Wood

The tree family that builds and connects America Tawny and two-toned. SYP’s golden hues tend to darken and become richer with time. In the early days of the American South, cotton may have been king, but southern yellow pine (SYP) was—and still is—the crown prince. Early European settlers used the lumber for everything from houses and ships to railroad ties. The trees and roots were also tapped for chemical “naval stores,” such as pitch, rosin, and turpentine. Today SYP is in high demand as utility poles, framing lumber, pressure-treated lumber, plywood, and flooring; and for a wide range of paper products including corrugated cardboard and high-pressure laminate. In fact, the print version of this magazine may even have SYP content. For woodworkers, SYP is a great choice for shop furniture, though perhaps not for your bench top because it can be a bit restless, refusing to stay flat. It’s also great for making inexpensive full-scale project prototypes. Inside your home, SYP’s character is well-suited to all types of rustic furniture, cabinetry, and millwork. Outdoors, you can utilize the wood for patio furniture, planting boxes, trellises, and other structures. The raw wood isn’t very rot resistant, but holds up well if painted or finished properly. All in the family Southern yellow pine (SYP) is not a single variety of tree, but any of ten species that grow from southern New Jersey down to Florida and westward to east Texas. Of these, four species account for 90% of SYP timber products in the US: shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), slash pine (Pinus elliottii), longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). While each of these trees has distinct characteristics, the milled lumber is so similar that the US Forest Service admits that “pieces of wood are impossible to separate into species.” As part of the Pinus genus called hard pines, shortleaf and loblolly pine have a Janka rating of 690, with longleaf at 870. Old growth heart pine, the dense heartwood of hard pines, scores 1225. For reference, red oak is only slightly harder at 1290 whereas white pine, at 380, is much softer. These days, heart pine is generally only found as reclaimed wood from rivers or old buildings. Lumber from modern plantation-raised trees consists almost entirely of sapwood. Trees in the SYP group typically grow straight, tall, and fast. As conifers, or softwoods, SYP trees have resin instead of sap, and it moves through microscopic canals instead of the pores typical of hardwoods. These canals make SYP well-suited for pressure treatment with chemical preservatives. Note, if you’re working with treated SYP, never burn the scraps. The flames produce toxic ash and other unsavory compounds. Finding and working with SYP Depending on your location, your local big box store may stock SYP. In Kansas City, one nearby store has clear, S4S SYP in an extensive selection of widths and lengths. They weren’t giving the stuff away, but I didn’t hyperventilate either. Working with SYP is straightforward. It rips cleanly, though I experienced some minor tearout from crosscutting. I got slicker results than I expected at the thickness planer and jointer. Past experience with other pine species taught me to use a light touch when power sanding to avoid gumming up the paper. Edge routing presented no problems, but if you use a lot of SYP, all cutting edges are likely to experience buildup from this resin-rich wood. SYP does an outstanding job of gripping mechanical fasteners, an enviable quality in construction lumber. The wood glues well, but finishing SYP can be a bit tricky given the wood’s resin content. Imperfectly dried boards can sometimes exhibit tacky areas where the resin has oozed. If you can’t cut away and discard this part, use a card scraper to remove the resin, then seal the area with shellac. Resin also inhibits uniform stain penetration, producing blotchy results. Some stain manufacturers offer a conditioning treatment that you slather on the surface, then apply the stain while the conditioner is still wet. To finish the plant stand pictured below, I experimented with a homebrew: 80% pine tar cut with 20% turpentine. An all-pine finish for a pine project. My goal is to develop a sealing stain for exterior use, as opposed to a film-building finish. So far, my research indicates that a warm mix applied on a hot day gives the best results. Golden beauty. On this plant stand, a clear finish emphasizes SYP’s contrasting hues. One tree, two flowers. SYP trees are monoecious, which means that each tree produces both male and female flowers/cones. The male cones open in April, coating the surrounding area with yellow pollen. The female, seed-bearing cones have hard, stout prickles. Shooting upwards. SYP trees are noted for their tall, straight, fast-growing trunks. Loblolly pine is particularly notable, growing up two feet or more per year. SYP trivialities Get a grip in the orchestra pit. Pine rosin in stick form is an essential part of the kit for every musician bowing a stringed instrument. It helps the bow achieve the correct grip on the strings. Without it, both symphonic music and bluegrass fiddlin’ would be impossible. The “Pine Tar Game” and the Hall of Fame. The Royals were playing the Yankees on July 24, 1983 when Kansas City slugger George Brett blasted a home run off pitcher “Goose” Gossage in the ninth inning that would have put his team in the lead. But New York protested that Brett’s bat had too much pine tar. The umpires agreed, nullifying the home run and calling the batter out. Brett and the Royals stormed out of the dugout and started a wild argument. In the confusion, Royals player Gaylord Perry stole the bat and tried to hide it. Brett, Perry, and Gossage were all later inducted into the Hall of Fame (for completely unrelated reasons), and the bat is there too. Timber as a liquid asset. In the late 1800s, pine trees were frequently floated down river to awaiting sawmills. Along the way, an estimated 15% of the timber became so waterlogged that it sank. Modern sawyers are now salvaging these old-growth logs, converting them into premium-priced heart pine flooring. That name’s a little tacky. North Carolina residents were once called “tarboilers” and similar derogatory names related to the production of pine tar. But the citizens at large and the University of North Carolina sports teams in particular turned the attempted insults into the proud nickname “Tar Heels,” denoting steadfast courage in the face of adversity.

Is there a best time of year to harvest green wood, and how should I store it? Remy JohnstonLewiston, ME Photos: Angela Robins and Chelsea Van Voorhis Fortunately, green wood can be harvested and worked at any time of year. That said, I generally prefer to harvest in late fall or winter. Harvesting in the colder months helps ensure the longevity of the material: once nature freezes over, the wood has little chance of rotting or drying out. At these colder temperatures, if my cut logs are longer than the intended project, I don’t bother sealing the ends. There’s plenty of wiggle room for checking on the end grain. If I’m going to turn a bunch of bowls or plates on the lathe within a few weeks, I’ll rough-cut my blanks, stack them, cover the end grain with chainsaw wood shavings, and place them under a tarp to slow down drying and mitigate cracking. Once it’s time to turn, I find that it’s good to defrost the blanks at room temperature for about an hour. In the warmer months, or warmer climes, harvesting green wood can be a bit fussier, and cut wood will lose moisture more quickly. I’ll leave logs full-length until I actually plan to work with them, and I seal the ends with a wood glue and water mixture, or scrap latex paint. Once sealed, I’ll place them in a shady spot atop 2×4’s to keep them off the ground, and cover with a tarp. A good trick for storing smaller pieces of wood is to wrap them in plastic bags, then place in a chest freezer. I haven’t noticed significant differences in the workability of the wood depending on the season, but harvesting in the spring brings the delightful perk of being able to easily peel bark off of the logs of some species. The bark can be used to weave baskets or sew bent-bark containers. Even if you don’t weave, peeling bark is so satisfying it just has to be good for you. Although if you’re turning bowls in the spring, you’ll find the wood is saturated with sap, so you’ll be in the splash zone as you turn, and you might wish your faceshield came with wipers. About the author Angela Robins is a woodworker and educator, inspired by Scandinavian and Japanese wooden crafts, particularly the boat and the bowl. From axe carving to turning, she works primarily with freshly cut wood. She is based in New York’s Hudson Valley where she teaches woodworking.

WoodSense: American Chestnut Down, but not out A keepsake box. This lift-off lidded box was finished with two coats of wipe-on polyurethane, adding protection and a subtle sheen in keeping with chestnut’s rustic character. It’s been said that in Colonial times, a squirrel could travel from Maine to Georgia solely on the intertwined branches of the American chestnut (Castanea dentata). But one of the first things European settlers unpacked were axes that felled those trees for cabins, barns, split-rail fences, and a host of other needs. Water- and steam-powered sawmills accelerated the availability of the lumber until it was a literally a cradle-to-grave proposition: using chestnut for baby beds, adult caskets, and everything in between. At the same time, wildlife, farm animals, and humans all enjoyed eating chestnuts. The trees were so bountiful that Appalachian residents talked of “summer snows,” when the chestnut’s yellow-white flowers covered the forest’s floor, and excess nuts became a cash crop in autumn. Enter the blight Human destruction of chestnut trees paled in comparison to the epic annihilation caused by a parasitic fungus accidentally introduced with chestnut trees imported from east Asia for commercial cultivation. The fungus arrived in about 1904, and by 1940 virtually every mature chestnut tree in the United States—an estimated four billion—was dead. As a result of the blight, the American chestnut tree is functionally extinct. The trees simply don’t survive to maturity. But don’t be in a hurry to sign the death certificate. As Miracle Max explained in The Princess Bride: “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.” The still-healthy roots often push up shoots that can grow about 15 feet tall before succumbing to the fungus—over and over. But there are several teams working hard to break that cycle and restore the tree to American forests. Side-stepping the blight The American Chestnut Foundation has been pursuing multi-prong strategies to overcome the blight. In one effort, they are using traditional hybridization techniques to retain most characteristics of the American chestnut while adding the blight-tolerant advantage from the Chinese chestnut. Meanwhile, the State University of New York has genetically modified an American chestnut cultivar that can survive the blight. Interestingly, should a traditional hybrid prove successful, it can be immediately planted in the forest, but the DNA-altered cultivar must pass regulatory scrutiny by multiple Federal agencies to help ensure that there are no potentially catastrophic unintended consequences. It’s a character-building experience Despite the fact that virtually no living chestnut trees have been harvested for a generation, the wood is remarkably available, though the price is relatively high for a domestic hardwood. Extremely durable and rot resistant, dead chestnut trees can survive standing for a long time, but often suffer damage from borers. Demolished barns, industrial buildings, and other structures serve as another chestnut source. This salvaged lumber may also be wormy and/or have holes and mineral staining from extracted nails and other fasteners. This defaced wood is called “wormy” chestnut and usually commands a premium price. Go figure. Chestnut in use These days, chestnut sees use as paneling, wainscoting, interior millwork, cabinetry, furniture, and small projects such as boxes. Some dealers intent on selling chestnut by the truckload tout its use for flooring, but given the wood’s softness, I question the wisdom of that. Chestnut has a Janka hardness rating of 540, identical to poplar, but less than half of red oak’s 1220 mark. In my mind, chestnut’s relative softness and coarse grain structure, combined with the fact that it’s ring-porous, rule it out for cutting boards and kitchen utensils. The open grain structure also means that you would likely need to fill the pores if you want a glossy surface (see Pore Filling in the Feb/Mar 2023 issue of Woodcraft Magazine). But I personally feel that chestnut’s rustic character would be out of step with a slick finish. Note that chestnut’s coarse grain makes it vulnerable to splitting—great for fence rails—but a potential problem in smaller woodworking projects. Exercise caution with nails, make sure screw pilot holes are properly sized (or even slightly oversized), and dial back on your driving torque. As I was making the box pictured above, I was pleasantly surprised with the smooth surface I got from running boards though my thickness planer, and the chestnut worked easily with both hand and power tools. I didn’t use any stain on the wood, but it’s reported to readily accept colorants without problems. There are no acute allergic or respiratory cautions linked to chestnut, but you’ll be wise to follow your usual best shop practices. A stately giant. During its heyday, chestnut trees routinely grew 60 to 100 feet tall, with trunk diameters of 2 to 4 feet. But vintage photos also show massive specimens that would have intimidated any pioneer woodcutters not named Paul Bunyan. Bristly pods. The spiked exterior of the chestnut fruit often cracks open while still on the tree, spilling two or three seeds ½- to ¾-inch long that develop a deep brown color. Chestnut trivialities Composing a cool song. The Christmas Song, commonly subtitled “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” was written during a blistering heat wave in July, 1945. Originally, Bob Wells and Mel Tormé were merely trying to think of winter scenes to cool themselves. They began by scribbling four lines into a notebook, but forty minutes later, both music and lyrics of the classic song were virtually complete. On the Red List. The American chestnut tree is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It’s a truly towering mountain. You can see small groups of living American chestnut trees along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mount Pisgah, North Carolina. That landmark is easy to identify because its summit sports a 339-foot television transmission tower. Not the new kid on the block. There’s evidence that humans have cultivated chestnut trees since 2000 BCE. Soldiers in Alexander the Great’s army reportedly planted seeds when they weren’t busy conquering the world. Not in the family tree. The American chestnut tree is not related to the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), nor the Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), and definitely not to the water chestnut.

