Identification Of Wood
This is a list of furniture types. Furniture includes objects such as tables, chairs, beds, desks, dressers, or cupboards. These objects are usually kept in a house or other building to make it suitable or comfortable for living or working in.
Three Ways to Identify the Type of Wood Your Furniture is Made of :
It’s one of the most common questions we get from buyers, but only about half our clients know. There are 3 key aspects to look at when making your assessment, and every single one of them necessary to help you make an accurate call.
1. The Basics: Hardwood, Softwood, or Neither?
There are two general types of wood: solid wood and veneer.
Solid wood can be further categorized into two types: hardwood and softwood.
As you can probably guess, hardwoods are dense and therefore, with few exceptions, true to their name—hard. Softwoods, on the other hand, tend to be more supple.
Veneer, on the other hand, is a thin piece of solid wood that’s bonded to less valuable wood or particle board. It looks nice, but is typically much cheaper.
To determine if it’s veneer, look at the edges of the piece. If you see a seam on the edge of the item or a grain pattern that is repeating identically across
the surface of the entire piece, it is veneered; if not, it is solid wood.
Once you know it’s solid wood, determining which kind is relatively simple.
If it leaves an indentation, you have softwood, potentially pine, cedar,
If it doesn’t you have hardwood, potentially maple, birch, hickory, mahogany, walnut, cherry, oak, or a host of others.
2. Go Straight to the Source
All woods are not created equal. For example, from our experience, a teak dresser will sell for 75%-100% more than one made of oak. For that reason, knowing the purchase price can inform which type of wood it is.
More expensive types of wood include: mahogany, teak, cherry, rosewood, walnut. Less valuable ones include elm, pine, oak, maple, and spruce.
Age can also be a good indicator. Historically, as the popular woods began to become scarcer due to high demand and low supply, manufacturers switched to more readily available and cheap woods such as pine or spruce.
These woods are therefore not found in older furniture, but are found aplenty in furniture made from the beginning of the 20th century. In contrast, woods such as rosewood, ebony, or yew are typically only found in antique furniture.
3. Singing in the (G)rain — in Color
If the results of the fingernail test weren’t conclusive for you, the grain pattern found on pieces of wood is another method of determining if it is hardwood or softwood.
Visible pores are only found in hardwoods; therefore, if your piece of wood has pores, it must be a hardwood. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that if it does not have pores, it’s softwood.
The roughness of the wood can be an excellent indicator as well. Oak, walnut, ash, mahogany, rosewood, elm, and teak are all open-grained
woods, which causes their texture to be rough. Beech, birch, maple, cherry, satinwood, gum, and poplar are closed-grained woods, and are therefore naturally smooth.
Different types of woods have different grain patterns too: defined or subdued, straight or swirled, with or without eyes, and more. Woods with distinctive patterns are usually more valuable than woods with subdued or indistinct patterns.
The color of a piece of wood, only if it’s unstained, can also be a gauge of its type. See below for a list of popular furniture wood types with photos to help you match up the color and grain pattern with the piece you’d like to sell.
See this webpage for excellent photos and descriptions of other furniture woods not specifically pictured or mentioned above.
With these tools in mind, you’ll hopefully be able to make a decisive assessment, or at least a pretty solid educated guess, of what type of wood you’re looking at in your item.
We know how tricky it can be, however, so if you still need more help, check out this website for more in depth tips and tricks (we definitely did!). For more guides and pictures of the most commonly used furniture-specific woods.
Comparison of different clear finishes
Clear finishes are intended to make wood look good and meet the demands to be placed on the finish. Choosing a clear finish for wood involves trade-offs between appearance, protection, durability, safety, requirements for cleaning, and ease of application. The following table compares the characteristics of different clear finishes. 'Rubbing qualities' indicates the ease with which a finish can be manipulated to deliver the finish desired. Shellac should be considered in two different ways. It is used as a finish and as a way to manipulate the wood's ability to absorb other finishes by thinning it with denatured alcohol. The alcohol evaporates almost immediately to yield a finish that is completely safe but shellac will attach itself to virtually any surface, even glass, and virtually any other finish can be used over it.
