Im a woodworker myself i go out on hikes and collect different types of woods not knowing what some of them are some times this really helped me gain some more knowledge on identifying what im working with i have been carving wood pipes for about 8 years now and have carved some from driftwood to hardwoods i usually have people go out on their own and find a branch or scrap piece so they are connected to their own pieces but most people aren't willing to get their hands dirty so i have so i go out on my own to find unique makes for quite the adventure and it make sure not one pipe i carve is ever the same.
@austinthompson5648 Could you suggest some quick, visual identification techniques I could use while explaining wood furniture to customers? I started working in high end furniture sales about 4 months ago. Any info would help. Thanks.
I took a wood identification course in university when studying for my forestry major. This was a really good breakdown of the main characteristics to look at. For me smell, relative weight, and sheen when plained are the core factors I look at, but I tend to work in softwoods from the west coast of Canada.
Australian woodworker Morris Lake has actually produced two books that scientifically identify and categorize the 1000s of different Australian trees, called "Australian Rainforest Woods" and "Australian Forest Wood". I don't think anything similar exists for European or American tree species, but for anyone wanting to branch out (see what I did there?), Morris Lake's work provides not only great knowledge on Australian woods, but a very interesting method of categorizing which may be used across the pond.
@WoodByWrightHowTo I really enjoyed the video. I never knew how hardness was measured. By the way, any tips on quick, visual identification techniques I could use while explaining wood furniture to customers? It would help me a lot in my work. Thanks again.
any time when you can see the actual wood joinery that is a sign of good work. The less simple screws holding things together the better. but there are so many different situations that there is no good rule of thumb.
Your passion in describing how you just need to get to know the wood hands on (and nose on) is very infectious! I hope to have space to work with wood at some point in my life, follow in the footsteps of my grandpa
Don’t hope bud! Just do it! I live in apartments, but that doesn’t stop me from wood working! Look for a small storage unit that has electricity and create items to sell! Just so it pays off your unit! There is so many ways to start from almost nothing. I started with a jigsaw then a circular saw and I just bought my first table saw! Just by making things with what I had!
"Buy a stick off all these different types of woods & play with them". Best advice in general. Not only does play = fun, it's also a keystone to creativity. Great vid, man!
I know what you mean by getting to know the difference between woods by touch, look and smell. After about a year or so working there, I learned more about wood than I did when I was in the Boy Scouts. Thanks for the video post. Best of luck 🍀 to you and your family.
I am not an accomplished wood worker like you are. I have done a lot with wood and am just starting to use hand planes and tools. I love wood and I can see and hear your love for it in your videos. Thanks for your content
Great video! My thoughts were to go buy some pieces to keep as samples when I'm trying to give my best guess at identifying the wood of the Christmas trees I make. When you said to do exactly that, I was happy to hear it!! I try to buy reclaimed wood when I can. Old coffee tables and other furniture that I rip apart and repurpose for my trees. I had been afraid to guess myself thinking someone more seasoned in identifying would call me out if I mislabeled a piece. Glad to know that even for someone with more expertise it isn't cut and dry. At least now I won't feel like a liar if I accidentally misidentify lumber. Thanks again for the video! I will be subscribing 😊
Great video, lots of enthusiasm. My wife won’t be happy as I now need to go by lots of different types of wood to experiment with lol. Two woods that I’ve found distinct in smell were Sapele and Yellow Cedar.
I'm finding wood identification a complicated thing. I have picked up various tree logs from others curbside cutoffs and throw-outs but I don't know what wood they are. You have at least made a great stab at it to get me started. Thanks for you enthusiasm and posting this video, much appreciated.
I can proudly say: i can identify all of my usual wood! Because i saw my Lumber in my little tiny forrest by myself, and i know most of the trees by name😄! Really, i see some Trees growing up, fall in Storms and then i come with my Saw and make nice things out of it. So often i can say by the bark what is what. But even without i can tell every Wood by color and grain. Some are unique like oak and by others i know them because they only grow in my forrest. It is nice when you really know the tree before you use them as lumber and i try to use and treat them as well as i can. They will be treated as a former bit of Life how has a History, i love to touch, feel and smell them🥰. Sometimes i even take some pieces of wood or tools to bed with me because i have a really strong bound to my Wood and Tools. Yes, i really love Wood😅! Many greetings from Lara ❤️
Thanks so much for putting this info out here. Your approach to sharing this complicated subject is very interesting, where it could just as well be very dull.
Thanks for sharing James and I realize this is a very difficult subject to portray on a video. However I got good information with he comparison of red and white oak but the rest are still sketchy. May in a intro for a video you could just take 2 woods like maple and cherry for difference. Again thanks. Keep on smiling.
I wanted to do a bunch of that however due to the video length it would have ended up being somewhere around 30 minutes. I'm going to be putting another video out here soon showing all of these samples much closer and talking through each one.
I think he's more an old fashioned woodworker who uses hand tools more then power tools. Its not about production is about relaxing and knowing his work he's not in a rush. This is how the Japanese view woodworking its knowing the wood becoming one with the wood and going with the flow. My take is his projects will outlast mass produced stuff.
That piece of cherry with the really wide growth rings reminded me of a tree like that. When I was a teenager I worked with my grandfather logging in southeast Missouri. We were cutting trees in the flatlands around a lot of farm country on that job. Every morning we had to cross a drainage ditch to get back into the place. We were nearly done with that job and were cutting the trees on the road out, very near that crossing and cut an oak tree that was about 3 1/2 feet across at the stump right on the edge of that ditch. I was eating lunch near that stump and noticed that it looked funny. After clearing the sawdust off it I counted the growth rings and it was only about 33 years old. It was right on that drainage ditch which drained farm fields that were regularly fertilized, so I expect it never wanted for anything.
My hat is off to you, sir, for tackling this topic like a world champion. I was one of those countless people who asked you. I took your advice, and jumped in head first. Had a headache for weeks. My garage is filled with drying trees from all around my neighborhood. A lot of neighbors fell a lot of trees. Hopefully by this time next year, I will have some fully dried, mighty fine wide variety of wood to play with. There's a couple trees in there I can't figure out exactly what they are. Great video. P.S. all those apps & most websites suck at identifying trees. Good old fashioned books are still the best resource. Maybe because they're related to the info that's written in them. It's like tattooing a biography on a dead guy. A little sick if you think about it. Jk
After watching more of this video I realized how much you know about wood, you know a LOT about this! Obviously, I had to subscribe...thanks again man!!
