Can someone suggest a decent website to help identify wood?

[smartecosse]

I'm wondering if anyone can suggest a site that is good for working out what various woods are?

Perhaps one that as well as showing a finished planed surface also showed the bark etc....

So I can look up things like this as see what they are rather than guessing as its all new to me

Thanks

 

[ED65]

The Wood Database is what you're looking for, but as extensive as it is you must consider it only a starting point.

There are some well-regarded books on this subject too, and I think all warn that wood IDs are not a sure thing and sometimes even experts can't be sure. This isn't as you might be thinking just with oddball species, it can be tricky even with some of the commonest species like pine and oak if you want more than "that's softwood, possibly pine" and "it's oak, but I can't tell you which kind".

 

[MusicMan]

+1 for The Wood Database and ED65's remarks. The next stage is a book" Identifying Wood: accurate results with simple tools" by R Bruce Hoadley. The Taunton Press.

 

[CHJ]

A very comprehensive set of images of prepared timber:-
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/ ... xtotal.htm
A selection of links:-
http://www.quest42.co.uk/woodwork/html/ident.html
Some Bark images:-
http://quest42.co.uk/woodwork/treebark/treebark.htm

 

[custard]

A botanist will use bark, leaves, seedpods, end grain slivers under a microscope...and still not be totally positive.

An antique dealer will use age, style, general appearance...and then describe it as whatever timber his customers want.

A practical furniture maker will use weight, smell, surface texture, colour, grain appearance, thumbnail test hardness...and say that's a fair bet.

The newbie hobbyist will use a blurry photo on an uncalibrated monitor, or a poorly printed plate in a book...conclude they're 100% right and argue the point all night long on the internet.

Seriously, what you can get from a photo is just a tiny fraction of what you'll learn by getting out into timber yards and handling the stuff.