Favorite secondary woods for hand tool users?

[Bob Jones]

I am about to start the chest of drawers from the Jointer and cabinet maker. I like to start with rough lumber and use only planes for surfacing. The outside of the case will be cherry and I am looking for opinions on the best options for the best secondary wood options.

The original text calls for pine for regular work, but suggests hardwoods like maple or ash for "cabinet quality" work. I certainly want to go with quality.

I really have only used cherry, walnut, ash, and dimensioned construction lumber so far. I know I don't want to use ash because it is no fun to plane!

[David Weaver]

with cherry, soft maple. It works nicely and it's not expensive.

Pine is OK, but second growth pine is kind of disappointing.

[Andrew Gibson]

I second soft maple. It is easy to cut fine joinery in and planes nicely. It also is relatively inexpensive.

I would say poplar is an option but is not as nice to work as Maple and is not much cheaper in my experience.

If you can get clear pine for a decent price I guess it is an option but I cant get it anywhere but the borg.

[Sean Hughto]

poplar is a good choice as it is inexpensive, harder than pine, and works well with hand tools.

If I was making an heirloom, I'd spring for the maple though as it is harder (will hold up a bit better on parts like drawer sides.

[Johnny Kleso]

Secondary = CHEAP woods

I have bought almost 700 bf of Okoume Mahogany for about $1.00 a bf all clear and grade A quality and thought am I going to buy some Popular for $2.00 a BF ????

Fine the least expensive wood you can..

I was just thinking has anyone ever resawed 2x6s or 2x12s for secondary wood????

[Sean Hughto]

I agree that in days of yore, the village cabinet maker used inexpensive woods in the locations where it would not be seen. But, that said, secondary doesn't have to mean cheap. It can be used because it has roles to play other than look nice. It may be more durable or lighter or provide a pleasing contrast, repel moths, etc.

When chairmakers made windsor chairs, they used pine for the seat, oak or maple for the under carriage, hickory for the spindles, white oak for the bent rails etc. because each wood had properties that made it well suited to its place in the chair.

[Johnny Kleso]

Your right that in this day its more art than funtion as I read your view...

There are a lot of secondary woods not listed on 99% of websites and if you can find a local saw mill, it can be had for a a very good price as it has no national market..

I have some Hackberry and love working it..

Here is a list of some others
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/centers/woodanatomy/techsheets_display.php?geo_category_id=2&genus_commonname_criteria=c&sorting_rule=1a

[Casey Gooding]

Cheap is certainly your best bet. I usually use pine or poplar as secondary wood. Really just depends on what I have at hand or can get cheap.

[Russell Sansom]

I love working poplar and it varies considerably in hardness. The densest, dark green stuff is in the cherry area for hardness. I use Poplar for tool cabinets in the shop and for stuff I'm going to paint. A marking knife leaves a beautifully sharp line that I find a real treat.
Out here in San Francisco I use quite a bit of old growth Douglas Fir. The harder Fir is pretty unpleasant to work because the hard parts are really hard and it splits pretty easily. In places where I've wanted to "make a statement" using secondary wood ( A fine TV stand, hand rails, banister posts, screen door frame ), I have always landed on Fir.
Which brings up Redwood. Old growth can be surprisingly dense. It's a little squeeky to work in a tight kerf but in general, it's truly easy to work. I've used it for some panels and a set of chisel cabinets back when old growth heartwood was available as house siding for 25 cents a foot ( don't actually remember, but even a starving student could afford it ).

Basswood is a perfect secondary wood on the odd occasion and I keep a length of 8/4 around the shop just for those.

I'm comfortable with this set and I don't stray outside it very often. There's been some Willow around but every time I dress out a board, it's so pretty I put it over in boards-in-waiting pile and let join the "A" team.

[Pedro Reyes]

I guess depending on the local prices...

In my brief experience there are 2 kinds of Maple, hard maple and harder maple. Someone decided to call the first one Soft Maple as some sort of twisted joke... in addition to that and the fact that where I am poplar is much cheaper, I use poplar for workshop cabinets, secondary and anything I'll paint, as someone has stated...

But Sean mentions a good point, for drawer runners I'd go with oak (again I believe it is cheaper where I am than Maple)

peace

/p

[Justin Bukoski]

Bob, call your local supplier and see what they have for cheap. Recently I bought a pallet full of cherry at $2.00/bf because they were short (6') and had a lot of light or mixed boards. I have been using this wood for everything from shop cabinet trim to drawer boxes.

You may be surprised what you get when you ask for the "cheapest" hardwood they have!

