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Thread: Wood choice

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    Plano, Tx
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    132

    Wood choice

    I’m relatively new to woodworking and have so far only worked with big box store pine and poplar. I’ve made a few basic things - a Japanese tool box for finishing supplies (though I cheated on that and used power tools), some smaller boxes to practice dove tails, and my latest is a table top music stand.

    I’m going to a lumber yard tomorrow and I’d like to get something affordable to continue learning with that will stain/finish well (the pine has been rather blotchy), and that is a bit more durable than pine. With my music stand I used some half lap joints and initially they fit together well but the shoulders compressed a bit so there are some gaps.

    I’m a bit paralyzed with choice. Beech? Maple? White oak? I can’t break the bank but would like a bit of wood to continue working with. Any suggestions?

  2. #2
    Try White Ash. Don't know about your area, but it is reasonably inexpensive here. It'sa lovely wood, and takes stains well.

  3. #3
    The price you pay is relative to how much wood you get so why not get a good wood and just do a smaller project if what you are wanting primarily is to experience a different wood? Your experience with walnut will be so different from oak and so on and so forth and walnut is a very fine and none too challenging wood to work with but can be a bit more expensive of course. It is also maybe not as expensive as it may seem on the face of it if what you are interested in is experience. Some woods are fine to work the surfaces, like this poplar you have used. If you were hand planing it you had a good time. At the same time that wood can be challenging for joinery because it is soft, dents easily and can easily crush when the chisel is not sharp and hang up your saw. So if you want to practice joinery this poplar is maybe not so good and you would need to do another, joinery project and have to get yourself more wood of a different species. With walnut you get a wood that works well in all cases so with one project you get a good exercise in many aspects. You will be guaranteed a good experience and stimulated to explore more techniques and other woods. Looking at it this way the initial cost might be in reality a bargain basement black sunday super good deal.
    Last edited by ernest dubois; 03-12-2018 at 4:54 AM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    Northeast PA
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    Oak is a good choice for an introduction to working with hardwoods. It is moderately hard, cuts & works well, takes stain well, won’t break the bank and is widely available. Around here red oak can be had much cheaper than white oak.
    ---Trudging the Road of Happy Destiny---

  5. #5
    Soft Maple would be a good choice as well. Less prone to splitting and tearout than the red oak, generally not very expensive, holds detail well, will take an even stain. Darker colors you may wish to use a dye rather than a stain with maple though.
    Making furniture teaches us new ways to remove splinters.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    twomiles from the "peak of Ohio
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    See IF there is a sawmill in the area, and see what they have. The BORG does sell hardwood..at about 3-4 times what the sawmill would charge....

  7. #7
    In the North East, we might recommend red oak as a good entry point to hardwoods. However, for chisel work, you may find it a little brittle and splintery for joinery. Dovetails may tend to split and crack rather than compress if you make a tight fit. It does take stain very well, though.

    I find maple hard to plane, and difficult to stain.

    Poplar is a good choice. It is one of the softest of the hardwoods, so it saws and pares easily, and is very forgiving when you try to compress the fit - as I'm sure you found pine to be.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Prashun Patel View Post
    In the North East, we might recommend red oak as a good entry point to hardwoods. However, for chisel work, you may find it a little brittle and splintery for joinery. Dovetails may tend to split and crack rather than compress if you make a tight fit. It does take stain very well, though.

    I find maple hard to plane, and difficult to stain.

    Poplar is a good choice. It is one of the softest of the hardwoods, so it saws and pares easily, and is very forgiving when you try to compress the fit - as I'm sure you found pine to be.
    Prashun, Soft maple as well? I agree that hard maple is a bit more challenging, but the soft maple I deal with works somewhere between cherry and poplar, depending on the piece. . . It could be the maple in my area is a different species as the stuff you get over in jersey though. (I noticed a huge change in the walnut and cherry I buy moving between VA, PA and IN)

    I also agree with the poplar comment. Stable, softish, easy to work with, easy to stain. . . The OP had said he was looking for something different than the pine and poplar he hadd been working with though.
    Making furniture teaches us new ways to remove splinters.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    twomiles from the "peak of Ohio
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    Nothing wrong with Poplar..
    front view.jpg
    Nor Maple ( three kinds)
    corner view.jpg
    Add some Walnut scraps for contrast..
    assembled.jpg
    Ash isn't too bad to work with, either..
    Curremtly building one of these in Pine, might check out the blog.....

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    At the risk of sounding argumentative, I have to say that my experience with soft maple has been that it is difficult to stain evenly, as it has a tendency to blotch. Not as bad as sugar maple, but still not nearly as easily stained as oak or ash. I nearly always use soft maple as a paint-grade wood, unless it is figured.
    ---Trudging the Road of Happy Destiny---

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    Location
    Marietta GA
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    I've had some success with pine by using golden oak stain. 3 coats or so.
    Then I put on some lacquer.
    It's a warm grain beauty that's welcome in most decor ( IMO ).

    Give it a sample try. Pine is the cheapest wood in the south.
    Also I've taken a hint found on this forum to set up a relatively cheap chisel to a
    17 degree flat ( no micro bevel ) bevel which works magic in cutting vertical end grain for dove tails etc.

    Otherwise I stick to red oak, cherry, or other more expensive hardwoods.

    Good luck and good shavings!

  12. #12
    A thin cut of shellac and some dye takes care of most of my blotching problems.

  13. #13
    Cherry and mahogany are a dream to work.. Walnut is fantastic as well... And finishing them is very easy... Add to that the color of the wood.. That beautiful natural brown wood just looks right under a nice light wiped clear finish..

    Oaks, birch, hickory, alder, and maple are all fairly light... Very blonde and often require stain to really look "right" to me... Oak is especially this way... It looks way too light unstained.. White oak can have a greenish cast I don't really like.. But even red oak often looks light tan...

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
    Location
    Plano, Tx
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    132
    Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. I ended up going with some 4/4 hard maple - the price was right for now, and I got two nice pieces that will hopefully get me through a few small projects.

    I was tempted to go with ash because it was even more affordable but I like the more closed grain look of maple. As a musician (violist) maple also has a certain appeal because that is what most of my instrument is made from (though I’m sure of much nicer quality that what I bought).

    I did discover today that, from time to time, this lumber yard has what they call “drops”. They had a few pieces of African mahogany that were 8/4 and about 2-3 feet long. The gentleman I worked with said he often has a ton of these pieces by someone came in recently and cleaned them out. He told me that particular piece he would have sold to me for $7. Using only hand tools, breaking a piece like that down doesn’t really appeal to me at the moment and I wasn’t in a position to pay for them to mill it down to 4/4 at the moment. A good lesson learned, though!

  15. #15
    8/4 lumber make nice table legs, especially that length. Just rip them 1.75-2”. square. End tables, nightstands, side boards. Makes great fun simple handtool projects with some good joinery techniques to learn or practice. Just FYI.

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