WoodSense: Port Orford Cedar The saga of an immigrant that now flies around the world Straight and narrow. POC is know for its straight grain and tight growth rings. The lower sample has aproximately 32 rings per inch. Like so many of us, Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) is an immigrant to North America. There are only five members of this coniferous genus worldwide, with four of them rooted in Asia. Scientists speculate that Port Orford cedar (POC) seeds floated across the Pacific in the dim past and found a friendly climate in the rugged terrain that is now coastal southern Oregon and northern California. Indigenous people employed its timber to make sweat lodges and a wide range of other items, including arrow shafts. Its high strength-to-weight ratio makes it an ideal candidate for more contemporary uses as well including Venetian blind slats, railroad ties, match sticks, separators in storage batteries, timber framing, boatbuilding, furniture, interior millwork, and arrow shafts again—but this time with mechanical production. In an ironic twist to the wood’s immigrant origin, Port Orford cedar arrow shafts are now an important export to archers worldwide. POC saw its heyday in the first part of the 20th century when old-growth trees were plentiful. Today, there are virtually no old-growth trees left; most of what is cut comes from second or third growth forests, or salvaged logs. Even old-growth stumps can command a premium price. POC lumber is typically straight-grained, stable, and quite lightweight. Figured grain, while uncommon, is prized for musical instruments and turning blocks. Another tree with health issues Unfortunately, the trees are another species under attack from disease. A root-rotting spore is causing trouble throughout POC’s range. The Forest Service has worked at the problem with containment strategies such as road closures, along with a far more difficult solution: modifying the tree itself to make it disease resistant. A recent report indicates that researchers may have developed a new POC variety that can survive the spore. But even if this is successful, it will open many other questions of implementation. Go straight into the arrow factory Port Orford cedar is the Rolls-Royce of arrow shafts, according to Kaleb Sherritt, the manager of Rose City Archery in Myrtle Point, Oregon. It’s ideally suited to making arrow shafts because of its straight grain as well as a unique combination of light weight, strength, and resilience. In addition, any eventual curvature in the shaft is relatively easy to eliminate. Discerning archers can specify length, diameter, weight, and the critical value of spine—the shaft’s stiffness—a key element in the arrow’s stability in flight. Then a person can select shaft finish, banding, fletching (feather type and number), and so on. Rose City Archery buys its wood from local contractors who scour selected areas of Siskiyou National Forest under agreement with the U.S. Forest Service as well as private land for suitable stock. They can harvest snags (standing dead trees) or fallen timber. Because of the natural oil contained in the wood, POC has such incredible rot resistance that logs covered in moss or even buried for decades can still yield straight arrows. The oil also prevents damage from insects, including termites. Working with POC To check out Port Orford cedar for myself, I purchased a variety of turning blanks. The seller stated that the pen blanks were milled from root wood and given the scarcity and value of the lumber, I have no reason to doubt that. POC saws and drills cleanly, and the jointer gave me a smooth edge. I was pleasantly surprised when a sharp blade in a handplane yielded a nearly polished surface that sanding wouldn’t have improved. That said, the wood does sand smoothly. It also glues well and is well-known for taking stain evenly. I experimented with three finishes, and all gave good results. When I prepared the bottle stopper blanks, I was very conscious of the old maxim that the softer the wood, the sharper your tools need to be to achieve quality results. Port-Orford-cedar has a rating of only 590 on the Janka hardness scale, identical to red alder and larch, but less than half of red oak’s 1220 value. My roughing gouge gave me smoother results than its name would imply as I removed the blank’s corners to create a cylinder. I then opened a box of carbide-tipped scrapers with factory-sharp edges. The round cutter produced some easily-visible tearout, but not so serious that it didn’t quickly disappear with light sanding. I got similar results with the square cutter, but the diamond-shaped groover performed very well. I’m certainly not panning either the wood or the tools, because there’s always the factor of operator error. Your results may vary. Cuts with a steel skew were very clean. What’s the purpose of that? I really enjoyed turning these bottle stoppers even though I don’t understand why anybody would need one. I was always taught to finish what I started. In name only. Port Orford is not considered a true cedar, but it can be an impressive tree, growing 150 to 200 feet tall, with a trunk diameter reaching 4 to 6 feet or even larger. Scales and cones. The tree’s foliage is composed of tiny, scale-like leaves with a feathery appearance. Its cones are about the size of marbles. Port Orford Cedar trivialities The sweet smell of success. Rose City Archery carefully collects all the sawdust generated in the factory and has part of it processed to produce an essential oil marketed on their website. I enjoyed the pleasant oil-infused aroma of the wood while working it, then swept up all the debris to use as potpourri. Shoo away insects. A study by Oregon State University has shown that oil from Port Orford cedar wood is superior to DEET in repelling insects. Wood to go. If you’re ever near Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest, the good news is that you can get a permit to gather dead POC for $150 a cord. The bad news is that you then need to find it, and lug it out over difficult terrain. Happy hunting. The sound of music. Port Orford cedar is used for a variety of musical instruments, and you can find online dealers who provide soundboards for guitars and ukuleles. An ounce of prevention. Long-term exposure to POC dust has been linked to respiratory and kidney ailments. A box of wood to your doorstep. Wood gets rejected at every step of the arrow-making process. Rose City Archery will sell you a box of slats that aren’t quite good enough for arrows but will still let you make small projects. See the company’s website for details: rosecityarchery.com.

Black Cherry Your sweet lumber choice “Pitch” pockets. Some cherry boards contain dark streaks caused by mineral deposits within the grain. Let me clarify one thing right at the beginning: six-year-old George Washington did not use his new axe to chop down his father’s black cherry tree (Prunus serotina) nor any other kind of tree. The entire episode was pure fantasy from the imagination of Parson Weems in his 1800 biography of Washington, published the year after the first president’s death. But that fable, as well as Washington’s prayer at Valley Forge—another Weems invention—morphed into one of the most-believed stories of United States presidential history. Now that we’ve dispensed with the fiction, let’s get down to facts. The popularity of black cherry lumber in North America goes back to the earliest Colonial times, when it was often called “the poor man’s mahogany.” It was also eagerly adopted for the clean furniture designs of the Shaker sect, which began organizing while General Washington was commanding the Continental Army. In an unbroken line since then, woodworkers still prize black cherry as a premier wood for cabinetry, furniture, and a host of items ranging from boxes and bowls to smoking pipes and even smaller projects. One key to its popularity is its distinctive color: a light pinkish-brown when freshly milled but darkening over time and with exposure to air and sunlight into a reddish-brown patina. The sapwood offers a distinct contrast with a pale yellow hue that doesn’t significantly darken over time. Sapwood is no longer considered a defect and can often be abundant within a batch of lumber so you’ll pay the same price for it per board foot. To get the best heartwood yield, cherry-pick individual boards when possible. Putting black cherry to work Cherry typically has very good dimensional stability, even texture, and relatively straight, but wavy grain. This slight wave gives the wood a lot of character and depth, but can also cause finishes to blotch and boards to tearout partway through a cut. Figured grain isn’t common but can be very attractive. Quartersawn cherry is far more subdued than the prominent fleck typical in quartersawn white oak but still looks great in small boxes or especially as the raised panel of a cabinet door. Depending on the individual tree, the endgrain can be semi-ring-porous to diffuse-porous. I don’t consider the structure tight enough for hard-working cutting or charcuterie boards, but I understand the color appeal of using cherry strips in serving platters. The wood usually doesn’t require grain filling under low-luster finishes, but achieving a high gloss surface is much easier after packing the pores. With sharp blades and cutters, cherry cuts, planes, surfaces, and routs cleanly. But when tools are not at optimal sharpness or with a too-slow feed rate, surfaces rapidly show scorch marks. So whenever I work with cherry, I check tool alignment and touch up edges or even change blades. The few minutes that takes is much quicker than dealing with the problem. Burnt ends are great in Kansas City BBQ, but not on cherry boards. And while we’re on that topic, cherry offcuts too small for projects add great flavor at your backyard grill or smoker. Cherry turns without any particular issues, but be sure to use effective dust protection measures, particularly when sanding. Otherwise, the fine dust can be a respiratory irritant. Achieving a cherry finish The look of cherry is so appealing that manufacturers of wood stains can’t resist concocting reddish tones that can be slathered on poplar, pine, or other woods to produce a vague resemblance to the genuine article. This is compounded by the countless number of commercial cabinets sprayed with colored toners to produce a uniform, dark cherry-esque finish. But neither stain nor spray toner can compete with the warm hue of natural cherry under a well-applied clear finish left to mellow with age. That said, some of you will still prefer the uniformity that stains bring to the table, whether to disguise a little bit of sap wood, or to even out the color difference between parts made of cherry plywood and those made of solid stock. (Plywood is typically darker than solid wood because veneer logs are often conditioned before slicing with a heated water bath or by steam. Both of these processes usually darken the resulting veneer.) Because of cherry’s slightly wavy grain, it tends to blotch: unpredictably and unevenly absorbing a finish, even an untinted one. It can be maddening because by the time it happens, you’ve already driven down that one-way street. A couple suggestions to help deal with this. First, wipe down the surface with naphtha. This fast-drying solvent will reveal the areas likely to blotch before you commit. Then apply a thin coat of shellac to seal the surface before applying a stain or clear finish. Aging with time. In the 14 years since I made this clock for Woodcraft Magazine Issue 30, it has mellowed to a warm, rich hue. Don’t be duped: it’s a drupe. A cherry is technically a drupe, a fleshy fruit usually containing a single seed. Other drupes are plums and olives. Left on its own. Black cherry trees can reach heights of 50 to 100 feet, with a diameter of 3 to 5 feet. In orchards, however, both black and sweet cherry trees (Prunus avium) are often pruned to limit size and encourage fruit production. Black Cherry trivialities Prepare for impact. Cherry has a rating of 950 on the Janka Hardness Scale, slightly less than black walnut’s 1010. That translates to fairly easy workability for furniture projects but probably not enough dent resistance for flooring or other high-impact uses. Not part of the family tree. Lumber marketers, especially those in the flooring trade, often dream up product names that include “cherry” when the wood has a reddish tint—even when the botanical genus is completely unrelated to genuine cherry. Two imposters: “Brazilian cherry” (jatoba) and “Patagonian cherry” (tiete rosewood, sirari). Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Cherry is a relatively popular material for smoking pipes, with some designs even featuring bark attached to the bowl and stem. Cutting branches during an active growth period increases the chance that the bark will stay in place. Smokin’ good lathe blanks. When you want cherry for bottle stoppers and other lathe projects, buy a bag of split logs sold for BBQ smokers. You’ll usually get blanks at a bargain price plus a delicious rack of baby back ribs. Health benefits of black cherry. Companies that sell black cherry juice emphasize that it contains melatonin, reported to help regulate sleep. The juice is also said to contain antioxidants and may be beneficial in controlling inflammation.

Plain looks, but a solid performer American beech, Fagus grandifolia, may not have the dramatic figure or exciting color to earn a starring role in your next high-end woodworking project, but it is a solid performer that deserves an audition in your shop. Flatsawn beech generally has a bland appearance with subdued figure. Quartersawn beech typically shows tiny ray flecks, though these may sometimes be more pronounced. Regardless of how it’s cut, beech’s tight structure eliminates the need for a grain filler to achieve a smooth finish. Beech’s plain appearance isn’t necessarily a liability. When showing off your joinery skills, for example, you don’t want flawless hand-cut dovetails to get lost in dark wood or swirling figure. Much like using every fancy wood scrap in your shop to make a cutting board can leave the viewer confused—the eye doesn’t know where to look. Plainer wood plays a supporting role to make fancier woods look their best. Plus, beech is not used to being treated as a star, so it doesn’t ask for top dollar. Accounting for no taste. I usually apply finish to both sides but made an exception for this flour canister. The exterior got two applications of Waterlox, but the interior is bare to utilize beech’s attribute of imparting no taste. A wide range of roles One of beech’s great attributes is that it won’t transfer taste or odor, making it perfect for cutting and charcuterie boards, rolling pins, spoons, and many kitchen accessories. It is also ideal for canisters storing flour (below), rice and other bulk foodstuffs, as well as spices. Chair makers and boat builders prize beech as it steam-bends well. Other commercial uses for beech include everyday items such as sticks for corndogs and frozen treats, tongue depressors, flooring, veneer, and components for building furniture and cabinetry. Putting beech to work My experience working with beech began with some web-ordered 8 / 4 stock. I initially noticed a few surface checks but wasn’t too concerned. Over the next week, though, I noticed additional and expanding checks, possibly indicating that the wood was losing a considerable amount of moisture as it acclimated to my shop in early spring. Perhaps the wood I received wasn’t quite as kiln-dried as claimed—always a risk when ordering lumber from afar. Preliminary sizing cuts at the mitersaw and table saw were problem-free. The jointer gave smooth results with only a minor bit of tearout on a quartersawn edge. The thickness planer also yielded smooth surfaces, but without the level of luster I get when machining maple. After edge-gluing to achieve the stock width needed I then surfaced the beech to 1/2"-thick for the flour canister. I used a router jig for the finger-jointed corners and received crisp results. There were no issues with gluing and sanding, nor with turning a knob for the top. As for beech’s few shortcomings, it has such poor resistance to insects and borers that calling it “non-durable” would be a compliment. “Perishable” is much more accurate. And it’s prone to warping and checking if not properly dried. Even though I had to avoid checks in several boards with carefully-placed rip and crosscuts I hadn’t initially planned, I was still able to salvage plenty of great material. Rather than making as many canisters as I had wanted, I will instead have plenty of cutting board strips, rolling pins, and kitchen utensils. Right at home in your shop Beech earns a rating of 1300 on the Janka hardness scale, just above Northern red oak but slightly less than white ash and white oak. It is also slightly less than sugar maple’s 1450, but that difference shouldn’t disqualify it a solid choice for a stout, sturdy workbench and other shop furniture, fixtures, or accessories. These include tool cabinets and boxes, stools, sawhorses, plane bodies, and handles for non-striking tools. I also think that beech would be an excellent secondary wood in cabinetmaking; drawer boxes, in particular. Poplar is often recommended for this role, but I find its usual green color hard to take. Additionally—and even more annoying—is poplar’s stringy/fuzzy texture. Check on wood checking To help prevent surface splits (checks) in your lumber, let the wood acclimate to your shop before machining it. Allow adequate circulation around each board, but don’t try to speed the process with a fan. Monitor the boards every few days. If a check appears, mark its ends and note the date. If the lumber arrives wrapped in cardboard, individually cover the faces and edges of each board. But leave the endgrain exposed for moisture to escape. Change your inspections to once a week and allow at least one more week after no new (or lengthening) checks appear. Vigilance counts, but patience counts more. As with many things in life, try to prevent damage before it occurs, minimize it when it happens, and work around it when necessary. Throwing shade. American beech is an excellent shade tree in suburban and rural environments. Planted in open areas, the crown can spread to 40 or even 60 feet. The shade can be so dense that it’s difficult to grow anything under the tree. For the birds. Beech nuts, encased in prickly burred fruits that open in autumn, are popular with birds and small mammals. Beech trivialities Are you a sensitive person? In some individuals, successive exposures to beech, especially to the dust, can ramp up allergic reactions in the eyes, skin, and lungs. For this reason, beech is considered a sensitizer that deserves caution. A good joint. Festool crafts its Domino tenons from beech for strength and great gluing. Most plate joiner biscuits are beech that’s been compressed then die cut. Making plain wood for planes even plainer. Bailey and Stanley typically slathered a thick coat of yellow-tinted varnish onto the beech plane bodies, totes (handles) and knobs of transitional planes. It gave the parts a uniform look but sometimes completely obscures what little figure the wood had. A real bruiser. Many craftsmen were reluctant to abandon planes with wood soles because they honestly felt that a cast iron bottom bruised their workpieces. That viewpoint helped keep the transitional plane design in production for 74 years, until 1943. Basking on a European beech. European beech, Fagus sylvatica, enjoys a wide range throughout that continent and into Asia, but also grows in the United States. Although the tree is a distinctly different species from American beech, the lumber is so similar that even experts have difficulty distinguishing them with absolute certainty. Tiny pores make a huge difference. Beech is a diffuse-porous wood, and its pores are significantly smaller than those of red oak, making it a suitable choice for end-grain cutting boards. Not a city-dweller. Beech is generally not well suited to harsh urban environments. In addition, the tree likes to send low horizontal branches over streets and sidewalks.

