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Thread: Do you have a favorite hardwood for joinery?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Michiana
    Posts
    3,046
    I work mostly in QSWO, which is unfriendly stuff in a lot of ways. From an "ease of work" perspective, I prefer Cherry or Alder. They mark well and I have an easier time making crisp joinery. I like Walnut too, but the darkness of the wood makes it tough to see your layout marks.
    Sharp solves all manner of problems.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Peoria, IL
    Posts
    4,443
    Are you blaming the wood? Beech has been used for decades on hand plane bodies. Hard to imagine it can't work for a haunched mortise and tenon. Hard maple is like working with steel. It is not one bit forgiving, especially if you try to coax in a snug fit.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Perth, Australia
    Posts
    9,467
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Winners View Post
    I am making my first table with haunched tenons at each end of all four aprons, and I am getting clobbered by stacked errors.

    I am fine with this table ending up in a bbq pit, American beech has a pretty mild smoke flavor that goes well with fin fish, esp cod and halibut.

    Is there a North American hardwood you particularly enjoy cutting joints in? I am kind of wondering about hard maple. I have worked a little maple, know I need sharp tools, but it seems like... Maybe maple holds it corners and edges better than beech? Would prefer suggestions at the lighter end of the scale, my eyesight isn’t helping any here either.

    Thanks. I know I need to practice no matter what wood I choose.
    Hi Scott, although I am in Oz, I have done quite a good bit of work with US Hard Maple, Cherry, Black Walnut and a few others. In general, fruit woods are wonderful because they are closed grain and generally not interlocked. This translates into keeping a crisp shape, not tearing out (although Hard Maple can do so dramatically when it does), and take a wonderful finish. Because Maple is harder, Cherry and Black Walnut would get my vote for the best woods to work. By contrast, oaks are open grained, which does not finish as well, and Oz woods (like Jarrah) are this and interlocked and hard like Hard Maple

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Last edited by Derek Cohen; 12-02-2021 at 8:18 AM.

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    2,151
    I chose wood for a project and not for the wood. I find that some are much easier to work than others. My favorites to work are walnut and cherry. However figured walnuts and curly cherry can be challenging. Maple is wonderous, very durable, a little hard to work but beautiful for joinery, sharp crisp joints, easy to get great finished surfaces. All that said most of my work has been in oak. My wife loves the stuff. Hard enough to work, splinters galore. QSWO is the best of the lot. If maple was a little more showy my life would have been a little easier. I did try birdseye but she said it’s got spots and no grain. End of story. Oak it is.
    Jim

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