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.
Purpleheart
A dense, very hard tropical hardwood famous for turning vivid purple on exposure — strong, durable, and prized for accents, turning, and heavy-duty work.
Tropical & Exotic
Indian Sandalwood
The famed fragrant heartwood of Santalum album: fine, close, warm golden-brown wood prized for carving and aromatic oil, and now strictly protected.
Tropical & Exotic
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
East Indian Walnut
A fast-growing tropical legume timber traded as a walnut substitute — usually brown-streaked heartwood, though this sample shows its paler cream-to-tan tones.
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
Eucalyptus
A huge Australian hardwood genus sold as "gum": this sample shows the warm golden-honey, fine straight grain with subtle ray fleck typical of the eucalypt oaks.
Hardwood
European Maple
Pale, lustrous European hardwood prized for curly and burl figure; the classic tonewood for violin backs and fine turnery.
Hardwood
Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry / Courbaril)
A dense, very hard tropical hardwood in golden-honey to red-brown tones — the classic 'Brazilian cherry' flooring wood, prized for durability and toughness.
Tropical & Exotic
Black Mangrove
A dense, hard mangrove hardwood from tropical tidal coasts — pale tan with darker growth rings; heavy and durable but small, twisted, and rarely milled into lumber.
Hardwood
Mangrove
A very dense, hard tropical wood from the Southeast Asian stilt-root mangrove — tan to light brown, fine and heavy, famed as charcoal and marine poles.
Tropical & Exotic
Ipe
The dense tropical ironwood behind premium decking: golden-to-brown, brutally hard, and naturally rot- and insect-resistant.
Tropical & Exotic
Oriental Plane
A golden-brown Mediterranean hardwood famous for its dazzling ray fleck — the classic 'lacewood' figure on the quartered face.
Hardwood
Stained or Treated Hardwood
Not a single species but any hardwood whose natural color has been altered by stain, dye, or a preservative or protective treatment.
Hardwood
English Walnut
European hardwood prized for warm brown heartwood and superb figure; the classic gunstock, furniture and veneer walnut.
Hardwood
Conifer (unidentified)
A pale, straight-grained North American softwood cut from an unidentified conifer — light tan to pale yellow, light in weight, and easy to work.
Softwood
Bloodwood
The intensely red South American hardwood: very dense, hard, and fine-textured, prized for its vivid blood-red heartwood in turning, inlay, and accents.
Tropical & Exotic
Plum
A dense, fine-grained fruitwood in the cherry family, prized by turners and carvers for its rich streaky color and small, knotty billets.
Hardwood
Eastern White Pine
The classic soft, lightweight, pale North American pine: fine even grain, distinct growth rings, and a wood that carves, planes, and paints with ease.
Softwood
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
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
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
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
Jack Wood
Heavy, tough South/Southeast Asian hardwood in warm tan to light brown, valued for its strength, durability and heavy structural and joinery work.
Hardwood
Honey Locust
A hard, dense, ring-porous North American hardwood with warm reddish-brown heartwood, pale golden sapwood, and surprising decay resistance.
Hardwood