Good evening Dear James👋, You forgot a further impress that wood can have: Sound! I can tell by the Sound of my Axe, Saw or Plane what kind of wood it is. Oak sounds when i saw eg like there is a bit of Sand in it, it sounds bright and hard.
Taking apart a pallet can be interesting. I managed to get white oak, red oak, poplar, hickory, and pine out of a single pallet. Because of the aging, it was almost impossible to tell them apart by sight. However, once I started cutting, I could tell the poplar by how easy it was to cut and the highlighter yellow sawdust coming out of it. I knew I found white oak simply by the smell -- it has an almost sweet smell to it. Pine is obvious by the ease of cut and the piney smell. Red oak was harder. I knew it was an oak by the grain (even through the aging), but it wasn't white oak simply because of the smell (and I really knew it was red oak once I started planing it). Hickory was easy -- it was a pain in the butt to cut with a hand saw! If you have a store like Woodcraft nearby, they may have an offcut bin where they sell offcuts of random stuff by the pound. That is a sure fire way to really get to know different woods (including exotics), although there may be a bit of sleuthing since none of them are labeled. wood-database.com is a another good resource to try and figure out what kind of mystery wood you might have.
This was a really helpful video James and hopefully those who want to know the name of the wood will watch it. As you said, it’s almost impossible to say in most cases from the pictures that people post. Your tips for what photos to post were excellent. The only time I truly worry about the actual name for the wood I’m using is when someone else needs to know like when I’m making gifts. Otherwise, if it looks good and works well I don’t really care.
I bought the Wood Database book: "WOOD! Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide" by Eric Meier. It's honestly one of the best resources I've found. I get almost all of my wood secondhand or from bargain bins and sort it all using the book. Super helpful.
You probably already know about the online Wood Database. I salvage a lot of antique timber and use the wood database to identify woods regularly. The book sounds good.
Thank you for the information. I will now send you a low resolution blurry image of a small section of up close wood grain so you can identify it for me. Seriously though, please consider doing deeper dives on specific types or groups of wood. I can only ID woods that I've worked with, so I know what you're saying. I've mainly worked with pine and it's amazing how many different colors, textures, hardnesses (hardni?), and grain patterns that exist within just one species of tree. But after hand planing, chiseling, carving, and sawing on all of it, you develop a close relationship and see the overall pattern and personality. I have some 20-year dried walnut with a beautiful perfect brown tone that I haven't seen in any other walnut. It also has diamond-like crystals that sparkle under bright light and I can't find that in other walnut.
I have a really old 4 legged barstool, by what you are saying, I think it's made out of oak. It has a rough rectangular seat bit, it's about 2 to 3 inches thick, & has been varnished several times throughout the year's. I knocked it down some stone steps by accident & it wasn't any worse for it. I'm after making some hardwood charcoal, but I cannot source any hardwood scrap.
If you happen to have the luxury of cutting trees down now and then, you can add a whole bucket of characteristics about the woods you use. Sugar Maple - for example - runs a lot of sap ( and it's tasty) all year, but the MOST in the early spring ( maple sugar season) The Oaks, especially the red oak - tannin- smell etc... There is also how it cuts when green as opposed to seasoned etc. I used to marvel at the wonder of it all as we cut and hauled firewood .... now I just pour over my wood shed after it's delivered and find nice bits. By the way, if you are a fan of the quarter sawn appearance of various woods, the wood pile is an excellent place to hunt. Firewood by it's nature is riven wood ... more than less, but depends on the wedge style in the splitter, unless you hand split ( more ways to learn about wood - and how). Every year I pull out a selection of pieces and mill them into blocks of +/- 18" long by whatever worked out and let them season in the shop ( mark the year you pulled from !!) I have what would be a very expense pile of 8+ quarter, quater and rift sawn red, white oak, hickory, cherry, birch, etc ... whatever was in the wood pile. I wish they were longer, but you get what you get. I also grab the ones where the crotch figure, or other interesting figure, has survived the splitter - all excellent stock for boxes and other small things There is a tall Red Oak in the back yard which died, it's 3+ feet in diameter, I'm going to take it down this year and figure out some way to slab it ... should be fun.
Very interesting video about identifying wood products. I'm acquiring a cypress log cabin that about 75 years old in the southeast US. I'm trying to identify the 1X6 tongue and groove ceiling planks in the cabin. I think it's either cypress or southern pine. The boards have a lot of knots but I don't see any of the pits or holes associated with pecky cypress. Are there any tell-tale signs to distinguish between cypress and pine? Thanks for your thoughts on this...
Thanks for a great attempt at explaining wood types. I mean that in a possessive way. Unless you work with them, it can be hard to tell. SO cut in and have fun.
Very informative and def. subscribing! Only critique (take it or leave it) is organize what your info. I know, from experience, when ur passionate and very knowledgable about something. Can kind of go all over the place. Again prolly just me, but the video Came off more of difference between woods then your title of how to tell what the wood is...
Good Overview and solid conclusion. I'm a beginner and starting to do Bored jokes already. I hate it when somebody tells me they're board. What Kind I Ask, Maple or Oak? Lol! I like to vary the types each time. (c=
This is off the subject of this video but I made a new handle for a putty knife I have. I made it from Brazilian Cherry and I would like your suggestion for a finish. I am thinking about a glossy finish that is tough. I will attach the handle with brass knife handle rivets.
At 5:10 you show a piece of hard maple. Isnt that poplar? Very distinctive coloring and the insect holes. I have a bunch of it, not hard, also yellowish to gray in areas.
