Wood Encyclopedia

Search and identify wood species from around the world — with origin, Janka hardness, grain and color, working properties, common uses, and how to tell them apart.

All Hardwood Softwood Tropical & Exotic Engineered Bamboo Reclaimed

Bird Cherry

A fine-grained European Prunus with reddish-brown heartwood, tight annual rings, and a warm satiny surface — a small-scale cabinet and turning wood.

English Walnut

European hardwood prized for warm brown heartwood and superb figure; the classic gunstock, furniture and veneer walnut.

White Mulberry

A tough, golden-hued fruit-tree hardwood prized by turners and carvers for its ripple figure, though sawn samples often read pale cream to light tan.

Poplar Burl

Highly figured burl cut from European poplar — a soft, light hardwood prized for its swirling eyes and warm golden-orange, dark-pored face.

Smoked Oak

European oak darkened throughout by ammonia fuming — the same tough, ring-porous Quercus robur, deepened to warm brown or charcoal without surface stain.

Birch

A pale, fine-grained northern hardwood — cream to white with warm tones, strong and even-textured, and the backbone of quality birch plywood.

Elm

A tough, interlocked-grained hardwood in warm golden-tan to pale brown — famous for resisting splitting and for its exceptional durability underwater.

English Oak

A ring-porous European white oak prized for strength, ray fleck, and durable heartwood in furniture, joinery, and cooperage.

Pine (unspecified)

Pine (unspecified)

The everyday pale, resinous softwood of Northern Europe — pale cream to light honey with crisp, boldly marked annual rings.

Unknown Softwood

Unknown Softwood

A pale cream to light-tan European softwood of undetermined species, showing straight grain, visible rays and radial surface checking — light, soft and easy to work.

Wild Service Tree

Wild Service Tree

A dense, fine-grained European fruitwood from Sorbus torminalis — warm honey-brown with reddish tones, prized in cabinetmaking and turning.

Hawthorn

A very hard, dense pale European hedgerow hardwood with a fine even grain, prized in small sizes for turning, tool handles and engraving.

Golden Chain Tree

Golden Chain Tree

Dense, hard European ornamental hardwood prized for its rich color contrast and used in turning, inlay, and woodwind instruments — but every part is poisonous.

Alpine Laburnum

Alpine Laburnum

Dense, hard European hardwood from the golden-chain tree — prized in fine turnery and oyster veneer, with a distinctive golden-tan to olive-brown heart.

Downy Oak

A dense, pale-gold Central European white oak with fine, distinct annual rings and broad rays — tough, durable, and closely related to English oak.

Whitebeam

A pale, fine-grained European hardwood from the Sorbus family — dense, hard, and even-textured, prized in small pieces for turning, tool parts, and precision work.

Pyrenean Oak

A warm golden-toned Iberian white oak with prominent ring-porous grain and bold ray fleck — a hardy, medium-dense European oak used for furniture, flooring, and cooperage.

African Padauk

The brilliant orange-red African hardwood: hard, heavy, and durable, prized for its vivid vermillion color, medium interlocked grain, and easy working.

Tropical & Exotic

Weathered Hardwood

Weathered Hardwood

Not a single species but any hardwood whose surface has silvered to grey from sun, rain, and time — prized for its fine, raised grain and reclaimed patina.

Reclaimed Historic Softwood

Reclaimed Historic Softwood

Weathered structural softwood salvaged from a historic Texas building — gray silvered surface over warm brown patina, with straight old-growth grain.

Freijo

A medium tan-brown Amazonian hardwood with a fine, even grain and a walnut-like look — stable, moderately hard, and easy to work.

Kingwood

A dense, violet-brown Brazilian rosewood streaked with dark lines — a historic marquetry and turning wood, small in size and premium in price.

Tropical & Exotic

Sugar Maple

Dense, pale North American hardwood prized for its hardness, tight even grain, and prized figure like bird's eye and curl.

African Walnut

A golden-brown West African hardwood with fine, lustrous, gently interlocked grain and a ribbon stripe — walnut-like in look but botanically a mahogany relative.