What wood would and what wood wouldn't make your preferred species to work with.

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NorthernSteve said:
Tulip wood, is a favourite of a college local to me, that and Ash. Whilst cost is a driving factor, one of the tutors stated that it was good for students to learn with.
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Tulip (aka American Poplar) is very easy to work with but it’s not particularly attractive. IMO it is best suited for making things that will be painted.
 
Ha! Nice thread! And almost brings up a history of my hobby.

I'm a cup-half-full sort of person, so the good ones:

My very first project (though I didn't really know at the time) was in tulipwood. I made fitted wardrobes. They're terrible...well, the doors are gappy. Looked at another way, they are a triumph of hope over experience and I learned soooo much. As to the timber - clean grain, cuts crisply, doesn't dull tools unduly or chip-out or fray, and takes paint well. Too bland to stand alone.

I made a couple of beside tables in plane (lacewood) - hard to plane without lifting chips, but otherwise well behaved.

Black walnut table - crisp, clean, polishes perfectly. What's not to love? Well, the price.

Beech bookcase - seems prone to twist/bow/cup? As soon as I cut a length it was bowed, even in the wider measurement. Made a nice bed out of some though (pictures prior)

Oak. Just finished a patio table and 10 chairs. Beautiful, but dulls tools fast and chips out as soon as your plane is other than razor sharp. I love the medullary lines and longevity. Probably my favourite
 
Years ago I used iroko to make a new cross for the cof e school I worked at
Had to sharpen the plane every few cuts.... has been linked with cancer
Day to day I use what ever junk wood I get given by my friends at the builders supplier's
I then look at the wood and see what I can do with it.
Yes sometimes it goes wrong and I end up throwing that piece in the wood burner.
 
Blackswanwood said:
interesting question … I have a piece of elm that is absolutely stunning but the most awful timber to plane. I keep thinking I’ll use it and then end up putting it back in the rack.

London Plane can also be a bit of a pig for tear out when planing. If it’s got the flecks in it (lacewood) it’s worth the effort.

Best all rounder imo for box making is Cherry. Very easy to work, takes finish well and attractive.
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That's because Elm has 'interlocking grain': one way for a few millimetres, then the other way. So, whatever way you plane it, you'll be tearing up some of the grain. Only solution is a VERY sharp plane, and very light finishing cuts. Then sanding off.

But what you gain, is that Elm does NOT split. Which is why all Windsor or Wycomb chairs have single-piece Elm seats. And it doesn't rot -which is why traditional weatherboarding is always Elm.

When I was a child, we were warned not to sit under Elm trees. Because, when a branch had almost rotted through, it would stay in place, held up by a tiny remnant of the crossed grain, until one day it would drop - silently, and without warning - on your head.
 
When I 1st cut my teeth with some cabinet making I picked up a lot of very dry oak from my local sawmill in Wycombe and it was lovely to machine and work with. They were only kitchen face-framed cabinets but with inset panelled doors and was fun learning to use my tiny Kity BestCombi in a cold and dark concrete pre-fab garage, but hey we all have to start somewhere!
I also prepped a lot of Iroko for a bathroom floor and thankfully did not get any bad reactions from it albeit her-indoors was concerned at the mountains of almost orange shavings that came off it..
I seem to remember I concealed a toilet cistern in the room and using leftover flooring pieces to make a glass panelled tall cabinet for towels and the like that sat atop the cistern cover.
At the time I was unaware of the health risks associated with it...
Subsequently have used a lot of Sapele for doors and windows which I found lovely to work with if you kept everything sharp and similar with American Maple that I principally used to build a workbench.
 
Iroko is too coarse for fine cabinetmaking in my view. It was never used traditionally and only became widely available in the 60's for ' teak windows 'i
I have bought airgun stocks from Indonesia sold in only two woods One was ' sono kembang' a glorious rosewood species. Often wondered why Far Eastern Hardwoods are not imported here..
Another unusual wood is aspen. I had one supplier who imported it from the US before he went bust .It's a soft type of poplar but almost white and makes lovely drawer sides.
It's always worth rhe effort to match the wood the project !.
 
Most timbers are great to use for any variety of decent cabinetry, provided they're air dried, so oak, ash, elm walnut etc are all excellent. It's when you get hold of a bit of kiln dried stuff that's had all the life sucked out of it do things go TU very quickly. Many foreign/exotic timbers are also great to use but can be very difficult to work due to 'tear out' when planing. Favourite home grown timber has to be Walnut and probably Teak from distant climes, though to make anything in Teak you need to sharpen your plane iron(s) every couple of minutes - Rob
 
For turning, Yew, Laburnum and anything spalted are favourites. The colour and variations are amazing. Walnut is nice as well especially if you have the heart and sap wood.