The dark coloring you see in that piece is spalding. It's actually very coveted for Maple but yes that is hard maple. Popular you can stick your thumbnail into. Hard maple you can't
I'm not certain of this, however I've done a fair amount of study, and this seems to be a common theme: that various varieties of wood may actually be sold as all the same stuff. It seems that oak is particularly a culprit in this regard. So, unless you actually can see the leaves, bark etc you mentioned as indicators of wood varieties, just being told that a wood you're being sold is oak, maple, or whatever is not a reliable indicator. I've been learning about woods for quite some time now, and the way I do it is to identify the variety in the field while I can look at all the indicators you mentioned (and more), and then I take a sample of a dead branch, slice one end diagonally, and then sand and polish it up so I can clearly see, feel and smell the nature of the wood. I've assembled quite a handsome collection of these specimens now.
so true. there are dozens of types of white oak and many of them look identical to some of the types of red oak. with out chemical testing or seeing the leves it is often difficult to tell the difference.
Hi ! Very helpful video with great ideas about using our senses to narrow it down to a conclusion ! Before the days of social media, people would try and draw flowcharts to make decisions to get to an ultimate answer - possibly this must have been tried with wood identification ? Anyone come across one, and did it work ?
Yes. I've seen quite a few of them unfortunately most of them end up at the end of a string being about 2 to 3 dozen different types of wood. They're just so many that look alike It is really difficult to be able sometimes.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo I suspected as much ! So we must practice ! In the spirit of your video titles with their humorous mis-spellings, in the UK we often jokingly say "Practice makes Prefect" instead of "perfect". Some 60 years ago there was a model of car over here actually called the Ford Prefect, which made that mis-spelling doubly funny - they were not Ford's most vibrant automobile... Thanks for that !
I know what something is when it goes into my rack, but after it has become a cutoff (maybe still quite big) or after it has sat in the rack too long, it is easy to lose track of what is what. Do you have any tricks or practices for marking wood as it comes into the shop or marking cutoffs, or do you rely on the things described in this video? As an example, I have 5 feet of something that, to look at, seems like tiger maple, but to touch it seems soft, almost a bit peach fuzzy and it planes so much more easily than maple that my guess is that it is something else. Figured birch maybe? It would be good if I came up with or learned a marking system.
That walnut at 6:30 looks like a section from the planet Jupiter. It'd be really cool to get a bunch of wood with varying contrasts like this and make something circular resembling Jupiter. Like a stool, or a breadboard or something. Even the giant red spot on Jupiter looks like a big knot.
Hey, maybe this could be another product line for your channel. Packaged and identified scraps from projects so people could check out the feel and smell of the more commonly found woods. By the way, in my area the mills cut a lot of oaks for rail ties and mine timbers and that stuff smells like an outdoor privy - do yall IL fellers put body spray on your oaks? lol
I'm looking to fix my wood fence and I'm trying to try to match up the wood as good as possible. My fence looks brown which wood weathers to look brown? Or do you think it was brown from the start?
it depends. most will eventually weather to a deep brown given enough time. but if it is on a 45 or 55 it was probably rose wood. what plane is it for?
Oh I am sorry. You are talking about a fence around the yard. I thought you were talking about a fence on a hand plane. Generally it would have been stained to look that color. Most fences are made with treated pine or ceader then stained. If you take a piece of the fence to the store you can find a deck stain that will match it.
I have a book by Alexander L. Howard “studies of the identification of timbers” by MacMillan Press (1942), in which he took photos at 10x of transverse cuts of 500 commonly used timbers. The idea was the student gets a 10x magnifying glass, and with some idea of what the wood is, turns to the page (all in alphabetical order) to see and match the photo to the wood. The photos in the book are very distinctive. The purpose of the book was to assist those without the long time artisans experience of wood identification, and he links the 500 to another 1930s book called Timbers of the World which lists the 500 timbers used in the era. Mr Howard then goes on to discuss drying methods of the time over several chapters. The modern masterpiece re the drying seems to be Cut and Dried by Richard Jones (10 years in the research and writing). I’m not qualified to say if the photo method and 10x mag is a reliable one, but may be worth an expert investigating and developing?
I think there’s something to be said for not having a clue what a kind of wood is, but being able to know what it’s good or bad uses are. Like looking at the way elm grain is almost braided on the inside so it’s horrible for splitting, but very strong against twisting and warping so it makes incredible benches and shelves, but can be difficult to plane smooth. Or Ash is fantastic for hand tool Woodworking because the grain behaves for both splitting and finishing.
How much does curing (drying) affect the hardness, ie; the fingernail test? Does all wood tend to pretty much get the same amount of harder with drying? IOW, in the order of hardness that you are describing with your fingernail test, would newly cut woods of the same species be in the same order in terms of hardness? I hope my questions make sense.
someone I know did there stairs with new steps not try to stain and the stain is not grabbing like other staris I know are oak I wonder of it pine stain glaze top of wood but not absorbing and show the color like the oak steps
That is the thing from hand tools, it will let you learn your wood and it's also the reason I like to use hand tools. I ripped a 180x12 cm ash board across its lenght with little to no effort and I really felt that oak was so much harder to saw even though it was half the thickness of the ash Also, do you have experience in identifying tropical hardwood, that is something I'm still struggeling with
right on. best way to learn. no I do not do much with exotics as most of what I get is local lumber, but if I do it is normally something I have purchased and they have it labeled.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo (wood by) right, so I guess I'll just be comparing pictures for a while, we tore down the old stairs in our house (in order to replace it with self made white oak stairs 😁😁 tell me if you want some pictures) and I was wondering what it could be
methyl salicylate (active ingredient in sports cream like bengay) which is now manufactured synthetically in the lab was once distilled exclusively from the sap of the sweet birch. You can sometimes smell it when harvesting birch.......the other smell I associate with birch is popsicle sticks, which are also derived from birch.
There are a bunch of different woods that will often be called teak. If it's actual teak then it's illegal to sell in the United States and most countries. But most teaks are a lot harder than walnut. Walnut is a relatively soft wood. You can drive your thumbnail into it. Also. Also walnut if it's kiln dried is a lot darker. Teak is a bit more light Brown. But if Walnut is air-dried it can have a lot of different colors.
You didn't show the medullary rays in end grain in oak. It's much simpler than showing them when sliced at an angle. I was hoping you would discuss medullary rays in other species. I know Silky Oak, not a quercus but an Australian native, seems to have a similar ray.
