Wood Identification Encyclopedia

[Paul Fitzgerald]

If you've read my Exotic Hardwood Story thread, you'll know I'm in need of Wood Identification Encyclopedia of sorts.

So I'm looking for book recommendations. I don't mind buying more than one.

Thanks,

Paul

[Bill Sticht]

Paul: you may want to get the book WOOD identification and use by Terry Porter the new revised and expanded edition (reprinted 2007). I got mind at Woodcraft.

[Fred Sotcher]

Paul check out the following:

The Woodbook, Taschen, very large and expensive, lots of great pictures, more about trees that information useful to woodworkers.

World Woods in Color, Lincoln, Linden Publishing Fresno, California, good pictures, very good information for the woodworker ie. description, properties, seasoning, working properties, durability, uses and notes.

Useful Woods of the World Flynn and Holder, Forest Products Society, very good book less pictures that World Woods but similar descriptions.

Good reading, enjoy

[Robert Mahon]

I have this book and find it to be pretty good. There are not many woods that have been neglected.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

A good comprehensive book(s) on wood is very helpful. But to ID wood "once and for all" it has to be put under a microscope in the hands of someone experienced in wood analysis.

The 'typical' wood is usually no problem. But I'm sure if you've handled any amount of wood at all you've seen the amount of variation that can be present in the same species - not only figure but color and grain. Some of it has to do with climate and conditions (soil pH and mineral content, etc) where the tree grew and some of it is just genetic. And if I were a turner I would be looking for unusual pieces like that.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Yeah, I'm not trying to be 100% here. But getting some idea of what some of this stuff is would be great. For example, knowing that Cocobolo may also be referred to as Granadillo would be very helpful. It would also give me some idea of how much to pay for some of the wood I'm not familiar with.

I went to B&N this morning and picked up "The Wood Book" and "Wood Identification and Use." They didn't have "World Woods in Color," so I'll order it off Amazon.

Thanks for the recommendations! These are going to come in handy.

Paul

[Pete London]

Check www.half.com for all books. This is an Ebay owned website that sells new and used book. Excellent site, especially if you have college aged children. I just bought the Wood book by Porter (2007 edition) for $25 including shipping.

[John Michaels]

Useful Woods of the World Flynn and Holder, Forest Products Society, very good book less pictures that World Woods but similar descriptions.

Useful Woods of the World has a new edition. The only place I could find it was the web site below. The first edition got great reviews on Amazon, but is $110 because it's out of print. The name is a little different now:

A Guide to More Useful Woods of the World

http://www.forestprod.org/mycart/index.php?productID=87

[Mike Henderson]

Useful Woods of the World has a new edition. The only place I could find it was the web site below. The first edition got great reviews on Amazon, but is $110 because it's out of print. The name is a little different now:

A Guide to More Useful Woods of the World

http://www.forestprod.org/mycart/index.php?productID=87

I think the book "A Guide to More Useful Woods of the World" is intended to be an addition to the original book, and only contains a limited number of wood species, plus some articles about wood.

The original book "A Guide to Useful Woods of the World" is available here for about $45.

Mike

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Useful Woods of the World has a new edition. The only place I could find it was the web site below. The first edition got great reviews on Amazon, but is $110 because it's out of print. The name is a little different now:

A Guide to More Useful Woods of the World

http://www.forestprod.org/mycart/index.php?productID=87

I think the book "A Guide to More Useful Woods of the World" is intended to be an addition to the original book, and only contains a limited number of wood species, plus some articles about wood.

The original book "A Guide to Useful Woods of the World" is available here for about $45.

Mike

Thanks guys. I just ordered the set of A Guide to Useful Woods of the World and A Guide to More Useful Woods of the World. With shipping it was $80 for both books. Not to shabby considering the wealth of information they contain.

Paul

[Jim King]

Paul:
The US Dept . of Agriculture Tropical Forestry lab in Madison ,Wi. probably has about 40,000 species in their vouchers,

Collecting info on wood is worse than being a tool addict. It never ends and the more information you get the less you know.

Before the advent of the internet and the resulting incredible exchange in information everything was calm and collected. NOW we know that the information available has MANY errors and false duplications under many registered names for a single species.

I will attach a photo of our library of books which is not complete concerning this area of the Amazon only. When you said you were up to buying more than one book to be well versed on woods your words were well chosen.

http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/WoodColl/MADw/MADw1.html
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/WoodColl/SJRw/SJRw1.html

[Mitchell Garnett]

Check www.half.com for all books.

www.bookfinder.com is another excellent site for finding used copies of books in and out of print as well as prices for new books.