[Gary Benson]

Another vote for western soft maple. In Denver, I pay just over $2 per board ft, and can get as many 12' long 10-12" wide boards that I want. It planes and chisels very nicely. Pretty stable in my experience as well.
Gary

[Ken Parris]

Johnny, several years ago, maybe nine or ten, I bought a complete poplar tree and had the entire thing cut up in 7/8" thickness just for drawer bodies. I air dried it and it is now stored in a warehouse. The tree had three twelve foot cuts. I have used the top cut pretty much up in the last seven years, this was the top and not so good. Still got the other two cuts with some of it being 21 to 24" inches. It has dried to about 3/4" and I can get 5/8" planed. I have also been resawing soft pine from local log house builds. Both work great as secondary woods. By the way I paid .375/board foot for the poplar. Flitch cut with natural edges, it has dried to about 10%. The pine comes free. I have used a lot of it to make my shop handtool cabinet. Resawing 2 x 6's would be no problem, 2 x 12's would be a little more work.

Ken

[Johnny Kleso]

Hi Ken,
Good to hear from you...

I made a few cabinet corner posts and a tap top for my lathe from 2x4s was just thinking if it made sense to use them for drawer sides..
I should have been collecting the scraps when they were building houses all around me :)

[Tony Zaffuto]

I generally work with cherry and use poplar as the secondary wood.

The plans you are using suggest pine, why don't you just do the whole thing in clear, white pine? Pine is real nice to work with.

In the Mid-Atlantic states, I would suggest Grof & Grof Lumber, from Quarryville, PA (near Lancaster) for lumber purchases. They have a decent web site, but I believe you need to telephone orders in. Wood quality is always great as are prices and shipping.

[Frank Drew]

When I think of secondary wood, I'm usually thinking of drawer sides, cabinet backs, and so on; not the show wood, but not always entirely hidden, either.

I used a lot of poplar at one time, but at least for drawer sides in better work I switched to mostly quartered white oak, occasionally quartered ash, both of which work reasonably well, are quite stable over time, and look better and wear better than many other "secondary" hardwoods.

Similarly, for something like the back of a glass front cabinet, I'd use a wood that's reasonably attractive. For bookcase shelving, however, I'd go with just about anything that was available in the thickness I wanted, edged with the primary wood.

[Bob Jones]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Turns out that a local hardwood dealer is closing next week and I just reserved a pack (over 200bf) of soft maple for less than $1/bf. Hate that they are closing. I will have to see what else they have Monday.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Much of the choice should be based on function. I do period pieces, mostly Queen Anne and early Chippendale. When I make a New England piece I use white pine as the secondary wood. For a NY or mid-Atlantic piece the secondary choice for me is poplar. Having announced those choices, I do make exceptions. For drawer sides and drawer slides I often use either red or white oak for its hardness and wear resistance. For the Windsors chairs I've built, maple for the spindles, legs, and stretchers, pine for the seat, and red oak for the bows and spindles. Sean is absolutely correct.

Shop furniture is a different story. If it is going to be painted, it's usually poplar. Other than that, it depends what is relatively cheap as the lumber yard. Today for instance I bought some 8/4 red oak cutoffs for 50% off to build a saw bench. 10bdft for $23.00 and it will be heavier, thicker, and tougher than spruce framing lumber for just a few bucks more.

[george wilson]

Dave,isn't that Chip- and- Dale furniture for squirrels???:)

[Dave Anderson NH]

Good shot George.:D I really hate the term Chippendale, it's a lousy name for late Georgian rococco furniture but it's the one everyone seems to know.

[george wilson]

I have nothing against Chippendale. Just a silly joke I made up to tell the public. I also used to tell them " brand new and baroque(broke) already".

[Louis Reed]

I haven't seen any mention of using alder as a secondary wood. It tools nice and is low in cost. I prefer it to poplar as I find poplar to be stringy. I have alder as a primary wood to build cabinets. It takes a stain well, but you have to apply a light coat of shellac first.

Louis "Art" Reed

[Don C Peterson]

I bought a bunch of quarter-sawn Sycamore really cheap (about $1.00/bf) a while back. It was frequently used as a secondary wood, and I figure I now have a lifetime supply of it.

IMO secondary wood should be QS so you can build your drawers with close tolerances and there's less worry about cupping/warping etc... Stability should be the primary concern. I think I read somewhere that Pine was a popular choice because it is more stable than most hardwoods, particularly if they aren't QS.

[Jerome Hanby]

I use Poplar if it's an "everyday" type of item. For stuff I hope my Kids get one day, I use soft maple. Of course, I love Walnut for the primary, so maple just seems the natural choice...