I used some popular (it was from home depot, had tags and looked like poplar) and it was much much harder to work than either the alder I bought at the same time or even the dried ipe I've had for 3 years. It grabbed the plane blade and I could not get a smooth surface for the life of me. I've worked with all kinds of doug fir and pine with knots and everything and knot had a problem. Any ideas why I'm having such a hard time (I have a scrap left over if you want to see NOT blurry photos!)
I do not know of one however the same methods for identifying them will work there as well. You may want to look up the channel Pask Makes. He uses a lot of them.
Of the 8 different species of wood that I use, I can actually identify them by the smell, when I cut them I can smell the difference. I also have a book on identifying wood, and a microscope.
Just as an annoying aside, thought I'd mention something to our mates north of the hemisphere....... So far I've found most "woodworking" content on UA-cam is uploaded from our North American friends... that being said, there's roughly 300 million of them, hence it seems absolutely reasonable, and I love the generosity... I've learnt so much and can't thank you all enough...... HOWEVER!!! ....... Australian timber may require a class of its own ( am I a proud Aussie who absolutely adores Aussie timber??? - yep). Anyway, what I'm attempting to stress, and probably failing to do so, is the exquisite nature of our timbers. From the toughest wood in the world, sometimes known as Buloke, to the ultra soft Australian Cedar, we have an array of wood that doesn't tend to get much mention. (I'm probably playing the sour grapes cum poor relation card, but I think some of you may be quite impressed with our timber). Anyhoo..... Love this channel! Many thanks for your upload.
When I first found your channel (the other one) you told me if I had an idea to just throw it out there. I've watched a lot of your videos, but maybe I missed this one: Wood movement! I want to build a few nice boxes, the bottoms will be plywood, but I hope I can add some real wood to the top. But I am sort of scared by the phenomenon of woodmovement. I don't want to finish the project and the box gets destroyed because of expanding wood. Maybe I am overreacting, but still I would like to learn more about it.
here you go. this was my newest video on the topic. ua-cam.com/video/amwx6L5sNEo/v-deo.html and this was the older one. ua-cam.com/video/BP0j9uy1nuk/v-deo.html as long as the wood is thin enough. (the thickness of a ply of plywood) the wood movement will not be an issue to glue directly on the surface for most projects.
Mind reader. I was thinking today it would be great if you did some videos about the materials instead of the tools. Are there enough differences to do a video on how to work oak vs how to work pine for example?
That depends on if anything is going to be covering them generally in most new home construction it's pine but that's because carpet will cover it. The next most common is red oak as it is a fairly cheap hardwood and looks decent when finished.
Good tip if your not sure the wood you have is red oak or white oak. Cut a long thin piece put one end in a cup of water and blow like a straw on other end. If you can make bubble red oak because of its pores grains if not its white oak.
Alejandro Cantu that’s a great tip. I don’t think most people are even woodworkers realize how many sub species of red and white oak there are in North America. I’ve been in the Lumber business for 25 years and I’ve seen white oak that you’d swear was red and vice versa. A lot of the “look” depends on the soil and climate the oak grows in 🌳
That blackened off oak was beautiful. It looks like it must have been around iron to get that black that quickly. Are you planning to use that without losing that patina?
I am not sure what you mean by blackened off oak. the large chunk of Red oak is just weathered. that is what happens when it sits outside unprotected for a few years.
Im a woodworker myself i go out on hikes and collect different types of woods not knowing what some of them are some times this really helped me gain some more knowledge on identifying what im working with i have been carving wood pipes for about 8 years now and have carved some from driftwood to hardwoods i usually have people go out on their own and find a branch or scrap piece so they are connected to their own pieces but most people aren't willing to get their hands dirty so i have so i go out on my own to find unique makes for quite the adventure and it make sure not one pipe i carve is ever the same.
@austinthompson5648 Could you suggest some quick, visual identification techniques I could use while explaining wood furniture to customers?
I started working in high end furniture sales about 4 months ago. Any info would help.
Thanks.
I took a wood identification course in university when studying for my forestry major. This was a really good breakdown of the main characteristics to look at. For me smell, relative weight, and sheen when plained are the core factors I look at, but I tend to work in softwoods from the west coast of Canada.
right on. in soft woods that is huge. i have really little experience with most soft woods.
Can you I dwntify mine
Australian woodworker Morris Lake has actually produced two books that scientifically identify and categorize the 1000s of different Australian trees, called "Australian Rainforest Woods" and "Australian Forest Wood". I don't think anything similar exists for European or American tree species, but for anyone wanting to branch out (see what I did there?), Morris Lake's work provides not only great knowledge on Australian woods, but a very interesting method of categorizing which may be used across the pond.
I just started working in high end furniture sales.
There's a lot I need to learn.
Thanks for making these videos.
It's even harder there as they stain the woods
@WoodByWrightHowTo I really enjoyed the video. I never knew how hardness was measured.
By the way, any tips on quick, visual identification techniques I could use while explaining wood furniture to customers?
It would help me a lot in my work.
Thanks again.
any time when you can see the actual wood joinery that is a sign of good work. The less simple screws holding things together the better. but there are so many different situations that there is no good rule of thumb.
Your passion in describing how you just need to get to know the wood hands on (and nose on) is very infectious! I hope to have space to work with wood at some point in my life, follow in the footsteps of my grandpa
Don’t hope bud! Just do it! I live in apartments, but that doesn’t stop me from wood working! Look for a small storage unit that has electricity and create items to sell! Just so it pays off your unit! There is so many ways to start from almost nothing. I started with a jigsaw then a circular saw and I just bought my first table saw! Just by making things with what I had!
"Buy a stick off all these different types of woods & play with them". Best advice in general. Not only does play = fun, it's also a keystone to creativity.
Great vid, man!
I know what you mean by getting to know the difference between woods by touch, look and smell. After about a year or so working there, I learned more about wood than I did when I was in the Boy Scouts. Thanks for the video post. Best of luck 🍀 to you and your family.
I am not an accomplished wood worker like you are. I have done a lot with wood and am just starting to use hand planes and tools. I love wood and I can see and hear your love for it in your videos.
Thanks for your content
Great video! My thoughts were to go buy some pieces to keep as samples when I'm trying to give my best guess at identifying the wood of the Christmas trees I make. When you said to do exactly that, I was happy to hear it!!
