Choose the best wood for your project
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
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Want to get woodworking? Check out the ultra-basic, ultra-cheap, Woodwork for Humans Series:
Woodwork for Humans tool list:
Woodwork for Humans Tool List (affiliate):
Stanley 12-404 Handplane: amzn.to/2TjW5mo
Honing Guide: amzn.to/2TaJEZM
Green buffing compound: amzn.to/2XuUBE2
Cheap metal/plastic hammer for plane adjusting: amzn.to/2XyE7Ln
Spade Bits: amzn.to/2U5kvML
Metal File: amzn.to/2CM985y (I don't own this one, but it looks good and gets good reviews. DOESN'T NEED A HANDLE)
Block Plane Iron (to make a scrub plane): amzn.to/2I6V1vh
Vaughn Bear Saw: amzn.to/2WoIzLP
Dewalt Handsaw: amzn.to/2IAHX1Z
Stanley Marking Knife: amzn.to/2Ewrxo3
Hacksaw: amzn.to/2LOpQ9X
Hex Shaft Drill Bits: amzn.to/2LJZg1I
(These will fit a bit-brace)
Countersink: amzn.to/2LMuvZN
Small File: amzn.to/2LJDs6k (needs a handle)
My favorite file handles: amzn.to/2TPNPpr
The best wood for my project is the stuff I actually have.
:D
That is accurate, a board in the hand is worth a lumber yard a hundred miles down the street
was that a direct quote from a rex krueger video
@@avrumisolaimani8546 Probably.
Or, potentially, the wood I can afford
The first half of the ruclips.net/user/postUgkx3ICSK6nSknaL_45CU2NmFSoXjarGMDiJ book is everything about wood: types, tools, finishes, setting up shop etc. The second half is all about doing projects for inside and outside of the home. The color pictures are helpful. After reading a dozen of these types of books, this is probably the best overall (layout, color photos, plans). Only detraction is that many of the projects use a table saw/router/planer, which are usually expensive and take up space, so the plans are less friendly to newcomers and the budget conscious. But I know I can use a drill, circular saw or a jigsaw to make the projects.
I love how the "Boxes" was a coffin @ 2:36
At least It's not stone.
Bahahaha made me chuckle
I legit rewind to make sure I didn’t hallucinate that XD
To be fair, a coffin is a box.
I use softwood for almost everything i build. Its great and also becuase im poor.
yea, ho doesnt
same! the only reason i would use hardwood is if I am going to use it to beat soft wood :D
Yea looks like I found my advice
Local woods for me, pine, plywood... erm.. MDF?
No shame in pine. A fine wood.
I used to hate MDF, but there are applications where it's the material of choice. (Particularly speaker cabinets because it's acoustically dead, which is what you want.) Then I also realized that it's making good use of sawdust.
Mike Curtin you might be interested in a video called “worlds 2nd best speakers”, the channel is tech ingredients. He does a test measure resonance in MDF and plywood, and they are similar, but the plywood is slightly better. His claim is that it’s a stiffness to weight ratio that is important, and if you double the plywood you will have the same weight as mdf with more than twice the stiffness... or less than half the resonance. This was new to me, I’m certainly not a physicist but it’s seems compelling.
@@fotopdo That's very interesting. I'll look into it. Thanks much.
@@mikecurtin9831 I find MDF furniture on the side of the road. Great practice material and good shop materail.
“Taste is a new thing I’m trying in my projects.” comedy gold, man.
Must be a eye of the beholder type thing, because I just LOVE how poplar looks; especially pieces that have a lot of different colors. Having one board that goes from white to yellow to green to purple to dark brown I think looks spectacular as a shelf, dresser top, etc!
Same!
Yep, agreed, I made a beautiful game table out of poplar and several other kinds of wood (walnut, ipe, curly maple, granadillo) and then applied an oil based poly. I specifically chose pieces of poplar that had no greenish tint, and an interesting grain pattern. The oil based poly gave it a warm, golden hue that I love!
i love popular as well...
I love when poplar gets those purple,green,or dark streaks in it
My wife loves how it starts off purple. Its beautiful in that way
It takes a real pair of buckeyes to tackle a subject like this on youtube. Best of luck to you sir.