I recently added a vacuum bag press to my shop for veneered work, but my panels are coming out slightly warped. How do I make flat panels that stay flat? —Kris Papke,Stockton, CA The culprit is likely that the press isn’t exactly flat because it’s not on a dead-flat surface. Any cup or twist in that will reflect in your final product. To ensure a dead-flat press, build a dead-flat torsion box. A torsion box is made up of a grid of cross-members sandwiched between two exterior skins. Once glued up, the skins and core create a unit significantly more rigid than the individual components and more likely to stay flat.To build a torsion box, you need a level platform. Construct a temporary assembly table by laying sturdy beams across a pair of saw horses and leveling them with shims. Use a 6' builder’s level or laser level to ensure the beams are perfectly coplanar. Take your time getting this part right. Once your assembly platform is flat and level, place one of the outer skins on the beams, and assemble the inner grid using brads and glue. It’s not super critical that the spacing be exact. When the grid is complete, glue, brad, and screw a 1/2" skin on top, then flip the whole thing over and repeat for the other side. Give the glue time to dry before moving your torsion box from the level assembly platform. Once the glue has cured, it will stay flat. Starting your veneering process on a flat surface is the first step to ensuring perfectly-flat panels. Owain Harris is an award-winning custom furniture designer and builder from Gonic, NH.

Tough wood with an uncertain future There are only a handful of trees of the Gymnocladus genus worldwide, with all but one in Asia. Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioica) is the only native North American in the group. The first part of the tree’s scientific name means “naked branch,” an allusion to the fact that it leafs out very late every year and then is also usually the first tree to lose its foliage. As a result, the tree may be bare for up to six months every year. The scarcity of branches, though, makes it a popular ornamental tree for people who want as much light as possible during the fall and winter months. Making the tree look even more bare is the fact that its compound leaves are huge—12 to 36 inches long and 18 to 24 inches wide—means that there are very few branches. The leaf is in a bipinnate formation that subdivides sets of leaflets into even more leaflets, with the overall form resembling a fern frond. The tree has a Janka hardness rating of 1390, just a bit tougher than white oak. It is a special type of ring-porous wood where the pores congregate in the latewood in small groups called pore clusters—a feature unique to Kentucky Coffeetree. The color of the heartwood as well as its surface texture reminds me of red oak, though other people think the grain pattern is similar to ash. There’s very little of the yellowish-white sapwood, and it has a sharp boundary. If you have any difficulty distinguishing the wood, shine a UV lamp on it to remove your doubts. (See the box “Glowing ghoulish green.”) The wood has a fairly strong reputation for insect resistance and reportedly withstands ground contact as a fencepost. Adaptable but stubborn Kentucky Coffeetree tolerates a wide range of conditions, hardy in zones 3 through 8 in the United States. It survives in dry uplands to damp bottomlands, even those that flood occasionally. The tree shrugs off pollution, deicing salt, and drought, making it tough enough to survive urban environments. Deep roots and a scarcity of branches, makes it resistant to wind damage. The tree can reach higher than 70 feet, with a trunk diameter averaging about 2 feet. Despite this resistance and adaptability, Kentucky Coffeetree simply isn’t very good at propagating itself. (The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the Kentucky Coffeetree as a vulnerable species on their Red List.) Only female trees bear the pods, and for those seeds to be viable, she requires a male tree nearby. Fallen pods need to decompose to expose and then soften the hard shell of the seed. That can take two years and yields only a 5% germination rate. If you want to give nature a hand, you can boil the seeds or file through the hard shell before planting. An easier solution is to find seedlings ready to plant. As of this writing, the Nursery of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources offers plants for only $1.10 each, though the minimum order is 25 seedlings. Like the living dead. When fully clothed with its leaves, you can hardly tell that the tree has few branches. When the leaves fall, some people think the tree looks dead. A poor substitute. The tree’s roasted seeds make a type of coffee that is reportedly both pungent and bitter, making even chickory taste good. That’s saying something. Coffeetree trivialities Eponymous tree. The coffeetree was briefly the official state tree of Kentucky, the only species to include its state’s name. Large leaf. The leaves of the Kentucky Coffeetree are the largest of any native North American species. With a little help from my friends. The mastodon was a great friend of the Kentucky Coffeetree. That beast’s digestive system was so acidic that it dissolved the hard seed coating so it could germinate. Achieving similar results today requires hours of soaking in concentrated sulfuric acid. Hardly worth the effort. Extracting seeds from the sticky goo inside the pods is messy, toxic, and labor-intensive. 100 pounds of pods yields only about 30 pounds of seeds. Inculpability. There are very specific time and temperature guidelines for roasting the beans to make them non-lethal, but I’m not going to repeat them here. If something goes wrong, I don’t want your survivors to come after the magazine.

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) is the only true member of the ebony family that grows in North America. But unlike its tropical counterpart and many other trees, the vast majority of persimmon lumber consists of cream-colored sapwood, with only a tiny portion of dark heartwood. Surprisingly, though, its sapwood is more highly prized and utilized. Persimmon trees can reach a height of 60 to 80 feet, with a diameter of up to two feet. The tree has a rating of 2300 on the Janka hardness scale, equal to Caribbean rosewood and far greater than hickory’s score of 1820. Persimmon has a significant initial shrinkage rate, accounting for cracks in dried boards and blanks. In addition, the wood can exhibit substantial movement due to seasonal changes in moisture content, even in properly finished projects. With its density, close grain, and small semi-ring-porous structure, persimmon is a good wood for kitchen utensils such as cutting and charcuterie boards, rolling pins, spatulas, spoons, and similar items. With its added virtue of shock resistance, it is a good candidate for mallets as well as handles for hammers and turning tools. Persimmon’s hardness made it ideal for weaving shuttles, billiard cues, and shoe lasts, which are the forms for shaping footwear. Later in its history, persimmon gained probably its greatest popular fame as the head of golf drivers. As early as 1900, club manufacturers in golf’s birthplace of Scotland began importing wood from America to make clubs with persimmon heads and hickory shafts. Drum roll, please… Another popular use for persimmon wood is for musicians’ drumsticks, which are available in a positively mind-boggling variety. First, it depends on whether you play in a garage band, a symphony orchestra, or a musical style somewhere in between. Then you need to choose the material of the tip (wood or plastic) and the desired tonality of the sticks. Although turning drumsticks would seem to be an appealing home shop project, woodworking is only the first part of the process. Next, you need to roll out sophisticated electronic test gear to match each pair of sticks acoustically. In summary: turning is tempting, but tuning is tough. Persimmon to the doorstep To try my hand at persimmon, I placed an order for some 4 / 4 lumber with an online supplier. I initially wanted thicker stock, but that is much more difficult to find, and often only as undried but waxed turning squares or bowl blanks. My shipment had one unpleasant surprise—a significantly cupped board—but a rip cut gave me narrower pieces that flattened smoothly at the joiner and thickness planer. The wood is typically bland in figure and color, though occasional dark streaks add either interest or problems, depending on your viewpoint. Holes from boring insects, such as the powderpost beetle, are fairly common because the sapwood lacks tannin and other chemical extractives that typically make heartwood less appetizing to invaders. But there weren’t an undue number of holes, and they were mostly along the edges, so I easily avoided them. One very pleasant surprise in the shipment was some spalting on several boards, forming patterns that mimic intricately penned designs. And while spalting in maple and other woods often produces punky areas, that wasn’t the case with this batch. Although some suppliers charge a considerable premium for spalted persimmon, this seller included the boards at the base price. The persimmon boards ripped cleanly and quickly at my 3 hp table saw, but at the mitersaw, I could feel the motor slow slightly because of the wood’s density. Despite that, the cut was burn-free. When I glued up the blank for my mallet (left), I applied Titebond III to each pair of surfaces and rubbed the boards together until the joint grabbed. This step discourages the wood from excessive slippage when tightening the clamps. I always know when I’ve used enough clamps—when I can’t fit another one on the assembly. And even though I used only moderate pressure on each clamp, the joints are virtually invisible. I initially shaped the blank with a 1/8" blade at the bandsaw with zero problems. On the lathe, the mallet responded well to both gouges and scrapers. After that, I cleaned up the spinning surface with progressive grits of sandpaper, using a hard rubber block to maintain flatness. The dust was no more problematic than usual, causing no respiratory or skin reactions. With no bulge in the handle’s shape, I can easily choose a wide range of grips: “choking up” for control or moving toward the knob for more power. I applied a coat of Watco natural oil finish over two successive days and am pleased with the low-luster sheen. By the way, I don’t understand the slick finishes on many manufactured mallets, but that’s a topic for another day. Hard-hitting facts By many other names. Persimmon has as many nicknames as you’d find in a frat house. They include white ebony, American ebony, fruit of the gods, Jove’s fire, bara-bara, boa wood, possum wood, and sugar plum. The story behind storied North American rays. Persimmon and yellow buckeye (Aeschulus octandra) are the only commercially used species grown in a temperate climate exhibiting storied rays, a rippled grain pattern. This feature is far more common in tropical hardwoods such as sapele, Honduras mahogany, and many rosewoods. Driving ambition lands persimmon in the rough. In 1979, Gary Adams had the idea of completely replacing wood by making golf drivers from steel. He founded TaylorMade, initially offering only one product he named Pittsburgh Persimmon, combining the name of the Steel City with the traditional material. Going for a vintage driver. There are a few companies that still make golf clubs from persimmon. One claims that the process requires over 200 manufacturing steps during a six-week period to make each club. Southeast coverage. This species of persimmon lives in both moist valleys and dry uplands, spread by mammals and birds that enjoy the fruit.

Tiny holes that deserve a closer look Your project’s joinery may be absolutely airtight. Every surface may be sanded to perfection, and every angle may be spot-on accurate. But after applying a finish, you’re disappointed with the result. For example, you make a small wall cabinet of white ash and lay down a coat of gloss finish. It initially looks great, but then the sunlight playing across its surface seems to magnify hundreds of tiny craters and dozens of shallow furrows. What’s going on? The answer lies in the tiny pores and vessels that are part of the architecture of the wood itself. I suggest a double-barreled approach to help you get the appearance you want. First, have a general knowledge of how the wood assembled itself in the tree. That will lead you to the second part: knowing how to overcome prominent pores with an appropriate finish. Watertight white oak. Another type of structure, called tyloses, may completely pack cell cavities. In white oak, the bubble-like tyloses block porosity so effectively that the wood becomes watertight. This enables the construction of barrels to age whiskey. Tree growth basics The trunk of a tree is analogous to a bundle of soda straws—a series of tubes that conduct water and minerals up and down the tree. Each growing season, the sap moves throughout the sapwood, the living portion of the tree. In the vascular cambium—a very thin layer between the inner bark and sapwood—the tree creates new cells, increasing the diameter of the tree by one cell width at a time. The first cells of a growing period are called earlywood; subsequent cells form the latewood. Together, they create a growth ring. The outer group of rings are sapwood, the inner, heartwood. As growth within a tree matures from sapwood into heartwood, profound changes occur at the cellular level. The contents of previously living cells die, and that space may be filled with water, resin, or other biochemical extractives that often give heartwood its darker hue. The basic tubular structure of sapwood and heartwood is the same. Depending on the species, these tubes, or “pores” may be more or less pronounced, which can give rise to the finishing problems I mentioned earlier. Start at the end The easiest way to see tree rings and wood pores is by looking at a stump or the end of a board, commonly called end grain. In softwoods, you’ll see rings but not pores. That’s because conifers rely on microscopic resin canals to transport nutrients, so these trees are considered nonporous.By contrast, hardwoods have a plumbing system that utilizes much larger vessels. Some of these cell types are real jawbreakers to pronounce, but it isn’t essential to distinguish them in this overview, so for convenience we’ll call any open structure a pore.Some hardwood pores are large enough to see with your naked eye, but a small hand lens or loupe with 8x to 10x magnification lets you see them—plus even smaller features—with greater clarity. Three categories of pore patterns In each hardwood species, the pores arrange themselves into one of three possible configurations. The first is called ring-porous. That simply means that the pores are concentrated along the newest growth region in the earlywood portion of the growth ring. This helps clearly define the starting line for each ring. This ring-porous pattern is typical for many—but not all—hardwood species grown in temperate climates with distinct seasonal patterns, such as North America. A few examples are red and white oak, black walnut, white ash, shagbark hickory, chestnut, and Osage orange. In general, it is these ring-porous species that benefit from using a filler as part of a glossy, film-building finish.The second pattern is called diffuse-porous, meaning that pores of virtually identical diameter appear throughout the entire growth ring. This arrangement can make it very difficult to discern ring patterns. Diffuse porosity is very common in tropical hardwoods that can grow almost continuously throughout the year. Tropical examples include bubinga, Brazilian rosewood, cocobolo, koa, bloodwood, bocote, and Gaboon ebony. Some domestic examples are hard maple, boxwood, and basswood. These species generally do not require fillers.The third category of pore distribution patterns is halfway between the bookends of the first two classes. It is called either semi-ring-porous or semi-diffuse-porous. (A distinction similar to a glass half empty or half full.) Whatever you call it, one distinguishing characteristic of this category is that the pore diameter decreases as they march into the latewood portion of the ring. Persimmon is one example, others include Spanish cedar, holly, cherry, and butternut. I recommend experimenting with these species to see whether or not you think a filler improves them. Face grain furrows. When a cut reveals a side section of vessels, the voids can appear as coarse furrows, as seen in this illustration of ring-porous red oak. Prior planning prevents poor results High or low. High gloss finishes emphasize prominent pores. If you don’t want to invest time in filling pores, consider a low-luster oil finish. Proper preview. Scraps from your project are the perfect testing ground for new stains, dyes, or finishing techniques. For a proper preview, sand the scrap to the same level as your completed project. Pore over these wood facts Sap-moving stacks. Cells moving sap within the trunk are stacked on top of each other, and fluid conducts from the end of one cell into the next. The cell stack is collectively known as a vessel. Shades of mystery. Heartwood formation processes are extremely complex, particularly those related to lumber color, and are not fully understood. Empty cell. The walls of tree cells are not living elements. Their contents may be living (protoplast), water, or a wide variety of biochemicals, or the cell may simply be empty. Busy grain. “Grain” may be the most hardworking word related to wood. One author lists 50 different ways that the term is used to describe timber. Click here to see the author's method for filling pores.

Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) was on a huge winning streak in prehistoric North America, spanning from Florida to Ontario. It had evolved huge fruit to appeal to mastodons and giant ground sloths that expanded the tree’s range by providing transport and fertilization. But then, about 125,000 years ago, the glaciers of the last Ice Age crept southward, killing both the trees and their planting partners. By the time the thaw finally began about 12,000 years ago, the last of the trees were mostly clustered in parts of present-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Indigenous people recognized that the wood’s unique combination of strength and flexibility made it ideal for archery bows powerful enough to send an arrow clear through a bison, and war clubs that wouldn’t shatter. Archeological evidence indicates that these early woodworkers were creating bows with recurve tips at least as far back as 1050 AD and exporting finished weapons to tribes hundreds of miles away. The secret is out The tree was virtually unknown to white settlers until 1804 when Meriwether Lewis enthused about it in a letter to President Jefferson, and even enclosed planting slips. As the westward expansion of the United States gathered momentum, Osage orange gained aggressive new planting partners. Settlers planted seedlings one foot apart along property lines, and as the trees grew, they used a technique called plashing to weave the limbs. Within three to four years, that work produced a nearly impenetrable hedge renowned as “horse high, bull strong, and pig tight.” Do fence me in Hedge fever had started to cool when, in 1873, the first barbed wire patent sparked a huge national appetite for fence posts. Farmers discovered that their hedges were incredibly sustainable, providing a nearly endless supply of fence posts: whenever they cut down a tree, the stump quickly sent up multiple shoots. The Dust Bowl revived interest in planting Osage orange as windbreaks and shelterbelts. Depression-era federal agencies planted thousands of miles with hundreds of millions of trees. The tree that lost its planting partners during the Ice Age plied its unique physical properties to recruit armies of eager human planters. Some researchers have speculated that Osage orange has been the most planted of any tree species in North America, making Johnny Appleseed look like a real underachiever. Look on the bright side of Osage orange It’s not unusual for an Osage orange to sprawl wider than it is tall. As a result, most lumber is modest in both width and length. But instead of thinking about the wood’s limitations, I suggest that you make the most of Osage orange’s structural and visual strengths. It is ideally suited for archery bows, as well as tools and handles subject to shock: mallets (See p. 38) for carving and assembly, handles for hammers, sledges, chisels, and turning tools. The wood’s extreme density and wear resistance make it perfect for plane soles, marking gauges, knife scales, clock wheels and gears, sheaves (pulley wheels), axles, and bearings. Combine the wood’s physical strength with its decorative quality by using it for exposed splines or dowels for drawbore tenons. Bowties and other inlays make eye-catching highlights. A tapered plug cutter lets you conceal counterbored screws with an attractive accent. Osage orange retains crisp detail on lathe projects such as pens and bottle stoppers. Whatever you make, start with sharp tools and hone edges frequently. Screws hold well, but you’ll need to drill pilot holes at least 1⁄64" oversized. The wood’s density allows you to tap long-lasting threaded holes for machine screws. Use a water-borne finish to reduce the tinting effect of oil-based products. All the same, normal exposure to air and light will eventually oxidize the wood to a golden brown. How to levitate a tree My first experience with Osage orange began when my father-in-law bought a ten-acre site in Kansas for a new home. The front three acres had a center path wide enough for a tractor, but the rest of that portion was densely overgrown. The first Osage orange announced itself with thorns wicked enough to puncture thick leather gloves. After clearing enough limbs to finally reach a gnarled trunk, we planned the direction we wanted the tree to fall. I’m always ready to beat a hasty retreat after the final felling cut, but it wasn’t necessary this time. Even though we had cut clean through the trunk, the tree didn’t fall. Its upper branches had so thoroughly entwined with the surrounding trees that the Osage orange defiantly stood there. Well, not exactly standing—it was actually hovering over the stump. Our new strategy involved three key elements: cursing, sawing, and praying. After we cut down the ring of trees around it, the Osage orange finally toppled without killing either of us. The stump was oozing a thick white sap reminiscent of a wounded alien bleeding in a sci-fi movie. We continued the project with a new-found respect for an opponent nearly as stubborn as we were. Fortunately, the remaining Osage orange trees were smaller, and at the end, we even had a tidy pile of fence posts. Four-time North American Champ Long-lasting. Osage orange is the most decay-resistant North American timber—it even enjoys immunity from termites. Hot commodity. The highest BTU rating of any wood on the continent. Twice as nice. The densest North American timber, with a Janka rating of 2620, nearly twice that of quartersawn white oak at 1335. Big but not scary. “Hedge balls” are the largest fruit of any tree native to North America: the size of grapefruit. Despite folklore, they do not repel insects.

Tropical beauty with a funny name I find it hard to say monkeypod without at least cracking a smile. And, contrary to the environmental concerns surrounding some tree species, monkeypod, (Pithecellobium saman also Albizia saman and Samanea saman) is something to smile about. Not only is the wood beautiful, but the trees it comes from are both abundant and flourishing. While somewhat expensive here in the continental United States, in many parts of the world where the trees grow, the species is treated as a utility wood, much the same way we view pine and poplar. The lumber itself runs from golden to a reddish-brown reminiscent of mahogany. Some boards exhibit dark streaks, while others can contain curl and other wild figure. Monkeypod trees grow fast and can reach significant sizes: 100' or taller and 3-4' in diameter, so wide boards are commonly available. The wood is very stable and highly resistant to rot and insect damage. Where the wood comes from While monkeypod trees are native to Central and South America, the trees have been propagated and naturalized in the tropics around the world. One story, for example, holds that in Hawaii, a businessman brought two seeds to the islands in 1847. Both of those seeds germinated, giving the tree a foothold in the islands. Today, all of the monkeypod trees in the Aloha state are alleged to be related to those two original plants. The monkeypod moniker stems from the spiral-shaped fruit pods the tree produces: its scientific name Pithecellobium means “monkey earring” in Greek. In other parts of the world, the species is known as raintree because the leaves tend to curl up when skies darken, allowing rainfall to pass through the canopy to the ground below. History in woodworking Perhaps the most famous use of monkeypod wood comes from Hawaii. Following World War II, the islands became a favored vacation destination. In response to the influx of tourists, islanders began producing a variety of carved and turned souvenir bowls as keepsakes for the masses to take home. Nearly all of these were made of monkeypod. These days, while you can still purchase a monkeypod bowl to commemorate your time in the sun, it was most likely made in the Philippines or Thailand, where labor costs are lower. Currently, with the renewed interest in live-edge furniture, makers are seeking wide monkeypod slabs for use as tables and desktops. Working and finishing For a basis of comparison, monkeypod is about the same weight and hardness as cherry. The grain, however, is much coarser and tends to be interlocked or “rowed.” The wood cuts well with both hand and power saws, but planing and jointing can be challenging, with the surface often appearing fuzzy and tearing in places due to the variable grain direction. You’ll likely find scraping and sanding yield a far superior surface than handplaning. The rowed grain can also make hand-carving the wood daunting though it turns and power-carves well. Unlike so many other tropical species, monkeypod doesn’t contain a lot of oils and resins, so it’s straightforward to both glue and finish. It’s typically available as solid stock in boards of various thicknesses from 4-24" wide and 8-12' long. Pricing varies from source to source, but expect to pay at least $16-20 per board foot and much more for wider and highly-figured pieces. You can also find veneer, turning blanks, and smaller, craft-sized stock. Note that the color can vary significantly depending on where the lumber grew. Wood from Central and South America tends to be yellower than stock from the Pacific islands that skews redder. Echoes of mahogany. With its reddish-brown hue and darker pores, monkeypod is very similar in appearance to mahogany. Its creamy white sapwood can provide a nice splash of contrast. Monkeypod Turnings Furniture Gift items Cabinetry Musical instruments Veneer Monkeying around to avoid tearout Writing this column is a lot of fun. Sometimes it is revisiting old friends, and sometimes, as was the case here, it is getting to know a new species. Preparing the samples for the photos is telling in how the wood responds to surfacing. That monkeypod has rowed grain is no exaggeration. None of the surfaces on my samples could be handplaned without significant tearout. In fact, the tearout left from the initial surfacing (the boards I purchased had been milled on both sides: “S2S”) was so bad that one of the samples still had small cross-grain checks even after a significant amount of prep. In preparing the stock for the box (below), I found that the best way to achieve a tear-free surface was to run the pieces on edge through the table saw, taking about a 1/16" skim cut off each face. While this worked for the relatively narrow pieces I used, for wider stock, a drum or wide belt sander would be a better bet. Other than the tearout issues (and the relative cost), I enjoyed working with monkeypod and am now on the lookout for a nice slab to use for a coffee table I have in mind. Facets, facets, facets. Despite monkeypod’s ornery grain, I was able to cut the small chamfers around the box opening with a block plane. As the flats were so narrow, I think I was lucky enough to miss areas of interlocked fibers.

Tan to Gold. Butternut’s tawny heartwood ranges from a bronze tan to a golden brown. Occasional black streaks provide contrast and color. Its sapwood is a creamy white. Black walnut's pale cousin Even though it is sometimes called white or blonde walnut, to dismiss butternut as simply an under-pigmented version of black walnut is to do it a disservice. The grain structure of the two species is similar as is the appearance of the source trees, so you can see how the comparison was drawn. But there are some significant differences. Obviously, butternut’s tawny coloring is quite different from walnut. It is also softer, lighter in weight, a bit weaker, and less expensive. As I’ll explain, these differences are what set the species apart and make it worthy of consideration for a variety of projects. I am also saddened to tell you that this noble species is threatened across its range. Where the wood comes from Butternut (Juglans cinerea) is a denizen of eastern North America. While old-growth trees used to reach impressive size—4'+ in diameter and 100'+ tall, today’s butternut trees are smaller—up to 2' in diameter and 40-60' tall—and only grow in about 10% of their former range. The species is not listed on either the CITES or IUCN Red List, but that may soon change. The trees are suffering from a widespread fungal disease called “Butternut Canker” that is worrisome enough that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has listed it as a “species of federal concern.” When and while you can still find it, butternut is available as lumber in thicknesses from 4 /4 - 16 /4, in widths typically from 4-10" and in lengths to 12'. Pricing is generally under $10/board foot. Butternut plywood and veneer are also available. History in woodworking In the days when horses provided most of the power for transportation, butternut’s light weight made it a favored choice for carriage paneling. It was also frequently used for architectural detailing in fine homes. If you have the opportunity to visit Grey Towers, the Milford, PA, home of Gifford Pinchot, first head of the U.S. Forest Service, you’ll find the entire library trimmed and paneled in butternut. And as the wood is quite soft and easy to shape, it was often used for heavily carved church altars and lecterns. These days you’re more likely to see butternut, in veneer form, incorporated into high end cabinetry and other millwork. Aside from woodworking, eighteenth and nineteenth century farmers also extracted a dye from butternut trees that they used to color their clothing. During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers were sometimes referred to as “Butternuts” for the brownish-yellow hue of their handmade uniforms. Working and finishing In many ways, butternut is a joy to work, especially with handtools. It carves extremely well, so is an excellent choice for sculpted work and its lightness makes it a good candidate for projects such as the tool box on page 32 that will be toted about. It is nearly as soft as white pine, and cuts with little effort when worked with the grain. Cutting against the grain, however, is a different story. The wood is so soft that it doesn’t resist being cut the wrong way. Instead, the stringy nature of the wood’s structure becomes apparent as the surface fuzzes and tears out in long fibers ahead of the tool. This fuzziness can make milling and even sanding a bit tricky. The wood abrades quickly with coarse sandpaper, but instead of cutting through the fuzz, the abrasive seems to emphasize it. So rather than starting with 60 or 80 grit, I found it worked better to start at about 120 and then to spend extra time with the finer grits. The wood glues and finishes well, with no special preparation required. Take care not to strip the holes when driving screws, especially with a power driver. And be careful not to bump it or place it on debris-covered surfaces as it dents readily. Because it isn’t especially strong and is a bit brittle, it isn’t a good choice for bending. Butternut Carving Cabinetry Furniture Crates Veneer Paneling Musical instruments In the classroom When I teach beginning woodworkers how to use hand planes, butternut is frequently my wood of choice. It is soft enough that even those without a lot of upper body or hand strength can immediately have success. It also gives immediate feedback as to how to read grain. Cuts made with the grain yield a silky smooth, shimmering surface, while those against it tear, although usually without the tool digging in too badly— perfect for giving beginners confidence in their budding skills. The wood is also nice for handsawing joints such as dovetails, though chopping out the waste begs for sharp chisels as the soft fibers crush and tear readily under all but the keenest of edges. As for beginning projects, I am fond of using butternut for small pieces such as boxes though I tend to avoid it for larger furniture work as it dents so easily. That said, I have used it very successfully in hand-tool classes where students have made small Shaker-style end tables, planing all the surfaces and cutting all the joints entirely by hand. Confidence booster. Butternut is soft enough that nearly anyone can get the hang of using a block plane and reading grain in a short amount of time.

Not well known, but vaguely familiar. Sassafras’s grain and coloring are similar to several other species, especially ash (right). If in doubt about what you’re purchasing, scratch and sniff. Sassafras has a distinctive spicy odor. A handsome, yet unpretentious species with a lot to offer While sassafras may not have the panache of quartersawn white oak or the rich color of black walnut, the humble wood is still worthy of consideration. It’s relatively lightweight and straight-grained, and it holds up well outdoors. The wood is also easy to work, stable, and inexpensive compared to its flashier competition. What’s not to like? As a bonus, sassafras, also known as cinnamon wood, gives off a distinctive spicy but pleasant aroma when cut or sanded. Its coarse grain structure is similar to ash and chestnut. It ranges in color from an olive golden-brown to a darker reddish-brown with lighter sapwood. Where the wood comes from Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is native to the eastern United States. While the trees can reach significant size—up to 100' tall and 4' in diameter in parts of the south—throughout much of their range they tend to be scrubbier hedgerow trees. Thus sassafras lumber tends to be narrower and shorter than many other species. Most boards range from 4 to 9" wide and 8-12' long. It is generally available in 4/4 and 8/4 thicknesses for under $5 a board foot. The trick is actually finding a dealer that stocks it. While far from rare or endangered (the species is not listed on either the CITES or IUCN Red List), there simply isn’t that much demand for sassafras, so not many lumber yards carry it. Sassafras veneer is occasionally available online, and sassafras plywood is even rarer. History in woodworking Sassafras has a storied history, but not so much for its wood. In colonial times, the bark and roots of sassafras were boiled to extract their “medicinal” qualities. The benefits were believed to cure everything from headaches and rheumatism to diarrhea and syphilis. But before you rush to brew up your own cure-all cocktail, realize that sassafras does none of these things, nor will it make you taller or better looking. These dubious claims, however, caused sassafras to be a leading export back to Europe for several years. Such lore also led the wood to be a popular choice for bed frames as it was believed its aroma would keep away bedbugs and other nocturnal critters. More legitimate uses included barrels for dry goods, gates and fencing, and small boats. Today, antique restorers seek it out as a chestnut substitute. In fact, a lot of sassafras is exported to Europe for just such purposes. Working and finishing Sassafras is delightful to work with. It is soft enough to cut easily with hand tools, and it machines well. However, the wood is slightly brittle and prone to splintering and tearout, so pay close attention to grain direction when surfacing. It holds fasteners well, but be sure to predrill to avoid splitting. The wood stains and finishes readily and requires no special preparation for glue. As for bending, the jury is still out. I haven’t tried it myself but my research yielded several sources that say it bends well, and several that say it doesn’t. When I get a chance to try bending some, we’ll post an update. Sassafras Cabinetry Furniture Outdoor projects Turnings Chestnut substitute in restorations onlineEXTRA Magic Coin Bank (Dec/Jan 2012) White Ash (Aug/Sept 2021) Sassafras revisited I am always amazed at the power of smell to trigger memories. The last time I used sassafras was over ten years ago when I made the magic coin bank (facing page). But as soon as I made my first cut for the pizza peel (shown below) it seemed like I had just finished with the bank yesterday. Working with sassafras again made me wonder why I don’t use it more often. It truly is a pleasure to work. Making the peel was straightforward. After milling the stock to thickness, I edge-glued the two sassafras blanks to the tapered walnut handle, orienting the grain in all three boards to run towards the curved end on the top side. Once the glue had dried, I hand-planed the surfaces rather than sand them. For kitchenware such as this, I find leaving a cut surface rather than a sanded one results in less raised grain to deal with after washing. I beveled the front edge with a spokeshave, again opting for a faceted profile rather than one sanded smooth. As I worked, I enjoyed the aroma from the wood and anticipated the aroma from the pizzas to come.

