Secondary Wood Choice

[JohnM Martin]

How do you go about selecting secondary wood choices for a given piece? Are there “best practice” combinations or rules of thumb combinations to consider?

I’m thinking about building a tool chest out of white oak with a couple of drawers. What would be good to use for the drawer sides/back to pair with white oak fronts... besides poplar (never been a fan of how poplar looks)? Is it “acceptable” to use pine with oak or is mixing hard and soft woods a no-no?

[Mel Fulks]

Those tool chests get a lot of wear, and the short drawer depth really needs accuracy. Real aggravating when they bind. For your present project I would make the whole drawer white oak

[Tony Wilkins]

Mixing soft wood in as a secondary wood is not only acceptable but was near ubiquitous in times gone by. As Mel mentioned, a limiting feature is the wear that a piece is likely to endure. The sliding back and forth will wear pine much more quickly than white oak. For instance, in the Anarchist tool chest, CS uses oak on the bottom of the tills where white pine is used everywhere else because of the constant sliding back and forth across the bottom of the till.

[lowell holmes]

Maybe go to a lumber yard, Lowes, or Home Depot and buy drawer side material.
Also 3/8" or 1/2" plywood makes good drawer sides.

[Lee Schierer]

If you don't like poplar I would recommend soft maple. It is easy to work, finishes nicely and is more durable than poplar

[Richard Shaefer]

quarter sawn white oak is traditional for drawer sides as it's the most stable cut of one of the most durable native hardwoods.
I personally prefer to use pine for structural components that don't wear or show in the piece you're making.
it's among the most dimensionally stable species, it's easy to work, and it's got a great weight/strength ratio.

[Charles Guest]

How do you go about selecting secondary wood choices for a given piece? Are there “best practice” combinations or rules of thumb combinations to consider?

I’m thinking about building a tool chest out of white oak with a couple of drawers. What would be good to use for the drawer sides/back to pair with white oak fronts... besides poplar (never been a fan of how poplar looks)? Is it “acceptable” to use pine with oak or is mixing hard and soft woods a no-no?

Here's a thought: build the chest itself out of pine or poplar and the drawer bank(s) out of oak. In the British tradition, all the swank was traditionally on the inside of the chest not the outside, which were usually just painted black or another dark colour. All things considered, you'd like to keep the unloaded weight of the chest within some reasonable range for its size.

[Robert Engel]

John,

Perfectly acceptable to mix hard and soft woods. In fact, its the standard on traditional furniture.

But like anything else, it all depends on the piece and personal preference. For furniture I usually go with poplar, pine or cypress drawer sides (very available in my area). For a tool chest, I might look at a hardwood for durability.

In a showcase project, for example, a jewelry box (or maybe your project) often times hardwood is used for drawer sides for aesthetics rather than durability. Contrasting woods looks good, for example, walnut and white oak go well together, so that is something to consider. You could use white oak for the drawer sides and stain the drawer fronts and carcase a darker color.

[James Waldron]

In today's world, we have the luxury of choosing among many species of wood at our suppliers. On the other hand, there is still a cost benefit to be expected when choosing a secondary wood, assuming one is to be used (typically to save costs), in selecting the species most local to the builder. Local species vary, but are typically acceptable for hidden structures and are both more readily available and less expensive. Do as the 18th and 19th century furniture builders did: go local.

Wear surfaces can be supplemented with overlay other materials if needed. Perhaps you'll white oak off-cuts to use for wear surfaces.

[Art Mann]

If you are going to the trouble to make a nice tool chest, why not make the whole thing out of the same material? I have to differ with other posters in that I think pine is a low grade alternative and is less desirable than poplar.

[JohnM Martin]

I think because I have it, I will just build the entire thing out of white oak. It may end up being heavy, but it should last.

[Chris Hachet]

I think because I have it, I will just build the entire thing out of white oak. It may end up being heavy, but it should last.

Fine, but remember that white oak is less stable than softer woods.

Aside from building mission style furniture, I often tend to shy away from oak a bit...it tends to look a bit like 80's and 90's style country furniture when done.

[glenn bradley]

I think because I have it, I will just build the entire thing out of white oak. It may end up being heavy, but it should last.

That will work fine. Just to add to your original question; I use hard or soft maple, hard when I want a stark white contrast in particular, hard or soft when I this is less important. Birch and alder also make good secondary woods. I use a lot of black walnut so, the spoil I cut away that contains more sap wood or extreme color variations that I am not after will become secondary wood for structural interiors. Drawer boxes show every time they are opened so I consider them "show" parts even though they only show when in use.

[lowell holmes]

The drawer side material will give your piece a refined appearance.

[Dan Baginski]

I have to build 4 drawers for an ash entertainment center I’m building. I’m going to do them from poplar for a few reasons. Durable and cheap. I can also get it from Home Depot already dementiomed so it will make the job a little easier.

[chris carter]

My criteria for secondary wood:
1) Is it cheaper than what I'm using?
2) Is it easier to work than what I'm using?

Usually this means poplar.

If I care too much about what the secondary wood looks like, then it's really not secondary wood at all!

[Osvaldo Cristo]

How do you go about selecting secondary wood choices for a given piece? Are there “best practice” combinations or rules of thumb combinations to consider?

I’m thinking about building a tool chest out of white oak with a couple of drawers. What would be good to use for the drawer sides/back to pair with white oak fronts... besides poplar (never been a fan of how poplar looks)? Is it “acceptable” to use pine with oak or is mixing hard and soft woods a no-no?

I use white pine as secondary wood when making solid wood stuff but my main wood is mahogany. I love that combination although in the last 30 years I work only in a few projects involving only solid wood as most of my projects involved (high grade) plywood.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Traditionally secondary woods were the inexpensive and easy to work woods available locally. In New England this meant white pine or occasionally sycamore in CT or RI. In the Mid-Atlantic states it was usually poplar and in the south southern yellow pine.