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Wood identification books - Printable Version

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Wood identification books - Eac67gt - 04-20-2017

Hi,
I am fairly new to wood working and have had limited experience at it. Nevertheless the woods I have used are from the local home center.
I recently purchased some assortment boxes of wood cutoffs and having hard time identifying. For this and the future I was curious if anyone could suggest some good book(s) that would help in identifying wood.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Ed


RE: Wood identification books - packerguy® - 04-20-2017

This is better than any book. 

Wood Database


RE: Wood identification books - Phil S. - 04-20-2017

Check out the books by Bruce Hoadley -

https://www.amazon.com/Identifying-Wood-Accurate-Results-Simple/dp/0942391047

He has several I think you'd find useful.  You might find them at a library and save a few bucks.


RE: Wood identification books - SteveS - 04-20-2017

I have the Wood Database book, but never use it. It's useful as a general reference.


RE: Wood identification books - Admiral - 04-21-2017

(04-20-2017, 12:50 PM)Phil S. Wrote: Check out the books by Bruce Hoadley -

https://www.amazon.com/Identifying-Wood-Accurate-Results-Simple/dp/0942391047

He has several I think you'd find useful.  You might find them at a library and save a few bucks.

This ^^^^^^^

Doesn't get much better, more than you ever imagined you would want to know.


RE: Wood identification books - Paul-in-Plymouth - 04-22-2017

Bruce Hoadley's book Identifying Wood, already mentioned, gives systematic keys for identifying an unknown piece of wood mostly based on characteristics readily visible with a 10x hand lens.  This is the best resource I know for ID-ing wood of North American trees.   HIs coverage of exotic woods is also authoratative, but less complete.

One difficulty of getting into  Hoadley’s book is simply the large amount of information.  For an introduction to vocabulary and concepts, the sections in the Wood Database, also already noted, dealing with wood identification, wood anatomy, etc. might give a good entry point before diving into Hoadley.  Plus, it's online.  It does not have the systematic keys to identification of Hoadley, however.
    
http://www.wood-database.com
or hardcopy,
https://www.amazon.com/Identifying-Using-Hundreds-Worldwide-2015-10-10/dp/B01FGP9964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492875168&sr=8-1&keywords=wood+database

Both Hoadley and the Wood Database contain nice photographs.  You might like two other online sources of photos:  Hobbit House has a vast collection, many at high-resolution, showing within-species variability;  Romeyn B. Hough’s classic photo collection is also available on the North Carolina State University website.

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/forestry/hough/WoodsPart_I.html
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/


RE: Wood identification books - Steve N - 04-23-2017

Ed welcome to WoodNet.

Already mentioned is the wood database, a great free online resource with plenty of info about the woods you are looking at.

For more info on looks I like Hobbitt House find your wood by name, and see a number of pictures of the species, also a freebie.