Q: I was using plastic pyramid risers to support a large walnut tabletop that I was varnishing, when I accidentally shifted the panel a few inches. After turning it back over, I noticed a narrow, shallow scar near each corner created by the pyramid tips pressing into the finished surface. I’m heartsick. Is there any way to fix these, short of sanding down and refinishing the areas? Mack BergerPhoenix, Arizona A: I feel your pain. I’ve found that such pyramids are fine for smaller work, but not heavy stuff. However, take heart; you can probably fix the damage fairly easily using a modified version of the old “wet cloth-and-iron” trick used to repair dings on raw wood. The technique works great on solvent-based finishes; I haven’t tried it on water-based products. The first order of business is to perforate the finish at the scar as shown. Don’t overdo it: just barely break through the finish layer, and don’t make too many slits at first. Try to mimic the spacing of the adjacent wood pores if possible. Next, lay a wet strip of cloth such as a cotton T-shirt hem over the scar and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Then steam the area with a wood burning tool. Afterward, inspect the scar to see if it has filled out. If not, repeat the water and heat applications until the affected area has swollen slightly above the adjacent surface. If necessary, poke more slits. Then let the water completely evaporate from the uncovered scar. Finally, scrape the raised area with a razor blade to level it, then follow up by sanding the area with 400-grit paper. After applying varnish, the completed repair should be barely discernable, if at all. Steam. Slowly drag a wood-burning tool over a sopping wet strip of cloth laid over the scar. This will cause the perforated area to swell up. Scrape. Flex a brand new single-edged razor blade as you would a card scraper, and scrape the swollen scar to level it out.

In some ways, black locust might be considered a superhero (or maybe a supervillain). The tree the lumber comes from is one of the fastest-growing hardwoods, and the wood is one of the hardest, stiffest, and most rot-resistant species native to North America. It’s rapidly gaining traction as a “greener,” more sustainable alternative to both pressure-treated lumber and many of the rainforest species imported for decking. When properly dried, the wood is quite stable and relatively easy to work given its hardness. Even as firewood, black locust stands out as having one of the highest BTU values of any North American species. The tree is also quite hardy and adaptable to many climates. Strong, resilient, easy to work—super. But black locust has a sinister side. When planted, it can quickly gain a foothold and crowd out other native species. It also grows back quickly from stumps and roots after being cut down making it hard to eradicate. Because of these aggressive tendencies, some areas and even states consider it an invasive species and outlaw its propagation. Where the wood comes from To the best of our knowledge, black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is native to the Appalachian region. But Native Americans saw the benefit to this species and transplanted it throughout what would become the coastal plains of Virginia long before Europeans began colonizing. Since then, the tree has spread across North America and around the world. In fact, some of the finest black locust lumber comes from plantations in Hungary, where the species has been selectively cultivated for centuries. Sadly, little of that is imported to the U.S. What you’re likely to find here comes from small (60-70' tall, 15-20" diameter) hedgerow trees. As a fast-growing “weed” tree, black locust is not listed on the CITES or IUCN Red List and is considered a species of least concern. History in woodworking Black locust’s desirable characteristics have been known for centuries. When the first Europeans crossed the Atlantic, they found Native Americans utilizing it for hunting bows made from the strong yet springy wood. These early colonists soon took advantage of the wood’s rot resistance, using it for the foundations of their houses in Jamestown. Later, during the War of 1812, one reason the Americans bested the English in the decisive battle of Plattsburg Bay on Lake Champlain had to do with black locust. The U.S. warships were held together with black locust trunnels (“tree nails”) that withstood cannon fire much better than the British ships with their oak trunnels. Afterward, Britain began importing thousands of black locust trunnels to refit its naval vessels. Since then, the wood has been used for everything from fence posts to furniture. Working and finishing Black locust is primarily sold as solid lumber, though some veneer is available. The trees are small and grow crookedly, yielding boards typically shorter (8-12') and narrower (<10") than many other species. For best rot resistance, seek lumber without sapwood and early growth, as these parts of the tree will decay. Pricing ranges from $5-7 per board foot. Once dry, the wood is reasonably stable. But as the trees are crooked, the boards tend to warp when cut. (For more about this, see sidebar at right.) So you’ll want to sight down the edges of your boards to find the straighter pieces. Black locust lumber is quite hard and dense, but it mills and saws well. Standard precautions such as predrilling for fasteners are in order. The wood accepts both glue and finishes readily. It is also a good choice for bending with either steam or lamination. Misnomer. Despite its name, black locust is more tan with a greenish-yellow cast. Its wide growth rings give the wood a bold, somewhat streaky character. Its heartwood is quite durable, but the sapwood quickly succumbs to insects and rot. A black locust adventure In early November, as I developed my outdoor café table (see p. 32), making it from black locust seemed like a good idea. My lumber dealer had plenty of 4/4 in stock but no 8/4 for the base. “No problem,” he said, “I just got a couple black locust logs and can cut what you need. I can dry it and have it for you by Christmas.” When I picked up the order, I was a bit dismayed at how bowed many boards were. According to the sawyer, some of the boards dramatically peeled away from the blade as the logs were sawn. After several weeks of acclimation time in my shop, I crosscut the pieces to rough length. By the next day, every board had developed end checks. It was discouraging. My supplier said, “In hindsight, it probably would have been better to let those logs air-dry for several months before attempting to cut and dry them.” Lesson learned. But what about my table? A week passed before I summoned the courage to cut the stock to its final size. Milling went well; the hard lumber didn’t even do appreciable damage to my steel jointer knives. Even better, the end checks proved to be surprisingly shallow, less than an inch deep in most cases. As I write this several days later, the checks haven’t reappeared (knock on, well, wood). Even more impressive was how the wood behaved as I beveled the tapered staves that make up the table’s base. To adjust the bevel angle, I ran the staves over the jointer. The cut on the first edge of each piece was with the grain, but when cutting the second side, the grain was definitely against me. Amazingly, even on the uphill cuts, the wood didn’t tear out at all. Nice. In the meantime, I had made the whistles and the stool shown here. I think locust’s hardness works in its favor when milling and making shear cuts on the lathe. Sharp spindle gouges and skews left a highly burnished surface requiring little sanding. And the lack of tearout was just shy of miraculous.

Is it pronounced “Ja”toba as in John, or “Ha”toba as in Havana? It’s hard to get a definitive answer, though you’ll find advocates on both sides of the issue. The wood was dubbed Brazilian cherry because it sort of resembles the deep red stain many cabinetmakers use to finish their “cherry” products. This isn’t to say that the wood isn’t beautiful. It runs from a rich orangish-brown to russet. It darkens with age and finishes to a deep reddish-brown, with occasional golden highlights. In addition to its good looks, the wood is quite hard, dense, stiff, and naturally resistant to rot and insect damage. This makes it a good choice for projects where strength and durability are important. Where the wood comes from Jatoba (Hymenaea courbaril) grows from southern Mexico through South America and the Caribbean. Most of the wood imported into the U.S. comes from Brazil. The trees are plentiful and can reach 125' with 6' diameter trunks. The first branches are often 50' or more up, providing straight, clear lumber. Jatoba is not listed on the CITES or IUCN Red List and is considered a species of least concern. History in woodworking Jatoba was first imported into the U.S. about 30 years ago. Its dark good looks initially made it popular with furniture makers. Then came the building boom of the 1990s when flooring manufacturers flocked to this new exotic. Finding the name jatoba a nonstarter, they rechristened it Brazilian cherry, and sales took off. The exotic flooring became nearly as ubiquitous as red oak in many areas. The subsequent economic crash and changing tastes have seen the wood’s popularity decline, at least as a flooring choice, and with that, its availability. Working and finishing Jatoba is imported as solid lumber, veneer, and plywood. In solid stock, 4/4 to 12/4 thicknesses are available in addition to turning blanks. Pricing is in the $9-12 per board foot range, with thicker and wider pieces selling at a premium. Because of its hardness and density, drying is difficult. Be sure to carefully inspect your stock, looking particularly for end checks which can hide in the dark grain. Also, allow plenty of time for the wood to acclimate to your shop before milling. Like other hard, dense species, jatoba takes its toll on cutting tools, quickly blunting sharp edges and chipping and burning with all but freshly sharp saw blades and machine knives. Compounding these troubles is jatoba’s interlocked grain, making hand planing difficult, if not impossible, due to extreme tearout. Scraping and sanding surfaces are usually the way to go. While the wood isn’t known for its toxicity, some cases of skin irritation have been reported. Jatoba has a reputation for being tough to glue and finish due to its oily resins, so test your stock before committing to a glue-up or finish. A quick wipe with acetone before applying glue can help parts bond. And a thin coat of shellac under your preferred topcoat helps finish adhesion. The wood holds fasteners well, but driving them can be challenging. Predrill for both nails and screws, then lubricate them with wax before installing. Finally, while the wood is quite stiff, it does respond well to steam bending should your project require a curve. Jatoba Tool handles Flooring Furniture Turnings Veneer A study in contrast When I set out to make this cylindrical chest of drawers, I knew I wanted to use a white, black, and red color pallet. For white, I chose curly maple on the drawer fronts and feet. The trim and hole plugs are wenge for the black. The red, you can probably guess, is jatoba. I chose this for its rich red-brown color and muted grain lines, not wanting the figure to compete with the form of the piece and wanting something a little more exotic than cherry or walnut. Working with this hard, dense import posed certain challenges. To ensure the staves stayed straight, I milled them oversize and allowed them to sit for a couple weeks before sawing them to their final dimensions. After experiencing significant tearout when planing some of the pieces, I opted to cut them to thickness on the table saw instead. Then I went with a sharp card scraper to remove the saw marks rather than risk more tearout from a hand plane. The wood scrapes beautifully and sands to a polished luster. I did not have any trouble finishing the piece with a wiping varnish, but in retrospect, I think I should have taken the warning about glue more seriously—the edge joint in the top has started to open up a little at one end.

Quiet woods that get the job done By Ken Burton Since the earliest days of furniture-making, woodworkers have saved their premium stock for where it counts—drawer fronts, face frames, tabletops—relegating less expensive material to the hidden parts of their work—drawer sides, case backs, and web frame members, for example. This lesser but no less crucial material has become known as “secondary” wood. Depending on your locale, nearly any type of wood might be considered secondary, provided it is plentiful enough and relatively inexpensive. But across the country, three species usually are tapped for these purposes: pine, poplar, and soft maple. Where the wood comes from Of the nearly thirty species of Pinus spp. harvested throughout the United States, three are sold generically as “pine.” including eastern white pine, western white pine, and sugar pine. The first is available nationwide, while the other two are more common on the west coast. Eastern white pine grows throughout the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada, down the Appalachian Mountains, and as far west as Michigan. Western white pine and sugar pine are found along the western slopes of the west coast mountains and into British Columbia. What we woodworkers call “poplar” is wood from the tulip poplar tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), a common, rapid-growing denizen of the eastern U.S. You’ll also find the wood referred to as yellow poplar, tulip poplar, or tulipwood. From a botanical standpoint, the tree isn’t a poplar (Populus spp.) at all, but more closely related to the magnolia family. Lumber sold as soft maple comes from many maple species (Acer spp.) that grow across the U.S. This includes red maple, silver maple, bigleaf maple, striped maple, and box elder—essentially any maple that isn’t sugar maple, which yields hard maple lumber. All of these trees are considered abundant and are species of least concern on the CITES and IUCN Red Lists. Secondary Woods Quick Take Density Pine 25 lbs./cu. ft.Poplar 29 lbs./cu ft.Soft Maple 35 lbs./cu ft.(avg.) Stability Pine Low-MediumPoplar Low-MediumSoft Maple Low-Medium Texture Pine MediumPoplar MediumSoft Maple Fine Hardness Pine SoftPoplar Soft-MediumSoft Maple Medium-Hard Rot/Insect Resistance Pine LowPoplar LowSoft Maple Low Toxicity Pine LowPoplar LowSoft Maple Low History in woodworking Of these three secondary woods, eastern white pine has the most noteworthy history. As European immigrants started colonizing what became known as New England, the British monarch laid claim to the best white pines throughout the area. The towering white pines in those virgin forests provided superior lumber for the masts and spars needed by the royal navy to maintain their dominance at sea. Certain colonists objected to these claims leading to the Pine Tree Riot of 1772, one of the events that precipitated the American Revolution. Marking the event, the first flag flown by the colonists against the British featured a pine tree in its upper corner. Beyond the politics, countless modest, early American homes were furnished with pieces nailed together from these three humble woods. Secondary Wood Uses Drawer sides Paint-grade cabinetry Case backs Web frames Trim Utility shelving Working and finishing These three woods see frequent use because they are easy to work and are relatively inexpensive. They machine well, cut readily with hand tools, accept glue and finishes willingly, and hold fasteners tightly. Of the three, pine is the softest and least durable. It’s also the most widely available and cheapest ($1 to $2 per board foot). Under a clear finish it is a honey tan color that darkens with time. It stains well and is often one of the sample species finish manufacturers use to show off their products. For only a little more money ($2 to $3 per board foot) poplar is often a better choice It is somewhat harder and longer wearing than pine. And it is available as wide, clear boards—pine frequently contains knots every foot or so unless you pay a premium for clear stock. When freshly cut, poplar is a pale tan with a greenish cast, though some boards can be markedly green and even feature colors from purple to nearly black. Sadly, these vivid colors tend to fade to brown with time. Poplar can be stained almost any color, though achieving a rich red hue can be tricky due to the its greenish base coloring. With soft maple, don’t be fooled by the word “soft.” This is the toughest of the three woods discussed here—and the priciest at about $4 per board foot. While soft maple is only about half as hard as its cousin hard maple, it’s approximately on par with black walnut or cherry. When I have the budget, it is my choice for drawers and web frames. Under a clear finish, maple’s creamy white yellows with age. It, too, can be stained, though achieving dark colors can be difficult because its density affects stain absorption, especially with pigment stains. Best to use dyes.

