Wood Identification How to Identify Lumber Wood By Wright 2

How to Identify trees: • How to Identify a Tree...
How do you identify different types of lumber and wood? here is my attempt at describing how to identify wood in your shop. We will be looking at red oak and white oak, different types of maple, ash, cherry, and walnut. I may also have a video in a few days where we look at all of these woods individually.
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[@austinthompson5648]

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.

[@karlnewgrove]

Yep, it's wood.

[@LegoMan-cz4mn]

Ahhaha

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Dude! now you tell me!

[@Kuro-ik3qn]

Came to comment this. Was not disappointed.

[@expensivefreedom]

Amateur.. An experienced eye like mine can identify it as brown wood. Learn things, sir!

[@spencercoots]

That’s my takeaway, too.

[@Sokane]

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.

[@benvinje]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

right on. in soft woods that is huge. i have really little experience with most soft woods.

[@bxman180]

Can you I dwntify mine

[@mattydominic4219]

"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!

[@rougesunset]

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

[@afterthoughtsgarage320]

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!

[@samuelcarley7245]

"What kind of board is that?" "I wooden know."

[@BuddWolf]

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.

[@kdb_1978]

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

[@bripod5259]

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.

[@alexisjust9269]

You are such a great teacher, like a young Paul Sellers!

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Thanks.

[@LaraCroftCP]

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 ❤️

[@gregsarsons1221]

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.

[@cjtoombs7473]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Now that would be a fast growing tree!

[@danalaniz7314]

Thank you. I love that you share your knowledge. I just a beginner so this left me far, far behind. I'll keep watching.

[@stippledwakeupkti2748]

Thanks for taking time to explain what you know, it’s appreciated

[@bobbg9041]

you could have made this 10 times longer and I would have watched it. You definitely know what your talking about.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

thanks man!

[@joshb2492]

For anyone wondering about beach. Beach is similar to birch but it will have tiny grey flecks in the grain

[@johnlombardo7816]

I love your passion for wood and teaching! You're amazing thank you !!!!

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Thank you. That means a lot.

[@danielfernandeznungaray8996]

Thanks for al the clarity in your explanation. I found this very useful.

[@martihelives]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Yeah. Telling what firewood is can be really difficult. Basically the only way is a lot of experience.

[@danielcox9202]

Thank you for this video. This is one of the most insightful things I have watched in quite some time!

[@swift-o]

Very well done and informative, thank you very much!

[@swift-o]

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!!

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

thanks Robert that means a lot.

[@jamesc5363]

Really good info for a newbie like me. Thanks!

[@rosstifer07]

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!

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

thanks. I try to put out a simple educational video like this every Thursday.

[@troymcmurray1388]

Thank you for your knowledge. I’ve learned.

[@mariongrantham7914]

Thank you very informative and well presented

[@signalrambo]

Excellent teaching video! Appreciate the lesson.

[@daredevilskydiver]

You had a lot of passion when you spoke of smell and feel. That’s was very nice. Good job at the video.

[@bobbg9041]

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.

[@SteveC38]

Yeah, I always thought that White Oak smelled a bit like pickles when you cut it. Great video James!

[@RIBill]

I hit the 'like' button as you were closing out the video, but the last line had me wishing there was a 'love' button!

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Lol thanks. I love having a bit of fun at the end!

[@FredMcIntyre]

Thanks for the info James! 😃👍🏻👊🏻

[@waynemahler2015]

great video. Shows I have lots to learn. Thanks

[@grkuntzmd]

Very nice video. Thanks.

[@tdkrei]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

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.

[@AlexanderSogliero]

Well done sir. Bravo 👏

[@johncrable3349]

Thanks for sharing and congrats on approaching 10K!

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Thanks John. It will be fun to have three channels over 10K

[@CraftedFractal]

So helpful! Thank you!

[@francisshepherd2417]

Awesome video, thanks

[@hassanal-mosawi6049]

Thanks for sharing that

[@emmanuelrodriguez9216]

All of a sudden I’m so interested in wood

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

We have all been there

[@kellyklaask7su990]

Great info. Thanks!

[@allieb9655]

Thank you! This has helped a lot.

[@rufinojosesiapno1397]

You are absolutely right sir.

[@kyvguinto]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Nice. I have that one too. Lots of great info there.

[@danceswithaardvarks3284]

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.

[@leonarddavis3684]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Thanks. Right on.

[@Sandra-kv4mi]

🤠 white oak rays... good to know 👍

[@salvationbordercountry3800]

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=

[@909sickle]

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.

[@adamwilson4834]

I just started a new job at a hardwood retailer and custom woodshop, you learn fast when you stack it by the bunk lol

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Lol that is a good way!

[@ricos1497]

24 hours gone and still no comments about people sending you photos of their wood? Very mature, I like it.

[@LaraCroftCP]

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.

[@dwighthapeman6590]

Awesome, useful video, as usual. Thanks.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

my pleasure!

[@RockyMountainBear]

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

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

thanks man! sounds like a fun time!

[@johnawhiting]

Thank You, Identifying woods and choosing has been a challenge. But Yes I agree working with it clears up a lot of questions.