I don't do much carpentry, but Tulip wood can be decorative if you get the green coloured heart in somehow.

Phil
 
Wenge - i'm pretty sure that what it is - is horrid. I makes an especially nasty splinter and seems to do that every time you touch it. They love to go in and turn septic. It's kind of hard but brittle.

I like ash for it's tough springy strength, as well as the grain. And maple for it's smooth hardness and colour. Good that they are among the cheaper hardwoods.
 
Sideways said:
Wenge - i'm pretty sure that what it is - is horrid. I makes an especially nasty splinter and seems to do that every time you touch it. They love to go in and turn septic. It's kind of hard but brittle.

I like ash for it's tough springy strength, as well as the grain. And maple for it's smooth hardness and colour. Good that they are among the cheaper hardwoods.
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Agree about Wenge....evil stuff; I used it once and never again. A few years ago I bought some kilned American Ash from Yandles which was pretty cheap considering the boards were all clean, with hardly any defects, but it was kilned to within an inch of it's life and just about the most appalling material I've ever had the misfortune to use - Rob
 
woodbloke52 said:
Agree about Wenge....evil stuff; I used it once and never again. A few years ago I bought some kilned American Ash from Yandles which was pretty cheap considering the boards were all clean, with hardly any defects, but it was kilned to within an inch of it's life and just about the most appalling material I've ever had the misfortune to use - Rob
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When I was in the States last time I bought some (well a lot actually for a bench) Ash as I really like it to work with, imported American in the uk as you say clean and inexpensive, and I’ve never had the problem you mentioned. But the stuff I bought over there was stored in a shipping container in the full sun, it was down to an MC of about 8 and virtually impossible to hand plane.
Why not Beech I hear you ask? Well yes that would have been my first choice but almost impossible to buy over there.
Hi Rob, just realised its you lol.
 
Blackswanwood said:
Tulip (aka American Poplar) is very easy to work with but it’s not particularly attractive. IMO it is best suited for making things that will be painted.
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Poplar is prone to staining and as a result, you can get some really great colors from it.
Also, painting wood is a hate crime
Example
 

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Most toxic I’ve used is Blackthorn, had to throw out all my stock, though I finished the bow I was building despite symptoms the same as a nasty chest infection and I only use hand tools…first question the doctor asked was what materials was I working with. Sad because it is an almost perfect bow wood and plentiful in my area 😩Favourite is possibly yew, but I do really like pear
 
spanner48 said:
That's because Elm has 'interlocking grain': one way for a few millimetres, then the other way. So, whatever way you plane it, you'll be tearing up some of the grain. Only solution is a VERY sharp plane, and very light finishing cuts. Then sanding off.

But what you gain, is that Elm does NOT split. Which is why all Windsor or Wycomb chairs have single-piece Elm seats. And it doesn't rot -which is why traditional weatherboarding is always Elm.
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That's not my experience in any way shape or form. Provided it's air dried, elm planes beautifully and you can do almost anything with it. This is a little A&C sort of cabinet thing that I made years ago:

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...in solid elm with burr elm drawer fronts and a solid panelled elm back; stand also in elm. There were no planing issues of any sort. This is another more recent one:


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...which is the 'Drawers behind Doors' cabinet, this time in solid and veneered elm with eight legs and a solid panelled back. I made the huge mistake of buying some kilned elm from Yandles for the legs which was an absolute nightmare to work with. The design is loosely based on something the late and very great Alan Peters made and has six burr elm drawers behind the doors; as you can see SWIMBO has now appropriated it and has festooned her teddies and other odds n'ends over it. To get back on track, elm is a wonderful timber to use and presents no difficulties with planing; the caveat is that you need to pick the right boards of air dried elm. If it's been anywhere near an oven, walk away - Rob
 
Unfortunately, most wood merchants only stock pine and MDF in NZ, with any nice local species being too expensive or rare to use. Most decent wood is imported into NZ - US Ash, maple, cherry and walnut are nice, if you can find them. I don't think many have mentioned sapele, but I like it. Stable and fairly easy to work with - great for things like clock cases or small boxes.

Cheers
Richard
 

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