Varied coloring. Don’t let the light color of hickory’s sapwood (left) fool you; it’s every bit as tough as the darker heartwood. “Calico” boards (center) with a mix of sapwood and heartwood are commonly available, especially as flooring. Spalted hickory (right) is rarer but quite spectacular if you can find it. As tough as they come As Presidential nicknames go, they don’t get much better than that of Andrew Jackson. He was dubbed “Old Hickory” after exhibiting his toughness during the War of 1812. And tough is an apt word to describe hickory. Its combination of hardness, stiffness, shock resistance, and density make it the toughest of the commonly available North American hardwoods. While not as showy as some of the other more prized hardwoods, hickory is not without its aesthetic merits. The creamy yellow sapwood is reminiscent of birch and pine, but a lot more hardwearing. And the tawny brown heartwood compares with cherry before it ages. A lot of hickory flooring comes through with “calico” boards displaying a combination of sapwood and heartwood that adds a bit of down-home charm. Where the wood comes from A handful of species from the hickory and pecan family (genus Carya) are sold generically as hickory. True hickories such as shagbark are slightly stronger than those from the pecan side of the family, though the pecan-hickory species are more stable. But, as the species tend to be lumped together, the differences are moot. Essentially, if you’re after maximum strength, check the end grain for boards with wide growth rings. In hickory, faster growth makes for stronger wood. Hickory (and pecan) trees grow abundantly throughout eastern North America and are not listed on the CITES or IUCN Red List. History in woodworking For centuries, woodworkers have utilized hickory’s inherent strength for bows, wheel spokes, drumsticks, paddles, and handles for tools such as hammers, shovels, axes, and picks. In the world of sports, hickory makes great lacrosse stick handles, baseball bats, skis, and golf club shafts. And if you’re old enough, you may remember the sting of a hickory switch from your school days. Early aircraft were constructed with canvas stretched over hickory frames. And the bark from certain species was harvested for chair seats and basket weaving. Outside of woodworking, hickory makes for excellent firewood due to its high BTU yeild. It also adds flavor to barbeque and smoked meats. More recently, it has become popular for flooring and cabinetry. Working and finishing Hickory is sold as solid lumber, veneer, and plywood. In solid stock, 4/4 to 8/4 thicknesses are readily available, though boards tend to be narrower (4-12") and shorter (12' and under) than other common species such as poplar and red oak. Pricing is in the $3-5 per board foot range. While solid hickory can be worked with both machine and hand tools, you’ll get a taste of how tough it is from the beginning. It tends to tear and burn with all but the sharpest of machine knives and saw blades and quickly blunts honed edges. Don’t let this discourage you. Working hard, dense woods such as this with well-sharpened tools can be a delight. The endgrain pares without tearing, while scraping and sanding the face grain quickly yields shimmering surfaces. Hickory glues well, holds nails and screws tenaciously (be sure to predrill), and stains and finishes to a nice sheen. It has excellent bending properties, whether steamed or laminated. Its one major limitation is that it doesn’t hold up well outdoors. Hickory Tool handles Flooring Baseball bats Ladder rungs Wheel spokes Not just tough, darn tough In my experience, counter-height stools and bar stools take a beating. Not only do they see heavy use, but they are frequently sat and stood upon in ways they weren’t necessarily designed to accommodate. In designing the piece shown here, I wanted to develop a stool that could stand up to all sorts of abuse—one worthy of being called darn tough. And what better wood to choose than hickory? If some part of this stool fails, it won’t be because of wood choice. Building this piece revealed hickory’s challenges. The 1" Forstner bit I used for the seat joints needed sharpening after drilling only two holes. Paring the shoulders at the tops of the legs required a particularly sharp chisel, but the end grain sliced cleanly. And smoothing out the seat scoop with a spokeshave after bandsawing took far more time than anticipated, though the wood did cut without tearing. When I make more of these, I’ll design a router jig to facilitate this. In all, I’m pleased with the result from both a functional and aesthetic standpoint. The stool is rock-solid, substantial, and stable, with hickory’s coloration lending it an air of rustic sophistication.

If you look around the room you’re in, chances are you can see edge banding on some of the furniture or trim in the room. That’s because it is almost always easier and more practical to build large projects with plywood. For furniture or other decorative pieces, plywood is a less expensive alternative to solid wood and it is dimensionally stable so you don’t have to worry about expansion or warping. To hide the fact that it’s plywood, you need to apply veneer on the sides to cover up the unattractive layers. Done right, edge banding creates the illusion that plywood is solid wood. It is also used to edge formica and other solid surface materials. Banding can be a strip as thin as 1/32nd of an inch or solid wood inches thick. Veneer edge banding is real wood veneer that is pre-sanded and available in a variety of widths to suit the thickness of the material to be banded. For ¾” plywood the edge banding is typically 7/8” wide to allow a bit of overhang so it can be trimmed to a nice, flush edge. The banding can come with or without glue depending on how it will be applied. In manufacturing environments there are automated machines to apply the edge banding. But you don’t need fancy equipment to get a perfect edge. In fact, you can get beautiful results with simple tools like an iron, a box cutter and a sanding block. Pre-glued edge banding is easy to work with. Cut strip about an inch longer than the edge you want to cover. Heat a clothes iron to medium heat to melt the glue. Be very careful with the iron; if you get any of the hot melt glue on the iron, it may never be the same. If possible, clamp the panel you are working on in the upright position so you can hold the iron and position the banding comfortably. Start at one end of the banding and work towards the opposite end. Move the iron slowly along the banding while applying downward force. Make sure the banding is centered and overlaps both edges as you go. Never leave the iron in one place too long or you could burn the veneer. If you are doing more than one edge, apply the banding to the most visible side last. That way the veneer on the front edge will overlap the sides and hide the joint. When the edge banding has cooled, square the ends first and then trim the edges. A flush trimming tool is inexpensive and definitely makes the trimming process easy. It can cut both sides perfectly at the same time. A router with a trim bit will also do a quick perfect edge. Or you can carefully trim with a razor blade knife and then sand them to perfection. Edge banding is not a lot of fun but it is a necessary skill if you’re going to use plywood for your projects.

Q: I prefer the lighter creamy color of natural cherry to the deep reddish color of aged cherry. Once I’ve applied a finish, will the wood still darken with age? And how do I correct light areas left behind from a vase? “Tigger” via woodcraftmagazine.com A: This is a classic “man versus nature” story, and the short version is that man doesn’t usually win. If you’re looking for cherry to stay as it is, prepare to be disappointed. The honest answer is that it’s probably not happening. Cherry will continue to change color even when finished. In high-production facilities, the wood is typically stained to fake the process of natural aging. Unfortunately, staining strips the material of its clarity, and the color never comes close to the beauty of mature, aged cherry. Even finishes with UV inhibitors are likely to succumb to nature eventually. Cherry changes most dramatically over the first 6 months. During that time, avoid keeping items in one location on the surface for more than a week at a time. The wood’s color will continue to change for another three to five years, but as long as it’s not in direct sunlight, lighter spots caused by objects shouldn’t be a problem. My advice would be to embrace the changing nature of this species and recognize it for the magical thing that it is. If you just can’t have that, the grain structure of maple is very close to cherry, and you can mix up a stain to approximate the look of a lighter, adolescent cherry. This approach is certainly not without its own set of difficulties. I recommend you keep finishing simple. Pick beautiful materials—like cherry—and finish them naturally to maximize their individual qualities. Rob SpieceLohr Woodworking Studio

Wavy or Straight? Ash’s sapwood is a pale, creamy yellow. As a ring-porous hardwood, the grain is considered “irregular” with a pronounced color difference between the earlywood and latewood that form the annular rings. This gives the threatened wood species a striped appearance similar to oak. Epitaph for a hardworking American About one hundred years after a blight killed off the American chestnut, we are witnessing the demise of another of North America’s noble hardwoods: ash. Instead of a fungus that did in the chestnut, the culprit this time is an invasive beetle from Asia known as the emerald ash borer. Its larvae bore into the trees and eat the inner bark, which eventually kills the tree. As of this writing, tens of millions of trees have succumbed, with no end in sight. In addition to the environmental impact, this die-off is particularly sad for craftspeople, as ash is one of the harder working, yet underappreciated heroes of the woodworking world. While this article focuses on white ash (Fraxinus Americana), much of the information holds true for several other ash species, including black, blue, green, and Oregon, all of which are cut and milled commercially for lumber. Where the wood comes from White ash trees grow throughout eastern North America. These stately trees are typically between 70 and 100' tall and can have a diameter of up to 5'. While the species is not listed on the CITES list, the IUCN Red List notes that it is critically endangered due to the insect attack. At the moment, there is plenty of ash lumber to be had due to the trees being cut down before they succumb to the boring beetle. History in woodworking Lately, ash has been seen as a secondary wood, overlooked in favor of the richer colors of cherry, oak, and walnut. But this wasn’t always so. When wood was more important to everyday life, ash’s qualities as a springy and strong yet relatively lightweight material meant it could be made into a remarkable number of utilitarian objects. For example, the earliest known wheel, dating to 3500 BC, was made from two slabs of ash. In his delightful book The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, author Robert Penn explored the interconnection between ash and western civilization. He had an ash tree cut and made into many traditional objects, including a toboggan, a bow and arrow set, a spoked wagon wheel, an axe handle, and more—things that made life easier throughout the millennia. Thumbing through those pages, you’ll get a real appreciation of how ash was intertwined with our ancestors’ lives. If, however, your interests run more toward sports than history, you likely know how important the wood is to the game of baseball. In the past 100-plus years, ash has been turned into millions of bats, including countless Louisville Sluggers. It’s sad to think of future generations missing out on having their hands sting after a hit, or being told to hold the bat with the label up so it won’t break. Working and finishing White ash is the strongest and most prevalent of the ash species cut commercially. It is available as solid stock in thicknesses from 4/4 to 16/4, widths from 4" to 20" or more, and lengths to 16'. Prices start at $3-4 per board foot. Ash veneer and plywood are also available. Solid ash works well with both machine and hand tools. It glues readily, holds nails and screws resolutely, and stains and finishes nicely. It also bends very well , whether steaming or strip-laminating. Because of its coarse grain and hardness, however, it’s only fair to middling for carving, but it does turn well. It is also one of the easier woods to dry. So if you want to try your hand at sawing your own lumber, ash is a forgiving place to start. White Ash Uses Flooring Pallets and crates Baseball bats Tool handles Butcher block countertops Furniture Easy on the eyes…and the wallet I like ash and have worked with it extensively in my career. I particularly like to contrast it with darker woods: a table with ash legs and a walnut top for instance. Or, as shown on page 22, an ash base for a lamp with a cherry shade. I also use it a lot in the beginners turning classes I teach for several reasons. First, it turns well for both spindle and faceplate work. Sharp gouges and skews leave a smooth surface that requires a minimum of sanding. Second, it’s relatively cheap, meaning I can give my students several pieces to play with for what it would cost to give them a single piece of pricier woods such as walnut or cherry. And third, it plays well with a number of finishing techniques. Michael Keh’s fire sanding (Oct/Nov 2020, Issue 97) works particularly well, as do TransTint dyes (photo below.) I, for one, truly hope that the current beetle invasion doesn’t mean the end for this marvelous wood species, and I encourage you to give it a try while you still can.

Thermo-Woods, hard and soft. Thermal modification works with most hardwoods and softwoods. Three of the more commonly available species include southern yellow pine, poplar, and ash. Roasting wood for durability, stability, and darkened good looks In the last decade or so, the lumber industry has developed a process that takes wood a step beyond kiln-drying: thermal modification. This process makes wood highly rot-resistant without having to infuse it with toxic chemicals as is the case with pressure-treated lumber. Before lumber can be thermally modified, it must first be properly kiln-dried. Depending on the species and type of kiln, this includes the wood being heated to between 140 and 160° F for a specified length of time. For the thermal modification, the wood is transferred to a specialized kiln where it’s heated to between 300° and 325°F, in essence roasting it. This process converts the sugars and starches within the wood’s cells into a caramelized substance that is no longer palatable to the fungi that cause wood to decay. Also, the cell walls become crystalized, preventing the wood from absorbing water, which helps to eliminate the second condition necessary for rot—a moist environment. History in woodworking Thermal modification isn’t a revolutionary idea. The Vikings, for example, were scorching the hulls of their ships hundreds of years ago to thwart rot and to keep barnacles and other marine life from hitching a ride. Native Americans also used fire to harden and cure their arrows and other wooden tools they used for daily life. And in the 18th century, the Japanese developed what they call shou sugi ban, a technique of preserving wood by charring it with fire. The main difference is that, instead of fire, the thermal heat-treating process involves computer-controlled roasting, with specific programs developed for each wood species being modified. Availability While nearly any wood can be altered in this way, the more commonly available thermally-modified hardwoods are poplar and ash, while softwoods include spruce, and southern yellow pine. Much of this material is milled to standard sizes for use as siding and decking. Southern yellow pine is also available as 2× stock. Rough sawn 4/4 and 5/4 stock in widths to 15" and lengths to 12' are generally available, ranging in prices from $5 to $7 per board foot. Modifying thicker lumber, which is difficult due to its deeper internal moisture, and usually results in internal checking. Working and finishing Thermally-modified wood is 75%-85% more stable than regular wood, making it less susceptible to expansion and contraction with changes in relative humidity. This stability, along with its rot-resistance, makes thermo-wood an excellent choice for exterior applications. Even with direct ground contact, the wood has a 25- to 30-year life expectancy. One popular application is its use in making raised garden beds. Despite the wood’s constant contact with soil, no chemicals will leach out contaminating your vegetables. There are four levels of modification with #1 being the lightest and #4 the heaviest. The more modification, the more rot resistance, but at the cost of degrading the wood’s strength. The third level treatment is a good compromise. However, any level of modification leaves the wood more brittle and prone to splitting. Specialized load charts are available for structural situations. And while the wood is rot-resistant, it is still subject to ultraviolet (UV) degradation from the sun. For a “natural” look, apply a UV protective coating. (See page 26.) Use an oil-based primer before painting thermo-wood. Water-based primers do not adhere properly because of the changes to the wood’s cellular structure. When gluing, leave the clamps on longer than usual – overnight is best. Titebond II works well, as do two-part epoxies. Thermally-Modified Uses Outdoor furniture Decking Siding Raised garden beds Dark and dusty Having worked with several species of thermally-modified wood, both for this issue (see page 31) as well the table below and other projects, I have several observations. First, it’s much nicer to work with than pressure-treated lumber. Not having to worry about the preservation chemicals is delightful, and the stability is astounding. It just doesn’t warp. Kerfs don’t close up at the table saw, workpieces stay flat after planing, and they don’t shrink after installation. On the downside, the wood is quite dusty and crumbly when cut. Crosscutting produces ragged corners on both faces. And chiseling across the end grain requires very sharp tools or else the grain tears. Regardless of species, the boards seem harder than their unmodified counterparts. I noticed this hardness in particular as I turned the bowl on the opposite page. But the wood sands well and, afterward, the surfaces feel like burnished leather. Perhaps the most remarkable trait is the odor. When handling, cutting, and sanding thermally-modified wood, it smells strongly of burnt toast or an old campfire. I don’t find the smell unpleasant, but it does linger. As I write this, I can still tell I was working with thermo-wood yesterday even after several hand washings and a shower. —Ken Burton, senior editor. About the Author Jeff Schucker owns Bailey Wood Products in Kempton, PA, a full-service wood distributor, sawmill, and mill shop started by his great grandfather in 1928.