Everytime I think "I need Rex to make a video about X," he already has. Thanks big homie.
By far the best treatment of the subject.
“Swamp ash” caught my inner child off guard.
About 5 times while watching this video I thought 'hey I should like this video', only to scroll down & see that I already had
Poplar is also good for mimicking other woods. Use a light reddish/brown dye, for example, to mimic aged cherry.
Larry Brown that wood sure is pop-a-lar
It’s the poor man’s cherry as they say
@@bradenpolley8286 i thought alder was poor mans cherry
I love the Alton Brown approach to woodworking!
I hadn't realized this but, you're exactly right. Totally explains why I could watch either/both of them on repeat for years and never grow tired of it. Rex Krueger: the Alton Brown of woodworking. I love it!!
“Taste is a new thing I’m trying.”
Ha, ha! I feel ya, buddy!
best
You knocked it out of the park on this on, Rex. Great video. Thank you.
Thanks for saying so!
"Tree"mendous. Thank you 😁👍
This helped me a lot! Every wood I have access to turns out to be tough springy hardwood!
Preach. Pine is great. Wood is good, calm down and don't confuse the newbies
I've been sick for the past two days and have just found your channel. I really appreciate the practical and straightforward approach you take. It's been a pleasure going through the woodworking for humans series as well!
After getting this stuff few days ago, I could hardly put it down afterwards [Link Here== *TopFineWoodworking. Com* ]. There are lots of colorful pictures, with detailed descriptions of every step in the project. You will never miss your way using this plan. It was more than I expected.?
Using danish/tunge oil brings out the green in poplar which a lot of people don't like, but I've had a few customers REQUEST poplar BECAUSE of that.
Another "category 4" wood that is readily available in N America is Osage Orange (hedge/bodark). It's used for fence posts because of it's strength and durability. It changes color over time, starting out a striking yellow-brown similar to yellow heart and the turns to amber, medium brown (like walnut - not black walnut), and then back to a dark amber.
"Taste is a new thing I'm trying"
Well I guess you look into that while I go through my piles of pallet wood
No shame in the pallet game.
US made pallets use domestic woods. And so do the pallets from other countries. Except they use THEIR domestic woods. If there is a shop/store in your area that imports merchandise from overseas, ask the manager if you can get some of the shipping pallets their imports come on.
@@RexKrueger Oh, I'm not so sure about that... Pallet wood ruined a brand new set of knives on my jointer. I planed one of the pallet's stringers down - most assuredly a thing of heavy, hard exotic beauty from a distant land - only to discover when truing up a clean soft piece of spruce a week later that a 2-inch-wide streak of roughness was longtitudunally polluting the purity of the freshly milled softwood. I kicked myself because only 2 weeks prior, I had watched Colin Kenecht's vid on avoiding pallet wood. The unseen crap and corruption invisibly pressed into the wood's surface turned out to be devastating to the jointer's knives. I'd even gone to the trouble of scanning it with a metal detector beforehand!
Once burnt, twice shy. No more pallet wood for this cat.
@@honey5bucket another thing on international shipping, the pallets are required to be kiln dried, Domestic pallets with a flame stamp marking in the US indicate they have been through a kiln. This is to ensure there are no live bugs or surviving eggs in the wood. Any sort of supply house is worth the trip to ask about their pallets. I've gotten stacks of oak 3x4 rough cut lumber that was used to ship commercial refrigeration units.
Well some people love pallet wood so that could be taste too...
I love how poplar looks I think it's very pretty
Hi Rex it’s me Sumo, your channel has gone really well & I remember the times we were both at 100 subscribers & trying our best, congrats brother for your success on RUclips 🤠👍
You're very kind to say so! I see some fine growth in your channel too and A LOT of content in the last 18 months. Give yourself some credit, too!
I appreciate your informative tone. You're a very personable guy and I laughed when you poked your head out under the bench, but I appreciate your restraint from making too many tangents or jokes about how poplar is popular to work with... Another great video, thank you!
I think many of us under appreciate Rex’s ability to put this much monologue/narrative/information and we pay attention. Maybe attributed by the way he talks. Wonder how much effort he consciously puts into making his lines come out clear and understandable.
