What wood should I use??

[Bill Huber]

I am not very good a picking the wood I want to use on a project, most of the time it makes no difference in what I use, just how it looks with the different grain.

On this table I am going to make I just am not sure what to use, it will be stained somewhat dark, not black but dark, the grain will still show some.

I just don't know enough about the different woods at this point to know what to use. I want to keep the cost down somewhat so I don't want to use like walnut and you don't want to stain walnut. I have been thinking maybe Ash or Alder, from what I can see the grain looks ok.

If you guys could tell me what to use to build it I would sure appreciate it.

coffee table.jpg

[Yonak Hawkins]

I like your idea about ash. It takes stain well, the grain looks great beneath a dark stain, and the price is right .. plus it smells wonderful while you work it. I'm an ash fan.

[Prashun Patel]

If you want to pigment stain it dark, then ash or oak are good choices imho.

What's the table going to be used for and how do you plan to top coat it? If you want a glossy, flat , formal surface, the open grained woods would require some filling. In that case, a wood like soft maple might be more appropriate.

Are you facile with dyes like Transtint? If yes, then you'd open yourself up to using maple or even poplar. The regimen I'd use there is dye for a base tone, then a gel stain to get it nice and dark without the blotch that you might risk using the oil based dyes.

[Bill Huber]

I have never used dyes and I just thought I would use wipe on stain.

The table will be a coffee table for my daughter, and I am going to put a few coats of poly on it. the kids set all kinds of stuff on it.

[Jamie Buxton]

Dark stain, a table, and small kids may not age as well as you hope. Small kids may scratch the finish. Y'know, catch grit under something heavy, then drag the something heavy. If the scratch goes through the dark, the light wood shows through to emphasize the scratch.

[Pat Barry]

Ash is nice wood but and would be very durable - Doing a dye job first would be a great idea to really get it dark if thats what you are after.

Are you set on the 6 legged design though, I think that's overkill for a small coffee table like you have. Maybe try removing those ceneter legs from your model and see how it looks. Removing the legs will also make it much easier to run a vacuum cleaner under it.

[Prashun Patel]

Then, I vote ash.

[glenn bradley]

Ash is quite stout and looks a bit like oak, figure-wise. Do a few test runs on your finish. The yellow in ash can do odd things to dark colors. Example, Transtint's Dark Mission Brown turned dark green in some samples. Beyond that it mills a lot like red oak as well.

[Peter Keen]

This is a picture of finished and unfinished Black Ash together. The rails and stiles are unfinished. The panel was sanded to 220 grit, then finished with 2 coats of cherry minwax stain, and 3 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane on top. I found this stood up fairly well, even to kids. The interior panel you can see was finished with two coats of polyurethane and was unstained.

DSC_0412 (536x800).jpg

[Mark Blatter]

A wood that I have been using lately is Pacific Coast Maple. It is looks quite a bit like Alder but is somewhat harder. From my experience it takes stain OK and is pretty stable. Not sure it is available in your area. In the west, it is about $3 a bf.