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.
Australian Blackwood
Australia's premium acacia cabinet timber — golden to dark reddish-brown, often boldly figured, and a close cousin of Hawaiian koa.
Hardwood
Meranti
Southeast Asian tropical hardwood from Shorea species — a mahogany-like utility wood, golden-orange to reddish-brown, widely used for plywood, joinery, and trim.
Tropical & Exotic
Ziricote
A dense Central American hardwood famous for dramatic "spider-web" figure — grayish to medium brown with fine black streaking and high natural luster.
Tropical & Exotic
Softwood Plywood
Cross-laminated conifer veneers bonded into stable structural sheets — the pale, workaday plywood behind subfloors, sheathing, roofs and rough carpentry.
Engineered
Macassar Ebony
A dense, dramatically striped tropical ebony from Sulawesi — black and warm brown banded with lighter streaks, prized for veneer, inlay, and fine detail.
Tropical & Exotic
East Indian Rosewood
Dense, dark reddish-brown South Asian rosewood with fine interlocked grain — a fragrant, durable cabinet and instrument wood prized for tone and figure.
Hardwood
Pau d'arco
Extremely dense, reddish- to orange-brown South American hardwood — the classic ipe/lapacho decking and outdoor timber, prized for hardness and rot resistance.
Tropical & Exotic
Common Hook-thorn Acacia
A dense southern-African thorn tree yielding dark reddish-brown heartwood with cream sapwood — a hard, tough, mostly local-use timber.
Hardwood
Engineered Wood
A broad family of manufactured boards built from wood fibers, particles, or veneers bonded with adhesives — uniform, stable, and free of a single natural species.
Engineered
Azobe (Ekki)
Extremely heavy, dark chocolate-brown West African ironwood valued for outstanding durability in marine piling, decking, and heavy hydraulic construction.
Tropical & Exotic
Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
An engineered structural panel of cross-oriented wood strands bonded with resin under heat and pressure — the pale, mottled tan sheathing board of modern construction.
Engineered
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
Bruguiera cylindrica
A dense, hard mangrove hardwood from Southeast Asia's tidal forests — fine-grained, tan to light brown, and cut mostly for poles, fuelwood, and charcoal.
Hardwood
Black Walnut
Prized North American hardwood with rich chocolate-brown heartwood, pale sapwood, and superb workability for fine furniture.
Hardwood
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
Catalpa
A lightweight, unusually decay-resistant native hardwood with coarse ring-porous grain and a warm tan-to-gray-brown color.
Hardwood
Wenge
Dark brown-to-black Central African hardwood with a bold black-and-tan striped figure, coarse texture, and high density — a favorite for flooring and accents.
Tropical & Exotic
Ponderosa Pine
A soft, light Western softwood — pale yellow sapwood and warm orange-tan heartwood, straight-grained, easy to work, and the classic knotty-pine millwork timber.
Softwood
African Ebony
Dense, jet-black West African hardwood with an extremely fine grain, prized for instrument parts, inlay, and fine turning.
Tropical & Exotic
Lodgepole Pine
A pale, lightweight, straight-boled Rocky Mountain softwood — the classic tepee-pole tree — valued for framing lumber, house logs, and utility products.
Softwood
Brazilian Rosewood
Legendary CITES-listed tropical hardwood with deep reddish-brown, high-contrast striped heartwood — the classic tonewood for fine guitars and heirloom furniture.
Tropical & Exotic
Douglas Fir
A strong, stiff Pacific Northwest softwood — cream to tan with bold growth rings and reddish bands — the backbone of North American structural timber.
Softwood
Yellow Birch
A tough, fine-grained North American hardwood — pale to golden-brown, strong and shock-resistant, and the primary birch of furniture, flooring, and plywood.
Hardwood
Goncalo Alves
The bold striped tropical hardwood sold as Tigerwood: hard, heavy, and durable, prized for its dramatic dark chocolate streaks over a reddish-orange-brown ground.