I've been a subscriber of yours for a little while now (I think since around the $2 plane iron vid) and I gotta say, your unique, no-nonsense style of videos that are jam-packed with useful, practical information are so awesome, and you've only gotten better and better as the months progressed. I really appreciate how you make everything very practical-minded and beginner-friendly - if only you were around when I was trying to get started with woodworking!!
Thanks very much! You just summarized exactly what I'm after.
Those are the best kind of boxes to make every one is dying to get one!!!
Ever tried Black Locust? My family land in Indiana is thick w it. Not usually available commercially because of its naturally slender trunk (max
I finally have no complain with pinewood, i used to thought it was weak because of its surface
I know I'm four years late to the party, but I live in Canton, and I just discovered American Hophornbeam, my buddy had some he had to cut down in his yard and I grabbed a log. I made a mallet out of it this weekend, and holy cow... it's crazy how rock hard it is. It's also called ironwood, and I can see why.
I love your bench made from 5 woods. An excellent choice of woods and an even better example of joinery.
thank you!
I don't know if it grows in my area, but hedge is the densest wood I have worked with and it has a very bright yellow color that might be good for some projects(UV makes it go darker) so if you haven't tried it I suggest finding a peice or two.
I just made a Green Egg Grill Cart out of Hickory, which is the first time I used this species. I used pocket holes to join the base. The Kreg pocket screws are self-tapping and shouldn't require pre-drilling. But I quickly learned that pre-drilling was necessary after I snapped 4 screws out of the first 8 I screwed in. I also snapped 3 drill bits during this project. The hickory looks amazing, though! I will use it again in the future, but will definitely take the time to pre-drill everything.
Hickory is like iron. Lasts a long time.
You make awesome content. Im a chef. I spend more hours on the road and at work than I spend in my shop. I like power tools, tech, and big builds, but I play your vids when Im not in my shop. I always find something new and how to apply it to what Im doing. In turn, my minutes in the shop have become so much more productive. Youre not doing it for the keyboard nitpicking warriors. Youre doing it for us, and for that I thank you for your time and passion for sharing knowledge. Big thanks from smalltown midwest, USA.
Very interesting video sir, I think I have told you I am 48 I have been working with wood for the majority of my life. Watching this video, it made me realize, I have spent the majority of my life working with basically the cheapest or easiest, wood I can get in my area, Pine being the cheapest and easiest to get then up in price, popular, oak, and cedar and this past year, I was able to buy a black walnut tree, I milled myself and Hickory i cut myself.So like you, I have mostly used woods in my area I can get easy enough, find as scrap to repurpose etc. But watching this video makes me want to get some soft maple, cherry etc. Thanks for sharing this video with us,.
Thanks again for such a fun video about a lot of different types of woods. You did an excellent job and this like you mentioned wasn't an easy task to make, you made it look easy and did a great job. Have a blessed week sir.
dale
I recently discovered how much I love working with poplar while making swedish butter knives (red oak) & bread boards (poplar). I don't care what anyone says, it's good to ME!
Poplar works LIKE butter on the wood lathe, if you have one. Another great place to use dyes instead of stains.
Sweedish butter..... yum
I'm not even much of a fan of green in general... I like to consider it a "trim color" (personal)...
BUT I really don't get what so many have against Poplar. For one, there isn't THAT much green in most of it... occasionally at best. Every wood has a grain texture to it... so that's a non-argument.
SO it doesn't play nice with stain... I've had WONDERFUL results fairly consistently with just using dark stain and scrubbing like hell. If you push enough with a chunk of terricloth, you can stain poplar. Lots of people are mystified by my work with poplar and "antique walnut" or "dark walnut" stains...
NOT the stupid hybridized "stain plus poly" products. Unilaterally, in my experience (beyond poplar, for the record) those suck... They simply aren't worth the time and effort... and it's a huge scam, just to deplete you of more money for some false hope that you can get "the same or better results" than if you just stained it properly, let it dry, and then poly-coated, clear-coated, or sprayed it with friggin' lacquer... PROPERLY.
