The hardness or softness of woods is something most woodworkers need to know at some time or another. Thankfully the flooring industry (where hardness is crucial) has taken the time to test and rate most of the woods available around the world for their hardness.
As a woodworker, sometimes I am involved in building a particular project and would like to know the hardness of different woods I may be contemplating. For example, anyone who make musical instruments like guitars, banjos or Ukeleles, need to know the hardness of woods for the necks of these instruments as well as the finger boards.
In making guitars and banjos the necks can be made of many different materials ranging from mahoganies to hard maples but in most cases the finger boards are made of Rosewood. Knowing the hardness of these woods can help the woodworker select other woods that may also be suitable for the job. Or if you are looking for something that needs be hard wearing or soft wearing, it's sometimes necessary to know the hardness. If you are one of those woodworkers how likes to make their own wooden hinges and clasps for a project, harder woods are needed.
Carvers on the other hand are often looking for woods that are softer for carving. Knowing what woods are softer can help them determine what woods they might want to carve. Not every carver wants to carve the softest woods, sometimes picking a particular wood is a necesseity depending on what a client might want, so READ MORE to see the actual hardness scales of some selected woods. If you need more, please search for the Janka Hardness Scale.
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The table below provides laboratory values for several
properties of wood that are associated with wood strength. Note that due to inadequacies
of samples, these values may not necessarily represent average characteristics
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 Once the tree has been cut, the question of what to do with it becomes important. Anyone who enjoys woodworking yearns for more and more wood, and the last thing they want to see is a tree that is cut up and used for cooking or heating. We all know that this is inevitable in some situations, but we still try to rescue some trees for longer uses such as in furniture, turned bowls, carved items, and a variety of other woodworked items.
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 Chart can be viewed HERE
Read 1840 times.
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 Firsts and Seconds (FAS)The best and most expensive grade. Boards 6" and wider, 8' and longer. Yields 83-1/3 percent of clear face cuttings with minimum sizes of 4" x 5', or 3" x 7'. Suitable for fine furniture, cabinetry and applications where clear, wide boards are needed. Selects
Face side is FAS, back side is No. 1 Common. Boards are 4" and wider , 6' and longer. Yields 83-1/3 percent clear face cuttings with minimum sizes of 4" x 5', or 3" x 7'. A cost effective substitute for FAS when only one good face is required. No. 1 Common
A typical thrift or "shop" grade. Boards are 3" and wider, 4' and longer. Yields 66-2/3 percent clear face cuttings with minimum sizes of 4" x 2', or 3" x 3'. Provides good value, especially if relatively small pieces can be used.
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 Anyone involved in woodworking knows that quality takes time. The same thing true of drying the wood we use. Drying wood quickly is great for lumber in house and commercial construction projects, but not so great for lumber for fine woodworking.
The reason for drying wood is to produce a stable wood, with reduced cracking, and increased strength. The problem with drying wood is that it "moves", that is it warps, twists, bends and generally wants to contort in anything but a straight piece of wood, and each species has it's own unique characteristics.
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 How often have you cut off a strip of wood and found that is warped or twisted since being cut? Is this the most frustrating thing in the world other than getting a speeding ticket? Sometimes you can watch the board warp as you cut it because it starts pinching your sawblade or veers away from the blade. This condtion is called "wood reaction".
According to research, wood reaction is caused by the lean of a tree, and the most affected "reaction wood" is that which is formed in the compression side of the tree. Wood as a bit of a quirky charcteristic, it will not stretch but it will compress. Compressed wood tends to be brittle, dense and hard, and because of these traits it is more likely to crack using nails and screws.
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 "Underwater logging is nothing new, but Triton Logging adds a whole new dimension to the term. Many of us in the woodworking community are familiar with the fact that trees that float in water for long periods of time become water-logged and sink to the bottom, and some people have found ways to recover these trees, dry them out and turn them into lumber.
Now I want you to think about this ... according to some sources there are over 45,000 large and 800,000 small dams world-wide. In order to create these dams it is estimated that over 2 million high quality trees have been flooded with no possible way of harvesting this otherwise lost resource. Enter Triton Logging and their solution."
To read the full article , click "read more" below.
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 The moisture content of wood is a topic that many woodworkers don't know a lot about. Most assume that if they are working with kiln dried wood that came from a wood supplier somewhere in their area that the moisture content of the wood is around 6%, which it probably is, or at least was at some point. A moisture content of 6% is said to be "ideal" for furniture and most other woodworking projects. Ah ... not necessarily so.
First of all a question. What is the ideal moisture content for hardwoods for woodworking projects?
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Purchasing wood can get very expensive and if you are not sure what you are buying it can be more than a bit intimidating. When you are standing in front of thousands of board feet of wood, all priced differently and you don't know exactly what to choose, this should be your clue it's time to understand wood cuts. Wouldn't it be nice to walk in to your lumber store and know what kinds of boards you need before you arrive, or at least have some idea of the different cuts and why they differ. Here is you will find these answers.
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Even though wood has been around as a building product for millions of years, it remains one of the most complex building products due to it inherent properties. THe more you learn about wood the more there is know, and when you are a woodworker, understanding your building medium will put you miles ahead in saved time, costs and satisfaction with your projects. Have you ever wondered why some of your woodworking projects buckle, bend or crack? Well, the answer may be the way it was built, or it could have been the "cut" of wood you used. This article will attempt to help explain some of the charcteristics of wood to help you make some better choices in selectinb your building materials and assembling your products. Click below to read more ...
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Woodwork Topics 
