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.

Yellow Birch

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
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
Birch Veneer

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
Sweet Birch

Sweet Birch

A dense, fine-grained eastern North American birch, famous for the wintergreen scent of its bark — pale sapwood over rich reddish heartwood.

Hardwood
Red Maple

Red Maple

A pale, fine-grained North American soft maple prized for its clean look, easy machining, and value-friendly availability.

Hardwood
Ponderosa Pine

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
Abachi

Abachi

A very light, soft, pale West African hardwood with fine even grain — the classic sauna-bench and core-veneer wood, low in weight, heat, and resin.

Tropical & Exotic
Grand Fir

Grand Fir

A light, soft, pale Pacific Northwest true fir with fine even grain and low resin — an economical framing and utility softwood, mild-working but not decay-resistant.

Softwood
Douglas Fir

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