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.

White Oak

White Oak

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

Hardwood
Red Oak

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.

Hardwood
Pin Oak

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.

Hardwood
Ceylon Oak

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.

Hardwood
Downy Oak

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.

Hardwood
White Ash

White Ash

A strong, pale, ring-porous North American hardwood with bold straight grain and outstanding shock resistance — the classic wood for tool handles and baseball bats.

Hardwood
Reclaimed Oak

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.

Reclaimed
English Oak

English Oak

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

Hardwood
Pyrenean Oak

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.

Hardwood
Silky Oak

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.

Hardwood
White Poplar

White Poplar

A pale, lightweight European hardwood of the poplar family — soft, fine-textured, and odorless, long used for boxes, plywood core, and utility work.

Hardwood
American Beech

American Beech

A pale, dense, close-grained North American hardwood with tiny gleaming rays — tough, steam-bendable, and long the standard for utility furniture.

Hardwood
Eastern White Pine

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
White Spruce

White Spruce

A light, pale, straight-grained North American softwood — the classic clean, low-resin utility conifer prized for its strength-to-weight ratio and pale even face.

Softwood
White Mangrove

White Mangrove

A dense, hard mangrove hardwood of tropical tidal coasts — light tan to buff, small and gnarled, rarely milled and mostly used for posts, fuel, and charcoal.

Tropical & Exotic
White Mulberry

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.

Hardwood
Tropical Hardwood

Tropical Hardwood

A dense, imported Neotropical hardwood with golden-yellow sapwood, very dark brown heartwood and tight concentric growth rings.

Tropical & Exotic
Paper Birch

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
Arborvitae

Arborvitae

A very light, soft, aromatic softwood — better known as Northern White Cedar — prized for rot resistance in shingles, posts, and canoe ribs.

Softwood
Soft Maple or Ash (unidentified)

Soft Maple or Ash (unidentified)

A pale cream-to-tan Eastern North American hardwood — this sample sits between soft maple and ash, two common domestic species that overlap in light stock.

Hardwood
Quaking Aspen

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
Lacewood

Lacewood

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

Tropical & Exotic
Sugar Maple

Sugar Maple

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

Hardwood
Black Walnut

Black Walnut

Prized North American hardwood with rich chocolate-brown heartwood, pale sapwood, and superb workability for fine furniture.

Hardwood