I try to buy reclaimed wood when I can. Old coffee tables and other furniture that I rip apart and repurpose for my trees. I had been afraid to guess myself thinking someone more seasoned in identifying would call me out if I mislabeled a piece. Glad to know that even for someone with more expertise it isn't cut and dry. At least now I won't feel like a liar if I accidentally misidentify lumber.
Thanks again for the video! I will be subscribing 😊
You are such a great teacher, like a young Paul Sellers!
Thanks.
Great video, lots of enthusiasm. My wife won’t be happy as I now need to go by lots of different types of wood to experiment with lol. Two woods that I’ve found distinct in smell were Sapele and Yellow Cedar.
I'm finding wood identification a complicated thing. I have picked up various tree logs from others curbside cutoffs and throw-outs but I don't know what wood they are. You have at least made a great stab at it to get me started. Thanks for you enthusiasm and posting this video, much appreciated.
Yeah. Telling what firewood is can be really difficult. Basically the only way is a lot of experience.
I can proudly say: i can identify all of my usual wood!
Because i saw my Lumber in my little tiny forrest by myself, and i know most of the trees by name😄!
Really, i see some Trees growing up, fall in Storms and then i come with my Saw and make nice things out of it. So often i can say by the bark what is what. But even without i can tell every Wood by color and grain. Some are unique like oak and by others i know them because they only grow in my forrest.
It is nice when you really know the tree before you use them as lumber and i try to use and treat them as well as i can. They will be treated as a former bit of Life how has a History, i love to touch, feel and smell them🥰.
Sometimes i even take some pieces of wood or tools to bed with me because i have a really strong bound to my Wood and Tools.
Yes, i really love Wood😅!
Many greetings from Lara ❤️
Yep, it's wood.
Ahhaha
Dude! now you tell me!
Came to comment this. Was not disappointed.
Amateur.. An experienced eye like mine can identify it as brown wood. Learn things, sir!
That’s my takeaway, too.
Thank you for this video. This is one of the most insightful things I have watched in quite some time!
Thanks so much for putting this info out here. Your approach to sharing this complicated subject is very interesting, where it could just as well be very dull.
Thank you. I love that you share your knowledge. I just a beginner so this left me far, far behind. I'll keep watching.
I hit the 'like' button as you were closing out the video, but the last line had me wishing there was a 'love' button!
Lol thanks. I love having a bit of fun at the end!
Thanks for sharing James and I realize this is a very difficult subject to portray on a video. However I got good information with he comparison of red and white oak but the rest are still sketchy. May in a intro for a video you could just take 2 woods like maple and cherry for difference. Again thanks. Keep on smiling.
I wanted to do a bunch of that however due to the video length it would have ended up being somewhere around 30 minutes. I'm going to be putting another video out here soon showing all of these samples much closer and talking through each one.
You had a lot of passion when you spoke of smell and feel. That’s was very nice. Good job at the video.
I think he's more an old fashioned woodworker who uses hand tools more then power tools.
Its not about production is about relaxing and knowing his work he's not in a rush.
This is how the Japanese view woodworking its knowing the wood becoming one with the wood and going with the flow. My take is his projects will outlast mass produced stuff.
That piece of cherry with the really wide growth rings reminded me of a tree like that. When I was a teenager I worked with my grandfather logging in southeast Missouri. We were cutting trees in the flatlands around a lot of farm country on that job. Every morning we had to cross a drainage ditch to get back into the place. We were nearly done with that job and were cutting the trees on the road out, very near that crossing and cut an oak tree that was about 3 1/2 feet across at the stump right on the edge of that ditch. I was eating lunch near that stump and noticed that it looked funny. After clearing the sawdust off it I counted the growth rings and it was only about 33 years old. It was right on that drainage ditch which drained farm fields that were regularly fertilized, so I expect it never wanted for anything.
Now that would be a fast growing tree!
For anyone wondering about beach. Beach is similar to birch but it will have tiny grey flecks in the grain
My hat is off to you, sir, for tackling this topic like a world champion. I was one of those countless people who asked you.
I took your advice, and jumped in head first. Had a headache for weeks. My garage is filled with drying trees from all around my neighborhood. A lot of neighbors fell a lot of trees. Hopefully by this time next year, I will have some fully dried, mighty fine wide variety of wood to play with. There's a couple trees in there I can't figure out exactly what they are. Great video.
P.S. all those apps & most websites suck at identifying trees. Good old fashioned books are still the best resource. Maybe because they're related to the info that's written in them. It's like tattooing a biography on a dead guy. A little sick if you think about it. Jk
thanks man! sounds like a fun time!
After watching more of this video I realized how much you know about wood, you know a LOT about this! Obviously, I had to subscribe...thanks again man!!
thanks Robert that means a lot.
I just started a new job at a hardwood retailer and custom woodshop, you learn fast when you stack it by the bunk lol
Lol that is a good way!
Thanks!
Good evening Dear James👋,
You forgot a further impress that wood can have: Sound!
I can tell by the Sound of my Axe, Saw or Plane what kind of wood it is. Oak sounds when i saw eg like there is a bit of Sand in it, it sounds bright and hard.
"What kind of board is that?"
"I wooden know."
Taking apart a pallet can be interesting. I managed to get white oak, red oak, poplar, hickory, and pine out of a single pallet. Because of the aging, it was almost impossible to tell them apart by sight. However, once I started cutting, I could tell the poplar by how easy it was to cut and the highlighter yellow sawdust coming out of it. I knew I found white oak simply by the smell -- it has an almost sweet smell to it. Pine is obvious by the ease of cut and the piney smell. Red oak was harder. I knew it was an oak by the grain (even through the aging), but it wasn't white oak simply because of the smell (and I really knew it was red oak once I started planing it). Hickory was easy -- it was a pain in the butt to cut with a hand saw!
If you have a store like Woodcraft nearby, they may have an offcut bin where they sell offcuts of random stuff by the pound. That is a sure fire way to really get to know different woods (including exotics), although there may be a bit of sleuthing since none of them are labeled. wood-database.com is a another good resource to try and figure out what kind of mystery wood you might have.
Right on. It is amazing the wood you can find in a pallet.