The supporting cast. “Exotic” cypress is available as sinker (left), salvaged from century-old sunken logs, and pecky (center), which was attacked by fungus. Rarer still is ancient buried cypress (right), reclaimed from trees that grew in the distant past. A durable Southern Belle What does cypress have in common with bourbon, barbeque, and the blues? They’re all products with southern roots. Cypress (sometimes called bald cypress) lumber is well known throughout the southern U.S. where the trees are prolific, but less so the farther north and west you go. Cypress trees (Taxodium distichum) are conifers, which makes cypress lumber a softwood. However, the trees are also deciduous in that their needles turn brown and drop in the fall. Where the wood comes from Bald cypress trees grow throughout the southeastern United States and into the Midwest as far north as southern Illinois, and along the eastern seaboard as far north as Delaware. They typically grow in wetlands, but are not uncommon in forested areas. Cousin to the California Redwood, cypress is among the longest living North American trees, and the largest growing east of the Mississippi. At maturity, a cypress can top 150' tall and 15' in diameter. Sadly, few of these old growth giants remain standing. Most were cut for timber in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The trees are not designated as endangered on either the CITES list or the IUCN Red List, and the supply of both select and #2 cypress is ample. Rarer are two other “grades” of cypress: pecky and sinker. Pecky cypress is wood that has been attacked by a fungus that leaves behind small holes and discoloration, although the wood is generally sound. Sinker cypress comes from long-submerged, old-growth logs salvaged from swamps and rivers. Some companies also reclaim old-growth timbers from demolished buildings. You may also come across cypress knees. These are “bumps” that project up from the roots of bald cypress trees, particularly in swampy areas. The exact biological function of these growths isn’t fully understood, but you can find knees sold for carving blanks. (Note that cutting cypress knees on public land is illegal in many areas.) History in woodworking Cypress wood has long enjoyed a solid reputation for being strong, durable, and friendly to work. The immensity of the old-growth trees made them well-worth harvesting. Some stands could yield as much as 100,000 board feet per acre. Impressive, especially compared to today’s average yield of about one tenth that amount. It has been used extensively for construction throughout the south as well as for boatbuilding, docks, and outdoor projects. Indoors, the pale, reddish-yellow wood makes beautiful trim, cabinetry, and paneling that darkens with time to a rich honey tan. Availability Being a softwood, kiln-dried cypress is available in standard construction lumber sizes: 1×4s, 1×6s, 1×8s, etc. along with 2× stock. Appearance may vary regionally. For instance, lumber from gulf coast swamps tends to be somewhat redder that that from other areas. You can also find heavy timbers, though they are usually sold green. The trick is finding a place to purchase it. If you live in the south, this isn’t a problem. Some of the big box stores even list cypress on their websites (although my inquiry at such a place in eastern Pennsylvania just drew a blank look). The few places online that specialize in cypress generally cater to builders purchasing hundreds, if not thousands, of board feet at a time. That said, there are a few dealers that cater to small-scale users. Pricing starts at about $5-7 per board foot. Working and finishing Cypress is comparable to both cedar and redwood in its weather resistance, but it is slightly harder and stronger. It works well with both hand and power tools, but is somewhat splintery. Because of this, take care to back up cuts, particularly when cross-cutting. Cypress sands quickly, though it does tend to load up abrasives. Freshly cut surfaces have a slightly greasy feel to them, but this does not interfere with paint or finish. Cypress glues with normal adhesives and holds fasteners well. While not downright toxic, cypress is noted as a sensitizer, so appropriate dust control and protection is warranted. Cypress Uses Outdoor projects Interior paneling Flooring Decking Boat building Docks Cabinetry Trim Something old, something new… The story of cypress became even more interesting to me after I connected with Jimmy Krantz of Krantz Recovered Woods in Austin TX. In discussing the cypress industry, he mentioned that he had reclaimed some ancient trees from a Louisiana swamp. In addition to milling and drying the lumber, Krantz had it carbon dated, finding that his discoveries ranged from 1,500 to 2,700 years old. After that conversation, I found myself in possession of a piece of log BC004-A. It came from a tree that grew from about AD 300 to AD 550 making it approximately 1,700 years old. While contemplating the ancient wood, I made this small wall shelf from some boards of select, new-growth cypress. About the only “problem” I encountered was when rounding over the fronts of the shelves on the router table. The profiles were a little on the rough side right off the bit, but cypress sands so readily it didn’t take much to put things right. By the time I had rubbed wiping varnish on this new wood, I had a design in mind that I hoped would do justice to the ancient stuff. As you can see, I turned a small lidded vessel. I wasn’t sure what to expect as my gouge began finding the shape, but the wood was really no different to work than the small sinker cypress plate I had turned earlier. Both cut cleanly and the aroma was surprisingly pleasant given the wood’s swampy origins. The colors proved to be outstanding and I am fascinated by how tight the growth rings are, being less than 1⁄64" in some cases. In all, it made for a great day in the shop. Ancient Cypress For more about ancient buried cypress, as well as other reclaimed lumber, visit the products and prices section of www.krantzrecoveredwoods.com.

The many shades of red. Freshly cut padauk can range a lot in color. The board at the left exhibits a more subdued red hue reminiscent of bubinga, while those to the right are more in the orange-red spectrum. When seeing red isn’t a bad thing There’s redwood, which grows in California, and then there’s RED wood. If it’s the color you’re after, definitely consider padauk. Much of this imported lumber has such a bright red/orange hue that it is commonly called vermillion. Although the spectacular color does darken and lose some of its vibrancy over time, padauk is a lovely wood that’s reasonably pleasant to work. Where the wood comes from While as many as seven species yield lumber marketed as padauk worldwide, the wood we see in the US is almost all African padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxi). It comes from the tropical forests of central and western Africa. Size-wise, the trees are similar to many mature hardwoods in the eastern U.S., growing 100' or so tall and 2-4' in in diameter with wide, spreading crowns similar to those of elms. The trees are not designated on either the CITES list or the IUCN Red List as being endangered, and their harvest offers economic opportunity to their home countries. History in woodworking As woods go, padauk has a pretty long pedigree. Legend has it that the pillars of King Solomon’s temple were made of padauk about 3,000 years ago. Flash- forward a few millennia and you’ll find royalty in the palaces of 17th century France drinking from chalices made from padauk. Apparently tannins that leached from the wood turned the water a yellowish color, giving it “medicinal” qualities. And in the early part of the twentieth century, the Chicago-based Pullman Company used the wood extensively for paneling in their rail cars. These days, you’ll find it used for a wide variety of woodcrafts ranging from cutting boards and pens to fine furniture, flooring, and tool handles. Selecting the best stock Padauk is available both as solid stock and veneer. The most common thicknesses are 4/4 and 8/4, but a lot of online sources sell precut turning blanks and other smaller “craft-sized” pieces. Boards are commonly available in widths from 4-10" and lengths from 8-12', although boards up to 15" wide and 16' long are also obtainable. As exotics go, padauk is one of the more moderately priced species, typically selling for $10-14 per board foot. As you can see from the photos, the wood is typically a bright red-orange, though it can vary into more muted tones. Very few of the imported boards contain sapwood, which is a creamy white. As the wood ages, it darkens to a rich, reddish brown. One interesting side note: padauk fluoresces orange/yellow when viewed under a black (UV) light. Working and finishing Padauk’s bright color sometimes eclipses its other fine qualities. It is comparable to white oak in strength, weight, and hardness, but it's much more stable. Padauk is also highly resistant to decay and insect attack, making it an excellent choice for outdoor use. In the shop, it is generally a pleasure to work with using hand tools, and it machines well, although some pieces may contain interlocked grain that can tear when run through a planer. Unlike many other exotic species, padauk glues readily without any special preparation. It also accepts both oil and water-based finishes well. It does have a relatively coarse grain structure, so if you are looking for a glass-smooth surface, you may need to employ a paste wood filler beneath your top coats. Padauk Uses Furniture Cabinetry Interior paneling Turnings Musical instruments Flooring Orange is the new gold Despite padauk’s red coloration, its dust is a bright orange and is remarkably pervasive and clingy. When I finished turning the Lazy Susan shown here, my shiny gold Powermatic lathe looked like a new offering from a certain orange-themed tool company. As for me, I looked like I’d been for a spray tan with my clothes on. Aside from that, the wood turned exceptionally well, cutting cleanly with no tearout, even on the end grain. It also sanded surprisingly quickly considering its hardness. Its grain is coarse enough that after 80 grit, I was tempted to stop, as the surfaces looked nearly ready for finish. I persevered, however, working my way up to 400 grit before spinning on several coats of wiping varnish. The finish was a little disappointing in that the wood’s open grain structure doesn’t lend itself to a nice, burnished surface. Next time I’ll use a paste wood filler first. Dovetailing the piece for the photo on the facing page wasn’t as easy as turning. While the wood sawed readily, it tended to crumble in the tight spots when fitting the pieces together. One other observation is that the wood has a distinctive, spicy aroma that is generally pleasant. After burning a crosscut, however, I noticed an undertone similar to burnt hair that somewhat spoiled the olfactory experience.

One of North America’s finest offerings Black walnut (Juglans nigra) is one of North America’s most popular and sought after hardwoods. It is prized for not only its rich, dark brown color, but also its strength, stability, durability, and ease of use. Today it can be readily found not only in the form of rough-sawn and surfaced boards, but also as live edge slabs. Perhaps its only drawback at this point is its cost—about twice that of other premiere domestic species such as cherry, oak, and maple. Where the wood comes from Black walnut trees grow throughout the eastern half of the U.S., although much of the wood commercially harvested comes from the Midwest states of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. It is a fast-growing, pioneer species quick to sprout along roadsides and hedgerows. Despite the popularity of the lumber, the trees are not particularly desirable for landscaping. They tend to be late to leaf out in the spring, and one of the first species to drop their leaves in autumn. Additionally, their roots and the decaying nut husks produce toxins that can stunt the growth of surrounding plant life. Left alone, a black walnut tree can live for 100-125 years and reach a diameter of 2 to 3 feet. While not cited on either the CITES list or the IUCN Red List as being endangered, the wood’s popularity and value have contributed to a decline in the number of trees yielding wide boards. Lightness into dark. In its natural state, black walnut has creamy white sapwood with rich, reddish-to chocolate-brown heartwood. The middle board here was steamed, which takes some of the color from the heartwood and infuses it into the sapwood. History in woodworking Nearly as soon as the first colonists started clearing the eastern forests, black walnut was recognized as a valuable commodity. Ships’ manifests dating from the early 1600’s list black walnut lumber being exported to England for use in the furniture industry. Another noted use was (and continues to be) for gun stocks. Black walnut’s shock resistance, combined with its stability and relatively light weight make it an ideal material for the wooden parts of a rifle. More recently, the late woodworking icon George Nakashima is known for his use of live-edge black walnut in many of his signature pieces. Of particular note are the “peace altars” he made from a certain spectacular walnut log. To date, three of these magnificent tables have been placed around the world with a fourth planned for installation in South Africa. Selecting the best stock Black walnut is available as lumber, veneer, and plywood. As solid stock, it comes in thicknesses from 4/4 to 16/4. While boards as wide as 20" and lengths up to 16' are available, stock 6-8" wide and 8-12' long is far more common. Black walnut prices vary widely, but don’t be surprised to find premium stock going for in excess of $10 per board foot. When selecting stock for a specific project, try to find boards cut from the same tree. Black walnut’s color can vary a lot from a reddish brown to a rich chocolate brown, so grain matching is easier if you have kindred boards. When shopping for walnut, ask if the wood was steamed as it was dried. Steaming is a commercial process that darkens the creamy white sapwood a bit by transferring some of the pigment from the heartwood. Unfortunately, the process tends to mute the color of the heartwood somewhat. Also, in my experience, steamed walnut is brittle in comparison to its non-steamed counterpart. Working and finishing Walnut is a joy to work with. If you’re new to hand-planing, find a nice, clear piece of walnut and use it to build your skills. It is hard enough to cut cleanly, but soft enough to make the job seem easy. Likewise, when machining, it behaves admirably. It also bends and glues well. About its only drawback is that walnut dust is somewhat acrid, and a potential sensitizer. So wearing a tight-fitting mask or respirator is a good precaution. As for finishing, the wood readily accepts both water- and oil-based finishes. In my opinion, the latter look better. See, for example, the dimpled box featured on page 32. If you must use a water-based finish, try to find one with an amber tint added. Also worth noting is that although black walnut flooring is available, it isn’t really hard enough to stand up to heavy use. If you decide you must have a black walnut floor, save it for areas that don’t see a lot of foot traffic. Black Walnut Uses Furniture Cabinetry Gunstocks Interior paneling Turnings Musical instruments Flooring My perennial favorite Years ago, when I was first learning the craft, I made nearly everything out of black walnut. I’ve since branched out, but it is still among my favorite woods to work. It is fun to turn, it carves well, and finishes easily. What more can you ask for? It is even my go-to wood for simple picture frames. As I was gathering the pieces to photograph for this column, it was enlightening to see how they had aged over the years. The platter shown on the opposite page was a gift from Palmer Sharpless, one of my mentors. It is finished with Waterlox, an oil-based wiping varnish. While it has lightened a little in 34 years, it still highlights the beauty of the grain. I finished the hollow vessel below with shellac. As I recall, it was on the light side to begin with, and has lightened even more over time. I made the trivet just recently and finished it with Danish oil, giving it that rich, dark color I’ve come to love. For another look at oiled walnut, check out the Shoot-the-Moon game on page 24. I finished it with boiled linseed oil.

