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

Elm

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

Slippery Elm

A tough, interlocked-grain North American elm with reddish-brown heartwood — nearly unsplittable, excellent for bending, and long prized where impact strength matters.

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.

Pin Oak

A ring-porous red-oak-group hardwood — pale tan with reddish undertones, coarse open grain and bold rays, sold and worked as red oak.

Holm Oak

A dense, very hard evergreen Mediterranean oak with fine grain and gleaming rays — pale pink to light tan, heavy, and tough to work but exceptionally wear-resistant.

Red Oak

The workhorse of American hardwoods — a strong, ring-porous, coarse-grained oak with bold rays, a reddish cast, and open pores you can see with the naked eye.

Ceylon Oak

Extremely hard, heavy South Asian hardwood (kusum) with fine even grain and medium-to-dark brown color, used for tool handles, crushers, and turnery.

White Oak

Dense, ring-porous North American hardwood prized for its prominent ray fleck, closed pores, and legendary rot resistance.

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.

English Oak

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

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.

Cork Oak

The evergreen Mediterranean oak prized for its thick cork bark; the wood beneath is a dense, hard, reddish-brown oak used mostly for charcoal, turnery, and firewood.

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.

Silky Oak

A light golden Australian hardwood with bold ray fleck and a lacy, silky figure on quartered faces — the classic 'silky oak' of colonial furniture and joinery.

Reclaimed Oak

Salvaged oak recovered from old barns, beams, floors, and casks — dense, ring-porous timber prized for its aged patina, tight old-growth grain, and history.

Japanese Zelkova

Japanese Zelkova

Keyaki — Japan's premier temple and furniture hardwood: a ring-porous elm relative with warm reddish-amber color, bold grain, and lustrous figure.

Coast Redwood

The famous rot-resistant softwood of California's coast: light, straight-grained, and a warm reddish-brown that reads unmistakably as redwood.

Lacewood

Australian rainforest hardwood whose quartersawn face bursts with a lacy ray-fleck figure — reddish-brown ground splashed with pale cream flecks.

Tropical & Exotic

Coast Redwood or Giant Sequoia

Coast Redwood or Giant Sequoia

California's iconic reddish softwood — light, straight-grained, aromatic-free, and prized for its exceptional natural decay resistance in old-growth heartwood.

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.

European Maple

Pale, lustrous European hardwood prized for curly and burl figure; the classic tonewood for violin backs and fine turnery.

Pacific Madrone

Pacific Madrone

A dense, warm-toned Pacific Coast hardwood prized for wild curly and burl figure, but notorious for moving and warping as it dries.

Sweet Chestnut

A pale-tan, oak-like European hardwood — ring-porous, light, and naturally durable — long used for beams, fencing, coopering, and rustic furniture.

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.