This was a really helpful video James and hopefully those who want to know the name of the wood will watch it. As you said, it’s almost impossible to say in most cases from the pictures that people post. Your tips for what photos to post were excellent. The only time I truly worry about the actual name for the wood I’m using is when someone else needs to know like when I’m making gifts. Otherwise, if it looks good and works well I don’t really care.
I bought the Wood Database book: "WOOD! Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide" by Eric Meier. It's honestly one of the best resources I've found. I get almost all of my wood secondhand or from bargain bins and sort it all using the book. Super helpful.
Nice. I have that one too. Lots of great info there.
You probably already know about the online Wood Database. I salvage a lot of antique timber and use the wood database to identify woods regularly. The book sounds good.
Thank you for the information. I will now send you a low resolution blurry image of a small section of up close wood grain so you can identify it for me.
Seriously though, please consider doing deeper dives on specific types or groups of wood. I can only ID woods that I've worked with, so I know what you're saying. I've mainly worked with pine and it's amazing how many different colors, textures, hardnesses (hardni?), and grain patterns that exist within just one species of tree. But after hand planing, chiseling, carving, and sawing on all of it, you develop a close relationship and see the overall pattern and personality. I have some 20-year dried walnut with a beautiful perfect brown tone that I haven't seen in any other walnut. It also has diamond-like crystals that sparkle under bright light and I can't find that in other walnut.
Thanks for al the clarity in your explanation. I found this very useful.
great content!! I'd love to see more like this! really liked the explanation about diffuse porous vs ring porous. Maybe more educational type videos!
thanks. I try to put out a simple educational video like this every Thursday.
you could have made this 10 times longer and I would have watched it. You definitely know what your talking about.
thanks man!
Agreed, I want a full on seminar on wood😂 point me towards it and I'll watch every second
One of my favorite woods is Mesqiute ,Honey Locust , Boui de Arc or osage orange
TX man! got to love turning your hands black with Mesqiute
Really good info for a newbie like me. Thanks!
Great job. Is live oak a different tree like red or white
Live oak is technically a white oak but it is a very different tree.
I have a really old 4 legged barstool, by what you are saying, I think it's made out of oak. It has a rough rectangular seat bit, it's about 2 to 3 inches thick, & has been varnished several times throughout the year's. I knocked it down some stone steps by accident & it wasn't any worse for it. I'm after making some hardwood charcoal, but I cannot source any hardwood scrap.
Excellent teaching video! Appreciate the lesson.
If you happen to have the luxury of cutting trees down now and then, you can add a whole bucket of characteristics about the woods you use.
Sugar Maple - for example - runs a lot of sap ( and it's tasty) all year, but the MOST in the early spring ( maple sugar season)
The Oaks, especially the red oak - tannin- smell etc...
There is also how it cuts when green as opposed to seasoned etc.
I used to marvel at the wonder of it all as we cut and hauled firewood .... now I just pour over my wood shed after it's delivered and find nice bits.
By the way, if you are a fan of the quarter sawn appearance of various woods, the wood pile is an excellent place to hunt. Firewood by it's nature is riven wood ... more than less, but depends on the wedge style in the splitter, unless you hand split ( more ways to learn about wood - and how). Every year I pull out a selection of pieces and mill them into blocks of +/- 18" long by whatever worked out and let them season in the shop ( mark the year you pulled from !!) I have what would be a very expense pile of 8+ quarter, quater and rift sawn red, white oak, hickory, cherry, birch, etc ... whatever was in the wood pile. I wish they were longer, but you get what you get. I also grab the ones where the crotch figure, or other interesting figure, has survived the splitter - all excellent stock for boxes and other small things
There is a tall Red Oak in the back yard which died, it's 3+ feet in diameter, I'm going to take it down this year and figure out some way to slab it ... should be fun.
Very interesting video about identifying wood products. I'm acquiring a cypress log cabin that about 75 years old in the southeast US. I'm trying to identify the 1X6 tongue and groove ceiling planks in the cabin. I think it's either cypress or southern pine. The boards have a lot of knots but I don't see any of the pits or holes associated with pecky cypress. Are there any tell-tale signs to distinguish between cypress and pine? Thanks for your thoughts on this...
that is a hard one. when it comes to most softwoods it can be almost impossible to know for sure with out comical testing.
Thanks for a great attempt at explaining wood types. I mean that in a possessive way. Unless you work with them, it can be hard to tell. SO cut in and have fun.
Thanks. Right on.
Thanks for taking time to explain what you know, it’s appreciated
Very informative and def. subscribing! Only critique (take it or leave it) is organize what your info. I know, from experience, when ur passionate and very knowledgable about something. Can kind of go all over the place. Again prolly just me, but the video Came off more of difference between woods then your title of how to tell what the wood is...
Yeah, I always thought that White Oak smelled a bit like pickles when you cut it. Great video James!
24 hours gone and still no comments about people sending you photos of their wood? Very mature, I like it.
I love your passion for wood and teaching! You're amazing thank you !!!!
Thank you. That means a lot.
Good Overview and solid conclusion. I'm a beginner and starting to do Bored jokes already. I hate it when somebody tells me they're board. What Kind I Ask, Maple or Oak? Lol! I like to vary the types each time. (c=
Thank you for your knowledge. I’ve learned.
This is off the subject of this video but I made a new handle for a putty knife I have. I made it from Brazilian Cherry and I would like your suggestion for a finish. I am thinking about a glossy finish that is tough. I will attach the handle with brass knife handle rivets.
I like. Wipe on poly if you want gloss.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo I am not sure of anything when it comes to finishing. I have been using shellac lately but that is not very durable.
Thank you very informative and well presented
Well done sir. Bravo 👏
Thanks for sharing and congrats on approaching 10K!
Thanks John. It will be fun to have three channels over 10K
At 5:10 you show a piece of hard maple. Isnt that poplar? Very distinctive coloring and the insect holes. I have a bunch of it, not hard, also yellowish to gray in areas.
The dark coloring you see in that piece is spalding. It's actually very coveted for Maple but yes that is hard maple. Popular you can stick your thumbnail into. Hard maple you can't
Would I be able to take a item made of wood to a carpenter or woodworker for them to identify?