In any case... I agree with you. Poplar's always been a perfectly good wood. If you reserve that "greenish tinted" stuff for more appropriate opportunities, it can be useful too... and sometimes, it's a good mental exercise to CREATE the opportunity to use the "weird stuff" saved back. (because I've been lazy and am now running out of space...lolz) ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 do you use the prestain stuff? I have had good results with that on pine that normally doesn't stain well
@@bumstudios8817 Honestly? Not yet... I might have to check it out though.
I have "boiled and sunned" pieces before, when I was confident stain wasn't going to go well... It's a little hit and miss, but for the cheap... it's more hit than miss in my experience.
BUT if you get decent (or better) results with the prestain products... I'm willing to go see it.
Back when I started (probably 90's ish) and I wasn't so serious about it ... I'd try almost anything... and there were some products that came with "scary consequences"... I don't recall ever trying a prestain though... BUT the glues have definitely improved since then...
Thanks for the tip! ;o)
Best wood I worked with is plum..wonder color and beautiful to work.
You said you get the people the disagree with you, so here I am.
No biggie really its just that I have to disagree with your statement about how poplar doesnt stain well.
Ive been a cabinet maker and finisher for 39 years and absolutely love working with poplar.
Its easily machined, sands beautifully, its nearly always dead straight and flat, very few knots, (if thats what you're looking for) and in my opinion stains and finishes perfectly.
Choosing the right pieces, you can nearly mimic walnut.
I love it!
In my local we got that Bubblegum Cherry, that Ash Wednesday, that Jamaican Maple. I don't know what Poplar is, but we got all the Purple you need this side of Cali. I don't know what it's like on a plane, but you can grind it and i've been told it makes a great Vice.
That could have been a stupid comment, but it turned out quite clever. The only thing you missed was a reference to trees.
@@RexKrueger Haha, oh snap! How on earth did I forget trees! 🌳🌲 🌴
Well so long as you have the fantastic, interesting and very informative videos Rex, I got the stupid comments! This is RUclips after all... where we all have to pitch in and work together - for the greater wood! 💪
I can't bnelieve I hadn't watched this one yet. Not much in terms of new info, but I do love your opinion on the matter. Also, most of the wooden components in my tools are made out of purpleheart. Mallets are either that, Ipe (yup yup) or bulletwood ... with purpleheart inserts (always) . It's how people recognize my tools in the shop ^^
Useful info. It's strange how little North American wood seems to get shipped across to Europe, so it's nice to hear a bit more about the characteristics & differences of some.
Two of my favourite woods are yew & olive. Yew can be astoundingly pretty if you find some character grade stuff & it's highly resistant, so great for anything that'll be spending time outdoors. Olive finishes like a dream & is my favourite for adding accents (followed closely by black walnut), but it can take a toll on the edges of cutting tools.
On splitting wood: Viking longboats we basically made with wood wedges and axes only. It's really interesting to look at Scandinavian wood working with all their specialist axes.
A month later and I still pull this video up and reference it. Thanks so much for putting it together!
It's totally my pleasure. I'm glad it's helping!
Very well done. And funny to see how many times you found it impossible to say “ring porous”.
Rex Krueger MD!!!!!!!
now I definitely watch that show we're Rex fixes people's problems with tools
You sir have inspired me. Love your wife's work out bench. I'm in the middle of a desk build and i made the top out of red oak and trying to decide what to build the rest of the desk out of. You've given me food for thought. Thank you
That drywall mud trick just changed my life.
My choices for timber are mostly dictated by what I can get. Locally, I am limited to pine, jarrah, merbau, meranti, and Tassie oak/Victorian ash(which are actually eucalypts). If I take a 30 minute drive I could get a few more species, but anything comparatively "fancy" like cherry or walnut that I see a lot of US woodworkers using, are either only available as veneers, or I could mail order small pieces.
For decorative stuff, if I want dark wood I use jarrah, if I want lighter I go Tassie oak or meranti. For cheap stuff I use pine.
Yeah I reckon if he could get hold of some Jarrah he'd love it for wedges 😉 Nice dark colour but much tougher stuff.
One of the most direct and informative videos I've seen in almost 30 years online. Great job!
Thank you!
Adrian 1138 - Try to get out more!
I live in South Wales where the only choice of wood is wet pine and dry pine 😂
A delightful mixture of humor, intelligence, wit, wisdom, and knowledge!
