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

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.

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.

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.

Chaste Tree

A fine-grained, golden yellow-brown Mediterranean hardwood from a shrubby tree — scarce, small-sized, and used mainly for turning, carving, and small craft work.

Strawberry Tree

Strawberry Tree

A dense, fine-grained Mediterranean hardwood in light tan with pinkish tones — a small-diameter turner's and charcoal wood, hard and heavy but rarely milled.

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.

Wild Service Tree

Wild Service Tree

A dense, fine-grained European fruitwood from Sorbus torminalis — warm honey-brown with reddish tones, prized in cabinetmaking and turning.

Golden Chain Tree

Golden Chain Tree

Dense, hard European ornamental hardwood prized for its rich color contrast and used in turning, inlay, and woodwind instruments — but every part is poisonous.

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.

Rhododendron

A dense, fine-grained pale hardwood from shrubby East Asian rhododendrons — compact rings, light tan to gold color, and a turner's favorite for small work.

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.

Black Locust

Extremely hard, rot-resistant North American hardwood with golden-brown heartwood — the classic wood for fence posts and outdoor work.

Ceriops tagal

Very dense, tan-to-brown mangrove hardwood — hard, decay-resistant, and tannin-rich; used for poles, stakes, charcoal, and small durable joinery.

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.

Alpine Laburnum

Alpine Laburnum

Dense, hard European hardwood from the golden-chain tree — prized in fine turnery and oyster veneer, with a distinctive golden-tan to olive-brown heart.

Ormosia

A dense tropical South American legume wood with sharply demarcated reddish-brown heartwood against pale sapwood and clear growth rings.

Catalpa

A lightweight, unusually decay-resistant native hardwood with coarse ring-porous grain and a warm tan-to-gray-brown color.

Paulownia

An exceptionally light, soft, pale hardwood from the fast-growing kiri tree — prized in Asia for chests, clogs, and instrument parts for its low weight and stability.

Cannonball Mangrove

Cannonball Mangrove

A mahogany-family mangrove hardwood from Indo-Pacific tidal forests — pale tan sapwood, warm brown heartwood, and moderate, evenly spaced growth rings.

Tropical & Exotic

Pine (unspecified)

Pine (unspecified)

The everyday pale, resinous softwood of Northern Europe — pale cream to light honey with crisp, boldly marked annual rings.

Pterospermum

A medium-density, fine and even-grained Southeast Asian hardwood from the bayur (Pterospermum) tree, showing a warm medium-to-dark brown planed surface.

Shorea

Broad Southeast Asian genus sold as meranti and lauan — a light tan, straight-grained tropical hardwood used for plywood, joinery, and utility furniture.

Tropical & Exotic

Nux Vomica

A hard, dense, close-grained brown hardwood from the South Asian strychnine tree, whose bitter alkaloid-laden timber is used for tool handles, implements, and turnery.

Tropical & Exotic

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.