Very well done and informative, thank you very much!
Thank You, Identifying woods and choosing has been a challenge. But Yes I agree working with it clears up a lot of questions.
I'm not certain of this, however I've done a fair amount of study, and this seems to be a common theme: that various varieties of wood may actually be sold as all the same stuff. It seems that oak is particularly a culprit in this regard. So, unless you actually can see the leaves, bark etc you mentioned as indicators of wood varieties, just being told that a wood you're being sold is oak, maple, or whatever is not a reliable indicator. I've been learning about woods for quite some time now, and the way I do it is to identify the variety in the field while I can look at all the indicators you mentioned (and more), and then I take a sample of a dead branch, slice one end diagonally, and then sand and polish it up so I can clearly see, feel and smell the nature of the wood. I've assembled quite a handsome collection of these specimens now.
so true. there are dozens of types of white oak and many of them look identical to some of the types of red oak. with out chemical testing or seeing the leves it is often difficult to tell the difference.
They should have some cards like rock collectors have samples of different woods or maybe a wood sample kit with different types and marked.
There are a few of those. but there are so many normal woods that it is really difficult to cover the common ones. amzn.to/3Ryd1SE
Hi ! Very helpful video with great ideas about using our senses to narrow it down to a conclusion ! Before the days of social media, people would try and draw flowcharts to make decisions to get to an ultimate answer - possibly this must have been tried with wood identification ? Anyone come across one, and did it work ?
Yes. I've seen quite a few of them unfortunately most of them end up at the end of a string being about 2 to 3 dozen different types of wood. They're just so many that look alike It is really difficult to be able sometimes.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo I suspected as much ! So we must practice ! In the spirit of your video titles with their humorous mis-spellings, in the UK we often jokingly say "Practice makes Prefect" instead of "perfect". Some 60 years ago there was a model of car over here actually called the Ford Prefect, which made that mis-spelling doubly funny - they were not Ford's most vibrant automobile... Thanks for that !
I know what something is when it goes into my rack, but after it has become a cutoff (maybe still quite big) or after it has sat in the rack too long, it is easy to lose track of what is what. Do you have any tricks or practices for marking wood as it comes into the shop or marking cutoffs, or do you rely on the things described in this video? As an example, I have 5 feet of something that, to look at, seems like tiger maple, but to touch it seems soft, almost a bit peach fuzzy and it planes so much more easily than maple that my guess is that it is something else. Figured birch maybe? It would be good if I came up with or learned a marking system.
most of the woods I work with I know well but if it is one on the edge of what I know I put on a piece of blue tape and label it.
🤠 white oak rays... good to know 👍
great video. Shows I have lots to learn. Thanks
That walnut at 6:30 looks like a section from the planet Jupiter.
It'd be really cool to get a bunch of wood with varying contrasts like this and make something circular resembling Jupiter. Like a stool, or a breadboard or something. Even the giant red spot on Jupiter looks like a big knot.
that is a cool Idea. I love air dried walnut. it has so much fun in it.
"planet CLAIRE has pink air, all the trees are red"
Hey, maybe this could be another product line for your channel. Packaged and identified scraps from projects so people could check out the feel and smell of the more commonly found woods. By the way, in my area the mills cut a lot of oaks for rail ties and mine timbers and that stuff smells like an outdoor privy - do yall IL fellers put body spray on your oaks? lol
That is an interesting idea. Lol that is the smell of red oak. White oak is different.
I'm looking to fix my wood fence and I'm trying to try to match up the wood as good as possible. My fence looks brown which wood weathers to look brown? Or do you think it was brown from the start?
it depends. most will eventually weather to a deep brown given enough time. but if it is on a 45 or 55 it was probably rose wood. what plane is it for?
@@WoodByWrightHowTo Sorry I'm not sure what that means I think I'll be repairing mostly the 4 by 4's and 2 by 4's.
Oh I am sorry. You are talking about a fence around the yard. I thought you were talking about a fence on a hand plane. Generally it would have been stained to look that color. Most fences are made with treated pine or ceader then stained. If you take a piece of the fence to the store you can find a deck stain that will match it.
I have a book by Alexander L. Howard “studies of the identification of timbers” by MacMillan Press (1942), in which he took photos at 10x of transverse cuts of 500 commonly used timbers. The idea was the student gets a 10x magnifying glass, and with some idea of what the wood is, turns to the page (all in alphabetical order) to see and match the photo to the wood. The photos in the book are very distinctive. The purpose of the book was to assist those without the long time artisans experience of wood identification, and he links the 500 to another 1930s book called Timbers of the World which lists the 500 timbers used in the era. Mr Howard then goes on to discuss drying methods of the time over several chapters. The modern masterpiece re the drying seems to be Cut and Dried by Richard Jones (10 years in the research and writing). I’m not qualified to say if the photo method and 10x mag is a reliable one, but may be worth an expert investigating and developing?
Wow, like u read my mind.. I've been fighting with some lumber today wondering what it is... (yeah, still no clue) lol
I think there’s something to be said for not having a clue what a kind of wood is, but being able to know what it’s good or bad uses are. Like looking at the way elm grain is almost braided on the inside so it’s horrible for splitting, but very strong against twisting and warping so it makes incredible benches and shelves, but can be difficult to plane smooth. Or Ash is fantastic for hand tool Woodworking because the grain behaves for both splitting and finishing.
So true.