You always "hit it out of the park" Rex!
Thanks so much for your channel. :)
Very accurate description. Inline with what I think too.
My new experiment for wedged tenons when I want them accented but want something other than walnut:
Grab some brass shim stock and rough it up with light sandpaper. Cut with scissors to width and wrap around your wedge. Hammer it home and then flush cut and sand as usual. I used 5 minute expoxy because I'm skeptical about how wood glue will hold. You end up with some little streaks of brass that accent your wedge that are subtle but interesting.
That was a very helpful video. I have not seen wood selection justified in those ways before.
"Put a sock in it!" That is a reasonable defense against us nit-picking your advice. Jesse, the Samurai Carpenter, had a longer, less family-friendly response to destructive criticism.
I appreciate the information. I’ve been looking for such a video for awhile. Cherry is also my favorite hardwood!
an eye opener i love this even the second time
You watched it TWICE? Whoa.
This video deserves 1 million views. Great topic and explanation
I've really learned to love poplar. It is very workable, but durable. Frankly, I think it is beautiful. I love the exaggerated marbling.
I buy it in advance and keep my shop stocked with it, so the stuff I'm using is always already browned. When I shop for wood, I dig through and try to find the "ugliest" wood that I can, tell it that it's beautiful, and take it home with me.
for me and perhaps a lot of people, our creating videos that will be watched msny times just to re-learn and really hammer in the thins you teach in these videos. thats a lot more then a lot of youtubers can expect. so far i am loving this "woodworking for humans" series. I have learned soooo much already and i haven't even started following along yet. i fully plan to.
Rex this is an incredbily valuable video for beginner woodworkers. You explain this well and simply. Excellent
I'm a newbie hobby WW, about 2 yr. been working with box store construction lumber and plywood. Ready to move upand have been lost as to what woods to try next. This has been very helpful. Next project is a Moxon vise in red oak. Wish I had seen this before I bought the oak but oh well -- soldier on.,
I like Poplar for things I'm going to paint: it's generally pretty cheap, and when it's painted you don't care how it looks
"Its just a bench." "Its made of wood." Weeell, with that one glorious piece of utility furniture you've explained the whole of this video. This isn't just, 'use the best wood for your project,' its more about including wood choices into the design. I think many makers get intimidated with thoughts of solid wood [sticking to ply or MDF] they feel it means more skill than they have, or 'serious' carpentry. You've gone a long way to dispel that in this video and I for one look forward to using good woods to make better project, cheers Rex.
[p.s. as you asked, I'm enjoying my pull saw, its a different discipline and thats good, as I'm not always in the mood to drag my tablesaw out into the yard for a couple of crosscuts. Its actually 'enjoyable'.]
I really think that making one or two cuts on a power saw is a huge waste of time. A good hand saw is such a time-saver.
I rewatched several parts of this video several times. Partly because I kept getting distracted by thoughts about changes you inspired on several of my wood working products but also because I wanted to properly absorb and understand the information you share in this video. Liked and subscribed! I plan on watching one of your videos in a similar fashion most every evening from here on. Hope I don't run out... Keep em coming! Big fan of your communication skills and vocabulary. Instant fan. I'm just starting to learn the finer points of wood working and this video was immensely helpful. Thanks much Rex!
~Carl
Great video Rex! One thing I'd like to add about popular is if you need something strong and hard like a shelve or box cabinet and you plan on painting, popular is always my go to wood for paint projects.
I have never tried the stain and after watching your video I must try that out. That red guitar was out of this world beautiful! OMG
Mark Bonham you're very right about paint!
Rex I think this may have been one of the first videos I watched when I stumbled upon your channel a year ago…. This auto played after another of your videos that I watched for the dozenth time and every video I have this huge compulsion, an irresistible urge to say thank you so much for all of your information!
It's really my pleasure!
