Wouldn't it be nice

[Jay Jolliffe]

If there was a wood species color wheel like the Pantone color wheel to show how different woods would look with another without having to buy samples of various woods. Maybe there is already one, does anyone know?

[Bill Huber]

It would be nice but the problem is that the same wood is not always the same color.

[George Bregar]

It would be nice but the problem is that the same wood is not always the same color. Exactly, Hell wood from the same tree is ot always the same color.

[David Keller NC]

If there was a wood species color wheel like the Pantone color wheel to show how different woods would look with another without having to buy samples of various woods. Maybe there is already one, does anyone know?

In a way, there is. It's a book called "World Woods in Color". It's out of print and fairly expensive from book search engines, but I occasionally see it for sale at public library book sales and estate sales:
http://www.amazon.com/World-Woods-Color-William-Lincoln/dp/0941936201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248283813&sr=1-1

[Mike Cruz]

Ha! I have that book. I have to be honest, a lot of woods look alike in that book. Some woods that I KNOW, and have in my shop look quite a bit different in the book. Another difficulty is when looking at exotics. Look up Ironwood. HA! Every country has a wood they call Ironwood (or at least it seems that way). Ironwood in one country is Cocobolo, in another it is Lignum Vitae. Neat book, not the "bible" of woods, IMO.

[James White]

http://www.amazon.com/Woodbook-Klaus-Ulrich-Leistikow/dp/3822817422

Looks like it has been done before. I could have sworn I saw recently in a BN or Borders book store a book that was made of wood and of similar name to this one. It was sealed in plastic and little indication of what was inside.

James