How much does curing (drying) affect the hardness, ie; the fingernail test? Does all wood tend to pretty much get the same amount of harder with drying? IOW, in the order of hardness that you are describing with your fingernail test, would newly cut woods of the same species be in the same order in terms of hardness? I hope my questions make sense.
yes. wet wood will normaly be softer then when it is hard. that is why a lot of people like to work with wet wood. it is very easy to work.
someone I know did there stairs with new steps not try to stain and the stain is not grabbing like other staris I know are oak I wonder of it pine stain glaze top of wood but not absorbing and show the color like the oak steps
What kind of wood did they usually made furniture with back then that are antiques now? Like 1930s
Whatever wood was around. Different woods for different uses and looks.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo true. Thankyou
All of a sudden I’m so interested in wood
We have all been there
That is the thing from hand tools, it will let you learn your wood and it's also the reason I like to use hand tools. I ripped a 180x12 cm ash board across its lenght with little to no effort and I really felt that oak was so much harder to saw even though it was half the thickness of the ash
Also, do you have experience in identifying tropical hardwood, that is something I'm still struggeling with
right on. best way to learn. no I do not do much with exotics as most of what I get is local lumber, but if I do it is normally something I have purchased and they have it labeled.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo (wood by) right, so I guess I'll just be comparing pictures for a while, we tore down the old stairs in our house (in order to replace it with self made white oak stairs 😁😁 tell me if you want some pictures) and I was wondering what it could be
methyl salicylate (active ingredient in sports cream like bengay) which is now manufactured synthetically in the lab was once distilled exclusively from the sap of the sweet birch. You can sometimes smell it when harvesting birch.......the other
smell I associate with birch is popsicle sticks, which are also derived from birch.
interestign!
How to tell between walnut, and teak? I was hoping teak was covered in your videos
There are a bunch of different woods that will often be called teak. If it's actual teak then it's illegal to sell in the United States and most countries. But most teaks are a lot harder than walnut. Walnut is a relatively soft wood. You can drive your thumbnail into it. Also. Also walnut if it's kiln dried is a lot darker. Teak is a bit more light Brown. But if Walnut is air-dried it can have a lot of different colors.
Very nice video. Thanks.
Awesome, useful video, as usual. Thanks.
my pleasure!
You didn't show the medullary rays in end grain in oak. It's much simpler than showing them when sliced at an angle.
I was hoping you would discuss medullary rays in other species. I know Silky Oak, not a quercus but an Australian native, seems to have a similar ray.
I was going to talk about rays, but I have several other videos that cover that, and this one was getting long. so that discussion was cut. sorry.
Thanks for the info James! 😃👍🏻👊🏻
I used some popular (it was from home depot, had tags and looked like poplar) and it was much much harder to work than either the alder I bought at the same time or even the dried ipe I've had for 3 years.
It grabbed the plane blade and I could not get a smooth surface for the life of me. I've worked with all kinds of doug fir and pine with knots and everything and knot had a problem.
Any ideas why I'm having such a hard time (I have a scrap left over if you want to see NOT blurry photos!)
interesting. there are several different types of Poplar, but most of them are fairly soft.
Very informative, but sadly I have no access to most of these species...I wonder if there's an Australian timber equivalent video somewhere
I do not know of one however the same methods for identifying them will work there as well. You may want to look up the channel Pask Makes. He uses a lot of them.
How many years does it take to get your doctorate in wood?
I'm useless at telling wood types but I think your absolutely right go buy some samples and play around with them.
what type of clamps are those in the background?
Most of the wooden ones are beam clamps. I've got a few videos on those.
4:18 how hard is Teak?
Depends on the type but generally very hard.
Of the 8 different species of wood that I use, I can actually identify them by the smell, when I cut them I can smell the difference. I also have a book on identifying wood, and a microscope.
Just as an annoying aside, thought I'd mention something to our mates north of the hemisphere....... So far I've found most "woodworking" content on UA-cam is uploaded from our North American friends... that being said, there's roughly 300 million of them, hence it seems absolutely reasonable, and I love the generosity... I've learnt so much and can't thank you all enough...... HOWEVER!!! ....... Australian timber may require a class of its own ( am I a proud Aussie who absolutely adores Aussie timber??? - yep).
Anyway, what I'm attempting to stress, and probably failing to do so, is the exquisite nature of our timbers.
From the toughest wood in the world, sometimes known as Buloke, to the ultra soft Australian Cedar, we have an array of wood that doesn't tend to get much mention. (I'm probably playing the sour grapes cum poor relation card, but I think some of you may be quite impressed with our timber). Anyhoo..... Love this channel!
Many thanks for your upload.
I love any chance I can get to play with some of the wood you have down there. Lots of fun stuff
When I first found your channel (the other one) you told me if I had an idea to just throw it out there. I've watched a lot of your videos, but maybe I missed this one: Wood movement! I want to build a few nice boxes, the bottoms will be plywood, but I hope I can add some real wood to the top. But I am sort of scared by the phenomenon of woodmovement. I don't want to finish the project and the box gets destroyed because of expanding wood. Maybe I am overreacting, but still I would like to learn more about it.
Look up the video Wood by Wright made on this subject.
A quick google search found it for me as the first link.
@@shawnr771 I didn't see it before, thanks for this suggestion! Checking out the video straight away!
here you go. this was my newest video on the topic. ua-cam.com/video/amwx6L5sNEo/v-deo.html
and this was the older one. ua-cam.com/video/BP0j9uy1nuk/v-deo.html
as long as the wood is thin enough. (the thickness of a ply of plywood) the wood movement will not be an issue to glue directly on the surface for most projects.
Mind reader. I was thinking today it would be great if you did some videos about the materials instead of the tools. Are there enough differences to do a video on how to work oak vs how to work pine for example?
Thanks. For the most part you work them the same.
So helpful! Thank you!
Whst do they usually use for stairs treads and risers ?
That depends on if anything is going to be covering them generally in most new home construction it's pine but that's because carpet will cover it. The next most common is red oak as it is a fairly cheap hardwood and looks decent when finished.
Thank you! This has helped a lot.
You are absolutely right sir.
Good tip if your not sure the wood you have is red oak or white oak. Cut a long thin piece put one end in a cup of water and blow like a straw on other end. If you can make bubble red oak because of its pores grains if not its white oak.
Alejandro Cantu that’s a great tip. I don’t think most people are even woodworkers realize how many sub species of red and white oak there are in North America. I’ve been in the Lumber business for 25 years and I’ve seen white oak that you’d swear was red and vice versa. A lot of the “look” depends on the soil and climate the oak grows in 🌳
Great info. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing that
That blackened off oak was beautiful. It looks like it must have been around iron to get that black that quickly. Are you planning to use that without losing that patina?
I am not sure what you mean by blackened off oak. the large chunk of Red oak is just weathered. that is what happens when it sits outside unprotected for a few years.
Like it has been partly ebonised by exposure to iron and water, rather than typical greying from weathering.
Right now I'm cutting up some silver maple logs... white, white wood...