Tropical & Exotic
London Plane
A European hybrid plane whose quartersawn boards show the classic lacewood fleck — golden-tan, ray-flecked timber prized for decorative veneer and joinery.
Hardwood
African Mahogany
The mainstream mahogany substitute: an open-grained West African hardwood with warm reddish-brown color and a ribbon-striped interlocked figure.
Tropical & Exotic
European Hornbeam
A pale, exceptionally hard and heavy European hardwood with fine, even grain — the classic wood for mallet heads, gears, tool handles, and piano actions.
Hardwood
Paper Birch
A pale, fine-grained North American hardwood famous for its white peeling bark; tough, even, and easy to work but not decay-resistant.
Hardwood
Genuine Mahogany
The classic cabinet wood: a medium-density tropical American hardwood, reddish-brown with an even grain, prized for stability, workability, and CITES protection.
Tropical & Exotic
Xylia
A dense, very durable Southeast Asian ironwood, tan to pinkish-brown darkening to red-brown — the classic pyinkado of sleepers, bridges, and heavy construction.
Tropical & Exotic
Yew
A dense, springy European softwood prized for its rich orange-brown heartwood, knotty figure, and the legendary spring that made English longbows.
Softwood
Sweetgum
A moderately hard eastern North American hardwood with fine even grain — pale sapwood (sapgum) and reddish-brown heartwood (redgum) that takes stain and finish beautifully.
Hardwood
Eastern Red Cedar
A fragrant North American juniper — reddish-purple heartwood against pale sapwood, famous for moth-repelling cedar chests and closet linings.
Softwood
Quaking Aspen
A pale, lightweight North American hardwood — nearly white, fine and uniform in grain, soft and odorless, and the classic wood for saunas, matches, and pallets.
Hardwood
Coast Redwood
The famous rot-resistant softwood of California's coast: light, straight-grained, and a warm reddish-brown that reads unmistakably as redwood.
Softwood
European Beech
Pale, fine-textured European hardwood; hard, heavy, and the classic steam-bending timber for bentwood chairs, tool handles, and turnery.
Hardwood
Padauk
Dense, durable Southeast Asian hardwood famous for vivid orange-red heartwood that ages to a deep purple-maroon, prized for furniture, flooring and turning.
Tropical & Exotic
Great Basin Bristlecone Pine
Wood of the world's oldest trees — a dense, resinous, extremely slow-grown high-desert pine with tight rings and twisted grain, golden tan in color.
Softwood
Fig
The soft, pale, lightweight wood of the common fig tree — an orchard hardwood rarely milled for lumber, valued mainly for small turnery and carving.
Hardwood
Damoni
A fine, straight-grained hardwood in warm light-to-medium brown tones, known here from a physical sample rather than a documented botanical source.
Hardwood
Birch Veneer
Thin, rotary-cut or sliced sheets of pale birch used as plywood faces and cabinet skins — light tan, straight-grained, and prized for its clean, even surface.
Hardwood
Shagbark Hickory
A pale, exceptionally hard and shock-resistant North American hardwood — the classic tough wood for tool handles, ladder rungs, and flooring.
Hardwood
Bamboo
A fast-growing woody grass — not a true wood — used as round culms and glued into hard, dimensionally stable engineered boards and flooring.
Bamboo
Tree of Heaven
Pale cream-to-tan ring-porous hardwood from a fast-growing invasive tree — ash-like grain, light, satiny, and essentially free where it grows.
Hardwood
Unknown Hardwood
An unidentified golden-brown to tan hardwood shown as an annotated cross-section — a reference specimen whose species cannot be confirmed from the sample alone.
Hardwood
Reclaimed Historic Softwood
Weathered structural softwood salvaged from a historic Texas building — gray silvered surface over warm brown patina, with straight old-growth grain.
Reclaimed
Figured Hardwood
A hardwood showing wavy, curly figure in warm golden-tan to honey tones — the chatoyant 'curl' prized for showpiece surfaces.
Hardwood
Japanese Cedar
Japan's national tree and premier building softwood — light, straight-grained, aromatic sugi prized for its warm tone and easy working.
Softwood