Welcome

The Wood Database is growing by leaps and bounds. Virtually every day a new wood species is uploaded or updated in the database.

With that being said, this project is very much a work in progress (and probably will remain so for a long time), simply because of the sheer volume of wood species, and the time and effort that’s involved in writing and scanning new content for all of the profiles.

Chances are, if there is a common species missing from the database, it’s simply that I haven’t gotten to it yet. But, if you’d like to see a specific species added sooner rather than later, let me know via the contact form. Additionally, if you’ve got a wood sample that you think is rare or hard to find, and you’d be willing to mail-in a small sample for the database, see details on the contact page.

What Makes “The Wood Database” Special

• Clean, Simple Layout

There are several other wood identification websites out there, so why have I undertaken to do what has seemingly already been done? Being an online woodworker, I browse these sites all the time, and I know that there is still a need for a well-designed website with both quality pictures and content, and a simple and well-designed user-interface to help people find what they’re looking for fast.

I’ve organized all of the wood profiles under several different headings, sorted either by common name, scientific name, or without thumbnails. No matter what your point of reference, you should be able to pinpoint the wood species that you need to find quickly and easily.

Additionally, I’ve laid out the wood profiles so that you can find the facts fast. You will not be bombarded with giant charts filled with seemingly meaningless numbers, but you’ll see relevant and useful information on the wood you’re researching. And yet at the same time, I’ve tried to include some actual real hard data as well, and things have not been dumbed down to: “hard and heavy, stability good.” I try to indicate how hard, how heavy, and how stable it is in relation to other woods and materials.

• Blog Format
  

I recognize that there are many, many woodworkers out there that have a wealth of information on wood. And I’ve gone to great lengths to design this website to be “open” and give others the opportunity to add new data as they see fit. Hence the tagline at the top of this website: “By Woodworkers, For Woodworkers.”

Do you have a helpful tip or bit of information on a certain wood species? Share it! Your comments will be appended and shown under the profile of that particular wood species. And if the information is meaningful enough, I can also edit the actual database entry to reflect the data that you’ve shared.

• High-Resolution Scans

Notice I didn’t say “pictures.” That’s because whenever possible, I’ve avoided the use of pictures due to their (relatively) inaccurate rendition of color and detail. Instead, I’ve digitally scanned the wood sample in high resolution: no blurry pictures or inaccurate colors.

Nearly all of the wood profile scans that you see have been done manually: I have not “borrowed” or yanked anyone else’s pictures from their website. (Though I will occasionally include some pictures on some of the wood profiles to illustrate finished works or larger surfaces that can’t be scanned easily.)

Latest News

It will soon be The Wood Database’s first birthday! The Wood Database is turning one on December 11th, 2009. It’s amazing how much the site has grown in just the first year, and I look forward to watching the site get even bigger in the coming year.

Almost each week I get a new idea of things to include for the Wood Database. Besides plans for a printed book (hopefully) becoming available sometime in the second half of 2010, (submit your email to the list found in the box on the upper right corner of the screen to receive updates), I’ve also got many new features planned for the online version. Here’s a short list of priorities that I’ll be working on in the coming months:

• Add scans of endgrain and quartersawn surfaces, where possible.

• Add photos of finished projects both in flat and turned form.

• Add foliage illustrations and leaf scans of most domestic woods from the US to help in tree identification, (I’ve already begun doing this for most species of Maple).

• Create “top ten” lists of the best (and worse) woods for any given category, for instance: the top ten stiffest woods, or the top ten hardest (or softest) woods in the world.

• Write many more wood articles.

• Finish adding all of the most common (and uncommon) wood species to the database.

Stay tuned for all of the latest updates and added features to the database!

~Eric Meier