Identifying Different Hardwoods

Observe the wood grain.

Identifying different hardwoods.

Over the years i began fielding questions from a more diverse audience worldwide including wood workers carpenters sawmill managers historical societies and archeologists. To the untrained eye grain patterns aren t typically consistent enough to distinguish similar species from one another. With a little practice you can identify many common kinds of wood used to build furniture. Different wood styles in flooring image credit.

But it will also suggest certain species which were more prevalent at different times in history. I m working my way alphabetically by botanical name so check out the latest added wood to see where i m at in the queue. Pennsylvania has over 100 native tree species but there are seldom more than 10 to 15 different species in any one location. Some species are easy to identify such as oak pine cherry and fir.

Identifying different types of wood can be difficult even for experts since some can look very similar especially after specific treatments. Bo ena uchowska hemera getty images with so many varieties of wood species available positive identification of wood by grain pattern alone can be difficult. This publication presents information about 10 important pennsylvania hardwood tree species their identification characteristics and wood. To correctly identify the type of hardwood you need to perform a few tests.

This eliminates the chances of a stain or natural aging skewing the color diagnosis of the wood. It s tricky to identify wood with complete certainty if you don t have experience working with wood so try looking at pictures online or in a book to help you visualize the properties of all the different varieties. It has been designed to serve both the amateur and experienced person in identifying unknown wood specimens. For this reason i decided to revise and expand this site.

The wood from hardwood trees tends to be harder because the trees grow at a slower rate giving the wood its greater density. Learn the trick to identifying wood types in furniture. I m slowly grinding my way through roughly 800 wood species that have still yet to be listed on the site. Distinguishing features of 12 common wood types based on color wood grain texture and more.

One characteristic of cherry wood that is different from most others is the gum pockets or pitch pockets that show up as black flecks in the wood. The most predictable baseline to use when identifying wood is in a freshly sanded state.