Provided that the surface of the wood is finished or in good condition, the
best place to start is to take a look at the grain. Identifying features of
different wood grains include coarse or fine texture, visual figuring, color,
and whether the wood is light or dark. However, these properties can alternate
depending on how the wood was cut and whether the specimen is heartwood or
sapwood. When identifying the wood of antique furniture, the process is aided by
knowing roughly when and where the piece originated, as there are only a handful
of commonly used woods from any area until recent history. When deal with rough
wood, the process is considerably more difficult. However, a look at the size of
the pores on the end grain may help considerably as wood various tests of how
hard the wood is. For instance, some craftsmen will shoot a nail into an
identified sample of the wood that they suspect the mystery wood is, and then
shoot a nail into the mystery wood to see whether they are equally hard. A more
precise measure of a wood's hardness is made by shooting a special metal ball
and measuring how much strength it takes to lodge it into the wood. This is
called a janka test.Now here you may also interested in balsa wood.
Identifying Wood Resources
Perhaps the most useful resources for this topic are the books Identifying
Wood and Understanding mrhazbzqb Wood by R Bruce Hoadley. Hoadley is largely
considered the leading authority on identifying wood, and his discussions on the
technical side of the topic are reputed to be very easy to understand. The books
aren't terribly cheap, but they are common enough to find in used condition or
at your local library.
Thankfully, the presence of some visual indexes with high quality pictures of
woods are now available online that can help identify a finished specimen (links
provided under sources below). For trickier cases, there are wood identification
kits available that are helpful. These typically include a large number of
veneers that can be matched up with what you are working with. Wood
identification kits are also useful to have around your shop when trying to
decide on the right type of wood for a project.
Article resource: http://www.balsafactory.com/ .
