favorite wood. Most is loaded with knots.
I just discovered your channel and was wondering if you have checked out some of our Midwest woods. We have a River Birch that almost always has a brown worm fleck in a creamy sap wood.
Very nice choices. I share several of your favorites. Cocobolo is perhaps my favorite, but unfortunately much of the Cocobolo that I find available today is nowhere near as good in color or figure as that which regularly found 30 to 40 years ago. Tulipwood (Brazilian) is another of my favorites, but I have found it to be quite scarce anymore. I also like Kingwood which is related and similar to the Brazilian Tulipwood though quite different in color. Holly is awesome and makes an awesome contrast when paired with almost any other wood. Shedua is quite nice too.
Great Vid Rob, do you order these in or is there a local supplier you deal with?
Maple, Walnut, Hickory/Pecan, Cocobolo, Aromatic Cedar, Cherry, Ziricote, Wenge, Spanish Cedar, Macasar Ebony are my favorites
Do you like Catalpa? I'm so in love with it as a kind of pine substitute. It's light and wonderful to carve, chatoyant, and smells so sweet. Also love apple and sapele
Catalpa is very fast growing, also a good substitute for poplar.
Awsome vid. Have you ever worked with olive tree? thats one of my fav wood. Smell is supper nice and pattern is realy beautiful and nice hard wood
Good stuff, if lucky you can get aged, felled, trees in olive country in No Calif.
I am real close to you on choices. My number one is walnut with maple as a close second. But then I make a lot of gun stocks and thus lean to walnut.
I fell a 48" diameter yew in the Squamish valley, used it for tool handles.
Cherry burns if you look at it too harshly.😉 It difficult to find decent cherry here out west, so I rarely use it. Fortunately we have good walnut.
#1 surprised me. I rarely work pine despite that I live in an Eastern White Pine forest. One problem is that when they die standing they seem to immediately get infested with wood boring bugs and rot before I can cut them and mill them.
Back in the 70s and 80s unfinished furniture stores specialized in clear northern white pine. I built tons of pieces in it for customers then almost overnight the demand went away. Painted farmhouse furniture has brought it back. But in the southeast it is hard to find furniture grade white pine.
No joke, Brazilian tulipwood is the best smelling wood. I wish I could bottle the scent.
you and me both
Holly and tulipwood are favorites for inlaying because of their definition in inlaying.
White pine is the white coopers friend. Too soft to be easy to work with. I had a piece of furniture come in for restoration. Had pea and bean style medallions on the top of chair back rails and a few other places I had to re carve. Honduras Mahagony is what this chair's details were made out of. This stuff cut like soap with a knife or chisel had no real ropey voids like mahogany seems to normally have. Took stain evenly and would stand up to say thumbnail marks. Must be quite rare for I have seen it once and was so nice to work with had the best cross and end grain workability. The medallions were intricate and all end grain. Amazing stuff.