Thanks for this channel, Rex. Reading a few of the comments below, there are obviously a lot of experts and master craftsmen who don’t need your advice and suggestions. But I do, and I am not alone. Me? I was a lumberjack for ten years (when I was much younger), and I am from a family in which all the men, my father included, were all cabinet makers and carpenters, going back five generations. But I still need advice because - unlike some of the geniuses below - I am not myself an expert craftsman just because others in my family were, and I still suffer from a bout of humility and honesty. I hope some day to become better at wood work through receiving advice from guys like yourself, so please keep these videos coming. And yes, I will support you through Patreon, mate! Thanks again!
I enjoy ebony for my tenon wedges, kinda a pain, but damn its beautiful.
I guess I am an oddball. I LOVE Poplar. I make all kinds of projects from it. The more color variation in it the better. I made our kitchen cabinets out of it and they get all kinds of compliments. I go to the big box store specifically looking for the poplar that has dark brown, green and even red coloring. As far as I am concerned, it doesn't get any better!
But what if you want something everyone else isn't using. What is not poplar?
I'm a fan, too. You just need to pick it for the project.
I've seen this video before. I just dismissed the super hard and super dense message. Just started woodworking, I was working with cherry and walnut. Decided I was gonna do a project with bloodwood. After rewatching this video.. that message hit me right in the face.
Most of the native timbers which are easy to find here in Australia are usually very hard and very tough.
That's what I hear. You Aussies have it rough.
I made a whole canoe out of $11 poplar plywood. The worst wood you could possibly use for it but after some fiberglass cloth and resin, the canoe worked perfectly fine. Saved myself so much money. (It was my first ever wood working project so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money then mess up)
Hey Rex, There are a lot of great woodworkers out there with the most desired equipment and studios.
But you come across the most ginuine and to the point.
You say what we are researching. Thanks
I live in South Africa. We share a river with Zimbabwe and on the banks of this river (ans its tributaries) grows my two favourite woods. Zambezi Teak, which is actually not teak at all and my all time favourite wood Pink Ivory.
Pink Ivory is pretty much affordable in SA as we have our own side of the river where ours and the other trees fleeing Zimbabwe grows so you can consider it a local wood 🤣
Have you ever worked with Pink Ivory and if so did you also start seeing birdseye maple and snakewood to seem soft all of a sudden?
I also like Knysna Stinkwood which is an acacia wood which I think is comparable to maple when it comes to workability but has more of a oak type color.
If you love wood then I love you, Lekker
Loved the video. As a new woodworker so far I've just chosen wood that I thought looked nice or what was affordavle. But it makes total sense to think more about the use of a component and what characteristics of a wood would be beneficial for it. Thanks so much!
I picked up a "cheap" piece of wood at a reclamation store. It was dark and beautiful. I started carving it to make a hatchet handle. A month or so into it, my furniture restorer friend sees a pic and tells me I'm playing with mahogany. lol Hard...not flexible. Not the right wood.
I live in swampy Florida. Cypress is about the only local wood I like. However many exotic woods are available via importers. None of them did as good a job explaining properties as well as you. Thanks
I lived in FL for 5 years! Live oak?
Excellent video. I come more from the metallic world as a mechanic, but I started learning my trade by woodworking with my grandfather as a kid. Now that I'm a father myself, my boys and I build furniture together. Woodworking is so much more than work. It is getting back to the roots of what made humans make the jump from cave dwellers to house builders. It is just so tragic that so many people don't know the joy and rewards if it.
Except for me, all the men in my family are mechanics!
@@RexKrueger great minds move in groups.😉
Fantastic video! Douglas Fir has always been a favorite of mine, especially when I can find boards with a really tight grain structure, even more so if the ring cross section is wavy or jagged - it produces an exquisite flame pattern when ripped.
Again, fantastic video! I can't wait for more!
Woods I’ve been around most of my life...Sitka Spruce, Yellow Cedar, White Paper Birch, Diamond Willow.
Well done - simple - yet packed with knowledgeable information. When I started 40 years ago it was all trial and error!
Becksvoort's book is amazing. And he did all the drawings too. If you ever want a chance to talk to him, he's often at the Lie Nielsen open houses in Warren, Maine, in July.
Do you follow him on Instagram? The man is a master.
@@RexKrueger I'm not a huge fan of Instagram, but maybe following him would be a reason to sign up. If you've never been to Maine, the woodworking culture up there is second to none. Lie Nielsen isn't out of place. There are lots of very impressive woodworking operations up there. Lookup the Carpenters Boat Shop, for example. It's a whole culture that doesn't exist elsewhere. And the pie in the summer is incredible.