Many Patterns. Depending on the cut, white oak offers three distinct looks. Plainsawn (left) displays strong cathedral patterning. Riftsawn (center) has very linear grain, while quartersawn (right) is straight with a distinctive fleck. Were there an all-star team of North American hardwoods, white oak (Quercus alba) might play quarterback. Strong, durable, attractive, abundant, easy-to-work, and moderately-priced; what more could you ask? Perhaps its only drawback is its tendency to warp, particularly when flatsawn. Of the two dozen or so oak species cut for lumber, white oak is second only to red oak in availability and use, and is one of the most sought after North American hardwoods. Where the wood comes from White oaks grow throughout the eastern US as far west as Texas. The trees are some of the continent’s longest lived, with many individual specimens documented as 300-400 years old. At maturity they can be 4 feet or more in diameter. In the open, these stately trees spread their branches widely, while in forests, their crowns can reach to 100 feet or more. As of this writing, white oak is not cited on either the CITES list or the IUCN Red List as being endangered, and is considered in abundant supply. History in woodworking Where to start? Perhaps with Connecticut’s “Charter Oak.” Featured on the state quarter, this massive white oak dated from the 12th or 13th century, and was believed to have concealed the Connecticut State Charter of 1662 from the invading British. The venerable tree finally succumbed to a storm in 1856. And let’s remember the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. “Old Ironsides” earned her nickname in an 1812 battle with the HMS Guerriere when the British cannonballs simply bounced off her white oak-planked hull. Today, the US Navy maintains The Constitution Grove, a woodlot in Indiana where white oak trees are reserved for the ship’s upkeep. Or turn to Gustav Stickley or Charles Limbert, whose white oak furniture has become synonymous with the Arts and Crafts style that’s still popular today. (See page 32.) Or consider the millions of barrels used to ship goods worldwide for centuries. Nearly all of those that carried wet cargo were made from white oak because it is naturally water-tight and resistant to decay. Today, white oak barrels are still a mainstay at distilleries and wineries here and abroad. Selecting the best stock White oak is available in thicknesses from 4/4 to 16/4, widths from 4" to 20" or more, and lengths to 16' . You’ll pay more for wider, thicker, and longer pieces, with prices starting at $5-6 per board foot. While most stock is plainsawn, it is also commonly available quartersawn, which is much more stable. Quartersawn white oak, which exhibits a beautiful fleck pattern interlaced with straight grain, is often used in Arts and Crafts era furniture. While warp and checks may be easy to spot when sorting boards, white oak is prone to a less evident defect called honeycombing. Caused by improper drying, it manifests as internal checking. It’s particularly difficult to detect in roughsawn boards, and may be revealed only during milling. Fortunately, most reputable dealers will exchange honeycombed boards. Working and finishing White oak is a well-behaved species when worked with both machine and hand tools. It glues easily, holds nails and screws tenaciously, and finishes nicely. But be aware that white oak can develop a black stain if exposed to a combination of iron and water. This happens frequently during glue ups where squeeze out creates a liquid bridge between wood and clamp. To protect against this, cover your clamps with packing tape where such contact might occur. On a personal note, working oak tends to turn my hands purple, although it eventually wears off. However, I once worked with a fellow whose skin chemistry was such that he actually left purple finger prints on oak. Eventually he was no longer assigned to build any projects with the wood. White Oak Uses Furniture Cabinetry Flooring Barrels Ship building A-Oak-Kay White oak is no stranger to my shop, and it’s always a pleasure when a project demands it. As long as my tools are sharp, I don’t have to undergo any special preparations other than careful stock selection. I usually opt for using rift or quartersawn stock, as I don’t particularly like plainsawn oak. I find the stark difference between its spring and summer wood makes the cathedral pattern a little too bold. I’ll make the majority of a larger piece from riftsawn stock, saving the quartersawn pieces for prominent surfaces. The trick is finding riftsawn stock. Most dealers cull out quartersawn pieces as premium product, but few differentiate between riftsawn and plainsawn. I take the time to search out boards that display primarily rift grain or I’ll look for wider boards that display rift grain along their edges. When building, I’ll cut out the center section, using the plainsawn center offcuts in less prominent places.

Pretty, but tough to tame Leopard wood is another treasure from the rainforest. It’s a heavy, dark reddish-brown wood marked with speckled or lacy figure. This figure comes from the trees’ wide medullary rays. All trees have these rays that radiate from the central pith; they have to do with the way trees store nutrients. In leopard wood, these rays happen to be particularly distinct. You can see them most clearly in the end grain where they appear as light brown or gray lines. Several other wood species display similar figure including lacewood, and the Australian native silky oak (which is also sold as leopard wood on occasion). Of the three, leopard wood (Roupala montana or R. brasiliense) is the darkest and heaviest. Where the wood comes from The trees grow throughout Central and northern South America. At full maturity, they can reach 100 feet in height and close to 3 feet in diameter. Leopardwood is widely available through exotic wood dealers. As of this writing, it is not on either the CITES list or the IUCN Red List as being endangered. History in woodworking Leopard wood is a relative newcomer to the woodworking scene. While our woodworking ancestors seem to have overlooked it, contemporary makers have incorporated the bespeckled boards into everything from boxes and desktops to electric guitar bodies. It is also available as a veneer on plywood. These sheets have the type of uniform yet exotic patterns that architects often specify for boardroom paneling and cabinetry. Selecting the best stock As with most figured woods, leopard wood’s grain varies from board to board. So if you intend to edge-glue pieces, request photographs or view the pieces in person for grain matching before purchasing. The wood is available in both 4/4 and 8/4 thicknesses. Many sources sell smaller pieces—under 5" wide and 5' long—as well as turning blanks. Nevertheless, wider, longer boards are readily available. It’s frequently sold S2S (surfaced two sides), so you can clearly see the figure. Expect to pay $20-$25 per board foot with a premium charge for wider and longer pieces. Working and finishing By the numbers, leopard wood is not a stable species. Its radial shrinkage is 3.5%, while its tangential is 8.8%. But to take advantage of the flecked pattern, most of the wood is quartersawn, which tends to offset the disparity in the shrinkage rates. It is not a very friendly wood to work with hand tools. It’s quite hard and all those beautiful flecks tend to flake or lift when hand planing. The wood does glue well, however, and readily accepts both oil and water-based finishes. It holds nails and screws well, though I recommend predrilling, even for self-tapping screws. Leopard Wood Uses Veneer Furniture Cabinetry Turnings Musical instruments Worth the trouble? Leopard wood is visually very striking, but taming it requires careful work. As I started prepping the stock for this desk caddy, a couple of swipes with my smoothing plane told me that hand planing was a no-go. The flecks made reading the grain direction nearly impossible. Then once I had that figured out, those flecks didn’t cut the same way as the surrounding wood. Tear, tear, and more tear. The edges cut a little more cleanly, although the grain direction often changed midway along the board. On the plus side, the wood did scrape and sand well, so I stuck with that to clean up the surfaces. While the wood has a slightly waxy feel, sandpaper didn’t load up the way it does with some other exotic species such as cocobolo. The wood also cut well on the jointer, but I could tell how hard it was both from the sound and the vibration generated. There wasn’t anything I could do about the noise, but firm downward pressure mitigated the chatter from the vibration. The wood is quite coarse and splintery (and those splinters are sharp and stiff—ouch). Aside from the splintering on the backside of crosscuts, it machined nicely both on the table saw and the router table, and behaved well on the drill press. It seemed to glue well, though the glue lines showed white against the dark tones of the wood so consider a dark—rather than yellow—glue. Fortunately, the glue lines became less noticeable after applying a finish. What little turning I did went well, though some of the same tearout problems I had with the hand plane showed up as I cut with both a gouge and a skew. A little extra sanding was all that was required to smooth things out. Back at the bench, I had to pare the round tenon on the penholder to fit its hole in the base, a job that was easier than expected. Finishing was fun. The wiping varnish I used made the figure really “pop.” I’ll be adding leopard wood to the palette of species I use. Its distinctive pattern makes a bold statement when used in smaller pieces such as this desk caddy.

Birds of a feather. About the only thing consistent with Canarywood is the inconsistency of its coloration, which can range from a tawny yellow to a rich reddish brown, often across the same board. Singing the praises of a lesser-known species You don’t have to see a lot of canarywood to know where it got its name. The brightly streaked yellowish/orangeish/reddish /brownish heartwood is reminiscent of many Springtime birds. And like birds whose feathers lose those bright colors in the fall, Canarywood tends to darken to a rich, reddish-brown as the wood ages. The Canarywood we see in the US comes from several species of the genus Centrolobium. The wood—which is marketed under a variety of names, including Tarara Amarilla, Putumuju, and Porcupinewood—reflects subtle variations in color and texture, depending on the particular species. Where the Wood Comes From The trees grow throughout South America and can reach over 100 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter, although those cut for lumber are typically 40-60' tall and about 16" in diameter. As of this writing, none of the species are designated on either the CITES list or the IUCN Red List as being endangered, and the lumber is widely available through exotic wood dealers. History in Woodworking Canarywood hasn’t enjoyed the same furniture-grade pedigree as Rosewood and other better-known rainforest woods. It is more likely found in older South American buildings, where it was used as a construction timber, or outdoors, where it has served as railroad ties. However, due to increased trade in exotic timbers, you’ll now likely find Canarywood used in boxes and other gift items at your local craft gallery as well as in musical instruments. Selecting the Best Stock As you can see from the photos above, Canarywood varies a lot in color and grain pattern. If you intend to edge-glue boards to make up a wider panel, you may want to purchase extra stock for better grain matching. For the most part, the lumber available in the United States is sawn to 4 /4 thickness, although a few online sources carry heavier stock. You can also purchase turning blanks, ranging from pen-sized pieces on up through fairly large bowl stock. Prices are in the $10-15 / bd. ft. range. Working and Finishing Canarywood is quite stable and works well with both hand and power tools. The lumber that’s imported tends to be knot-free and straight-grained, so it machines cleanly with minimal tearout. No special precautions are necessary when gluing. The wood also holds fasteners well, although drilling pilot holes is definitely recommended. Likewise, finishing with either water or oil-based products is generally problem-free. Canarywood Uses Furniture Cabinetry Turnings Flooring Musical instruments Construction timber Railroad ties Canarywood Working Notes I find that when getting to know the character of a particular wood species, nothing provides better feedback than a chisel in the hands. So, for this month’s column, I opted to do a little carving and turning with my Canarywood blanks. The subject matter was a no-brainer, as it seemed to me I had a bird in hand and can rarely resist a pun. I’ve been making stylized avians for years though normally I make them from Cherry. (Watch for my article in our next issue on how to make your own!) I wasn’t sure what to expect when carving Canarywood. By the numbers, the two species are quite different. Canarywood is about 50% heavier (52 vs 35 lbs./cubic foot) and about 50% harder (1520 on the janka scale vs 950). However, carving the two woods turned out to be very similar, largely due to the tight grain structure of both. Canarywood cuts beautifully with sharp carving knives and chisels and holds detail well. It also sands quickly, although it did tend to load the sandpaper just a bit. As a bonus, the sanding dust emits a pleasant scent. Turning the base “log” was an equal pleasure. A roughing gouge sheared the blank nicely to a cylinder and a couple of follow-up passes with a skew yielded a surface that required very little sanding. To finish things up, I hand-planed a flat on the bottom. Even this simple maneuver of peeling away a clean shaving was delightful. All in all, I find Canarywood to be much easier to work with than its weight and density would imply.

Dark horse of the family Several species of walnut (Juglans spp) are sold as Peruvian walnut. These include Juglans peruviana, J. australis, J. neotropica, and J. olanchana. You may also see it marketed as “tropical walnut” or “Nogal” (Spanish for “walnut”). The wood tends to be darker and with a somewhat coarser grain than its more temperate cousins such as black and claro walnut. Where the wood comes from The name Peruvian walnut is a bit misleading, as the source trees are spread throughout Central America and the northern part of South America. As tropical trees go, these are modest in size—30 to 60 feet tall, and 2-3 feet in diameter. As of this writing, none of the species are on the CITES list, though Juglans neotropica is listed on the IUCN Red List as being endangered, with a population that has declined significantly over the past three generations. History in woodworking While you won’t find a lot of antique furniture in the U.S. made of Peruvian walnut, the wood has been used extensively in Central and South America for furniture and cabinetry. It also makes excellent interior trim, though it is on the soft side for high traffic flooring. It is gaining popularity stateside for those seeking the rich color of walnut without the color variations and knots typical of the domestic species. The wood is also valued for its shock resistance, so it makes excellent gun stocks, provided you can find thick enough pieces. Selecting the best stock The boards that make it into the United States tend to be straight grained with minimal knots. The wood is tricky to dry properly, especially thicker stock, so most is cut at 4/4. On the plus side, wide boards (12"+) are frequently available. While the wood is quite dark, the heartwood can contain lighter streaks that can make grain matching a challenge (see photo above right). Expect to pay $12-$15/board foot. Working and finishing Like its domestic cousin black walnut, Peruvian walnut is a joy to work with both hand and power tools. Its straight grain makes for clean machining once you determine which way the grain is running. The wood accepts glue readily, and finishes well with both water- and oil-based stains and topcoats. It also holds mechanical fasteners well, but be sure to predrill pilot holes for screws. Peruvian Walnut Uses Furniture Cabinetry Interior millwork Turnings Musical instruments Peruvian Walnut Working Notes When I first cut into Peruvian walnut, I knew I was going to enjoy working with it. (I used the wood for both the bowed psaltery on page 35 and the vase shown here.) Having used black walnut extensively throughout my woodworking career, I immediately recognized the same sharp smell, but found that the grain is a little coarser than on black walnut and more splinter-prone. My initial impression of the boards I had was that they were very uniform in appearance and color. However, the more I worked with them, the more I came to appreciate the subtle variation in color and grain pattern. The streaking mentioned earlier was very prominent in several of the boards, but it didn’t appear until I cut into their interior when tapering the pieces for the vase. Ultimately, I realized that an inspection of the end grain can provide clues to what I might find inside. The pieces I resawed for the back of the psaltery stayed remarkably flat, even when set aside to “relax” for a couple of days. Joinery, sanding, and finishing all went well. I used spray lacquer on the psaltery more for its tonal qualities than for appearance. I prefer the wiping varnish I used for the vase for how it brings out the color in the wood.