[@woodworking267]

Thanks this was helpful

[@gregmislick1117]

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.

[@phragmunkee]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Right on. It is amazing the wood you can find in a pallet.

[@peterrurak]

really useful. great job

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Thanks. My pleasure.

[@TefiNoise]

Amazing, so informative

[@clearcut6818]

Thanks!

[@wb_finewoodworking]

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.

[@josephmclennan1229]

One of my favorite woods is Mesqiute ,Honey Locust , Boui de Arc or osage orange

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

TX man! got to love turning your hands black with Mesqiute

[@soberlivingwithbrianfrankl8254]

Wow, like u read my mind.. I've been fighting with some lumber today wondering what it is... (yeah, still no clue) lol

[@robert574]

They should have some cards like rock collectors have samples of different woods or maybe a wood sample kit with different types and marked.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

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

[@JohnMadeit]

I'm useless at telling wood types but I think your absolutely right go buy some samples and play around with them.

[@levilam522]

Right now I'm cutting up some silver maple logs... white, white wood...

[@gofgwoodworking]

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.

[@TWOWS]

Thank you

[@paranoidgenius9164]

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.

[@wamsl1jt]

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...

[@petercallaghan4718]

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?

[@JoeBob79569]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

that is a cool Idea. I love air dried walnut. it has so much fun in it.

[@claudiobertadeazevedo4669]

"planet CLAIRE has pink air, all the trees are red"

[@walterrider9600]

thank you James . smell it figures i have no sense of smell. love the elm . noo not board oh bored lol

[@dabeamer42]

I identify wood by looking at the sticker it was labelled with at the Big Orange store. 😏 That, and I rarely buy anything but pine and poplar, so my inventory is limited. What I want to know, though, is this. I live in Michigan. There's lots of pine grown locally, and of course lots grown in the American South. However, nowadays, when I want to get some "select" pine, it almost always has a sticker that says it is from New Zealand (!!). Sometimes, it's Sweden. I know the answer to this question is "money", but why in the world is the Big Orange store selling me wood that grew in a tree that is almost exactly half-way around the world? As in, you almost can't get farther away from Michigan than the southern Pacific. My guess is that the majority of the cost of the board is transportation. Weird.

[@eqlzr2]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

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.

[@helikos1]

Would I be able to take a item made of wood to a carpenter or woodworker for them to identify?

[@zappa916]

so many projects to build so fewer trees to chop down and harvest.

[@urbanothepopeofdeath]

fewer? where?

[@phildodd9942]

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 ?

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

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.

[@phildodd9942]

@@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 !

[@corncobjohnsonreal]

I can't for the life of me identity this little slab of wood I have. It's very dark brown, extremely hard and dense, grain is long and straight, and it smells sweet, kinda chocolatey, it's almost sickeningly sweet. I can't ever find anything online, I haven't posted a picture or anything anywhere because I think people will make fun of me for something, but yeah I need more of this wood because it is perfect for making rings on the lathe and when I run out I don't know what I'll do with my life

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Sounds like cocobolo feel free to post some pictures on the Facebook Hive mind group. would love to help.

[@diannbruce9542]

I. Ended this !

[@maciej9280]

i never have a problem with that 99% is pine out of pallets, although I got some sapelle and oak a couple of times :)

[@chickenator9618]

You can tell it’s an aspin tree because of the way that it is

[@Malc4dead]

I came here hoping to learn about cedar 😢 I guess it didn't make the 'cut' Learned a lot though, so thank you.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

It is not a common wood around here. Very soft and comes in many veritas and colors.

[@stlong001]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

So true.

[@josephmclennan1229]

Southern Yellow will get harder with age, like Douglas Fir

[@JAMTOAM]

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

[@blacknorce]

Great job. Is live oak a different tree like red or white

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

Live oak is technically a white oak but it is a very different tree.

[@zaneseligman1313]

Yeaaaa- I’ll just go ahead and add this to my confusion-,I gotta lay down

[@cactikev9685]

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

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

That is an interesting idea. Lol that is the smell of red oak. White oak is different.

[@dt7250]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

interestign!

[@hanselito2416]

Okay... Blindfold. Plane. 100% accuracy, lets go.

[@andrewbrimmer1797]

Well with dogwood it's the bark and sometimes the growl but be careful not to offend it might identify as some other spieces

[@randomdumbarse1music]

Very informative, but sadly I have no access to most of these species...I wonder if there's an Australian timber equivalent video somewhere

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

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.

[@bobbg9041]

LOL last comment! He's Board! It looked like he's Nuts Walnuts!

[@lapianissimo]

Make something out of Princess Tree wood! It's one of the strongest woods for its weight, and has many great attributes. No, it's not really invasive - it spreads less readily than most native trees, and has been in the eastern US since the mid 1800s.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

interesting. I have never played with that!

[@matthewjakubowski9020]

How many years does it take to get your doctorate in wood?

[@LegoMan-cz4mn]

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

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

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.

[@LegoMan-cz4mn]

@@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

[@davidgagnon2849]

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.

[@WoodByWrightHowTo]

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.