I love to turn cherry. I have made many bowls, candlesticks, and salt and pepper shakers out of it. It turns easily and gives a fine finish.
Rex! Been watching your videos for quite some time now, but apparently I had no idea you were a fellow Cleveland-er! This was the perfect video for my wife and I since we are in the area and can relate so closely to everything in this video. We recently purchased a home with a decent amount of wooded land and this is exactly what I needed to give me some confidence in my future endeavors. Thanks for the great content and quality videos!
So glad I could help! Congrats on the new house. It's a big accomplishment.
I love working with African hardwoods like Wenge. Unfortunately, my wallet and tools beg to differ.
Beech? First wood that comes to mind for furniture structure, legs etc. Really interesting video by the way.
I love beech, but I just don't get a ton of it.
I'm in the Pacific Northwest so softwoods I favor are Western Red Cedar and the ubiquitous Douglas Fir...and yes, reclaimed old-growth Doug Fir can be very hard indeed. Easy hardwood is red alder and apple wood. Tough hardwood is madrona (arbutus menziesii), a dense pale wood that works fairly well. Exotic woods...I like jatoba. Very hard, tough and heavy, turns well but blunts tools quickly, takes a very nice finish, not too expensive.
Very informative video! I've never paid much attention to the whole "ring porous" thing, but it makes a lot of sense when you explain it like that.
Also: for woodturners, lots of the ornamental trees (like dogwood and Bradford pear) are great for turning. Best thing is, after a storm you can often get the wood for the cost of cutting it up and hauling it off. Just drive around and look for a downed tree in someone's yard - I have yet to have anyone turn me down when I offer to haul it away. Just cut it up in sections that would work well on the lathe, pile it in your pickup, then slap some latex paint on the endgrain and let it sit for a couple years. Perfect turning wood for the cost of an afternoon's work, a couple bucks worth of chainsaw gas, and some leftover paint!
My favorite wood is quarter sawn sycamore. It doesn't stain well at all and I've never thought about dying it but I'm sure going to fool around with it.
Actually, I really like that title! Great video!
Rex, I love the machinists vise in your shop. I also love your story telling and historical deep dives. Tell us about your vise.
It belonged to my grandfather who was a master tool and die maker. He emigrated from Germany in 1904 and began his apprenticeship in 1914 at the age of 14. My father gave me the vise about 5 years ago.
Great instructional, thank you! Two types of wood in my shop... construction lumber and found...love the one you're with :-)
@Rex Krueger would you consider making a video about wood purchasing for beginners? I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.
That one's tough because it varries depending on where you live. I want to, but it's difficult.
@@RexKrueger How do we learn to learn in our area, then? I'm so stupid I don't even know the questions to ask.
Excellent and realistic approach!
Great info! I may not have access to many of the woods you've mentioned (I live in a tropical country) but the information about the grain and the density is applicable to any wood and definitely is something new to me, I'll check my local lumber yard.
Great video - very educational. In the video you showed an example of a vase you made with an 'epoxy finish'. You may want to make a video on what an epoxy finish is and how to do it. BTW, all the examples of your projects are beautiful.
Michael from Canada
You're very kind, my Northern brother!
While building houses, we used cottonwood in place of poplar for exposed stair stringers, risers, and a few other details. Cottonwood is a nice stable wood with almost no mineral streaks like poplar. It is smooth grain and very uniform color throughout. Seldom any knots. Cottonwood takes paint well but can be a bit boring when stained.
Dude, having something akin to a "monthly-breakdown" of proper wood selection and usage for the PREVIOUS month of videos would be some awesome content !
Simple, to the point and, most importantly, functional! Wood selection is a huge topic as you said and I really like how present it in terms of practicallity. Love your videos!
Champion effort Rex! Keep up the good work
Best video on the subject ever. This really opened up a new area for me. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
I feel like the example piece at the end went a long way to explaining the selection process and making it accessible for an international audience. We don't have the same woods here but the intended properties for each member are still going to be the same and learning that is far more useful than a crib sheet of woods I don't have access to.