Identifying wood grains

How do you identify different wood grains? What are the different types of wood grains? How many different kinds of wood grains are there? How can you identify different wood types?

Confirm it is actually solid wood. Before proceeding too much farther into the remaining steps, it’s first necessary. Some questions to immediately ask yourself: Is the color of the wood natural, or is it stained?

With the exception of maple, which has a slick surface, common hardwoods, such as ash, oak, hickory and. Most wood is amber or off-white in color. First of all, make sure that you’re looking at a solid piece of wood. You can do this by looking at the edges of a piece and seeing if the end grain matches up with the direction of the grain along the face of the wood. Pine is one of the easiest types of firewood to identify.

Identifying Pine Firewood Using the End Grain. You can use the end-grain , or even just the sides of the wood , to check for sticky sap. If you pick-up a piece of wood that is sticky, then it’s almost definitely Pine. Pine also tends to have a lot of branches and knots on the side. Consider weight and hardness of the wood Source:.

Check out the grain color Source:. For this reason, I decided to revise and expand this site. A sharp knife such as a utility knife and a 10x hand lens are necessary for wood identification. In order to see the cell structures in the cross sectional end (end grain ), you must first make a very clean cut that does not tear the fibers. Sometimes it is useful to boil the wood prior to cutting to soften the fibers.

Alder is a softer hardwood that accepts a stain more uniformly than highly textural woods. Poplar, a more economical wood , also has a fine, straight grain and takes both stain and paint well. With so many varieties of wood species available, positive identification of wood by grain pattern alone can be difficult. A more practical way to identify wood is by its grain and color. Hardwoods have tubular cells called vessels, visible as pores in the wood.

If the grain is fine and long, it might be mahogany, even if it might have a slight wave to it. Also, if you look close up and you see that there are many dark fine lines to the grain, that may be a good indication of mahogany, as well. To correctly identify the type of hardwoo you need to perform a few tests. Some species are easy to identify, such as Oak, Pine, Cherry and Fir.

This gives the wood a smooth or fine appearance. Coarse grain is where the age rings of the wood are far apart or open grain. Among woods of medium price, alder is common for cabinetry, trim work and furniture.

Oak is a hardwood that exhibits lines, waves or watery figures, depending on how it is sawed. It has a straight,. Virginia Tech Dendrology is THE source for tree identification. For a listing of wood properities for most major timber trees visit Hardwoods of North Americaor Softwoods of North America(pdf documents). Scientific wood identification depends primarily on characteristics of wood cells revealed with a hand lens or under a microscope.

To prepare a microscope slide, a cross-sectional surface of the specimen is smoothed with a sharp knife and examined with a hand lens. Thin sections are cut freehand along the grain from the radial and tangential surfaces and prepared for viewing under the microscope. A sure-fire method for telling chestnut and oak apart is to look for rays – straight bands of tissue – running perpendicular to the growth rings.

Oak has broad bands, while chestnut has none. The above link to the Exotic Wood Directory is, I think, one of the best sites for getting information on identifying wood. As a hobby woodworker, I like to use different woods and sometimes the only way to tell what the wood is, is by looking at the end grain. If it doesn’t exhibit rings or grain, it is likely a piece of plywood and it won’t be able to be identified.

Look at an end piece. Step Decide if it has been weathered or stained. Stained woods may be made to look like another type of woo and you can tell if the color is very uneven or there is a varnish on it, that it may be stained. You should also ask the seller if the wood is staine since staining wood masks its true color.

The practical way to identify wood is by its grain and color. This is because the cell structure of a tree is different for each species and determines its grain. Hardwoods will have tubular cells called vessels that are visible as pores in the wood. For example, if the cells are large then the texture of the wood will be slightly rough or open. To identify a tree by its bark, the first step is to look at its various parts and on the basis of these, find it out in a tree guide.

If you’re into wilderness survival, this would be a great skill for you, as it would help you to know the kind of trees whose wood you can use to make a fire or tools, or a shelter.