This is a list of furniture types. Furniture includes objects such as tables, chairs, beds, desks, dressers, or cupboards. These objects are usually kept in a house or other building to make it suitable or comfortable for living or working in.
Three Ways to Identify the Type of Wood Your Furniture is Made of :
It’s one of the most common questions we get from buyers, but only about half our clients know. There are 3 key aspects to look at when making your assessment, and every single one of them necessary to help you make an accurate call.
1. The Basics: Hardwood, Softwood, or Neither?
There are two general types of wood: solid wood and veneer.
Solid wood can be further categorized into two types: hardwood and softwood.
As you can probably guess, hardwoods are dense and therefore, with few exceptions, true to their name—hard. Softwoods, on the other hand, tend to be more supple.
Veneer, on the other hand, is a thin piece of solid wood that’s bonded to less valuable wood or particle board. It looks nice, but is typically much cheaper.
To determine if it’s veneer, look at the edges of the piece. If you see a seam on the edge of the item or a grain pattern that is repeating identically across
the surface of the entire piece, it is veneered; if not, it is solid wood.
Once you know it’s solid wood, determining which kind is relatively simple.
If it leaves an indentation, you have softwood, potentially pine, cedar,
If it doesn’t you have hardwood, potentially maple, birch, hickory, mahogany, walnut, cherry, oak, or a host of others.
2. Go Straight to the Source
All woods are not created equal. For example, from our experience, a teak dresser will sell for 75%-100% more than one made of oak. For that reason, knowing the purchase price can inform which type of wood it is.
More expensive types of wood include: mahogany, teak, cherry, rosewood, walnut. Less valuable ones include elm, pine, oak, maple, and spruce.
Age can also be a good indicator. Historically, as the popular woods began to become scarcer due to high demand and low supply, manufacturers switched to more readily available and cheap woods such as pine or spruce.
These woods are therefore not found in older furniture, but are found aplenty in furniture made from the beginning of the 20th century. In contrast, woods such as rosewood, ebony, or yew are typically only found in antique furniture.
3. Singing in the (G)rain — in Color
If the results of the fingernail test weren’t conclusive for you, the grain pattern found on pieces of wood is another method of determining if it is hardwood or softwood.
Visible pores are only found in hardwoods; therefore, if your piece of wood has pores, it must be a hardwood. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that if it does not have pores, it’s softwood.
The roughness of the wood can be an excellent indicator as well. Oak, walnut, ash, mahogany, rosewood, elm, and teak are all open-grained
woods, which causes their texture to be rough. Beech, birch, maple, cherry, satinwood, gum, and poplar are closed-grained woods, and are therefore naturally smooth.
Different types of woods have different grain patterns too: defined or subdued, straight or swirled, with or without eyes, and more. Woods with distinctive patterns are usually more valuable than woods with subdued or indistinct patterns.
The color of a piece of wood, only if it’s unstained, can also be a gauge of its type. See below for a list of popular furniture wood types with photos to help you match up the color and grain pattern with the piece you’d like to sell.
See this webpage for excellent photos and descriptions of other furniture woods not specifically pictured or mentioned above.
With these tools in mind, you’ll hopefully be able to make a decisive assessment, or at least a pretty solid educated guess, of what type of wood you’re looking at in your item.
We know how tricky it can be, however, so if you still need more help, check out this website for more in depth tips and tricks (we definitely did!). For more guides and pictures of the most commonly used furniture-specific woods.
Comparison of different clear finishes
Clear finishes are intended to make wood look good and meet the demands to be placed on the finish. Choosing a clear finish for wood involves trade-offs between appearance, protection, durability, safety, requirements for cleaning, and ease of application. The following table compares the characteristics of different clear finishes. 'Rubbing qualities' indicates the ease with which a finish can be manipulated to deliver the finish desired. Shellac should be considered in two different ways. It is used as a finish and as a way to manipulate the wood's ability to absorb other finishes by thinning it with denatured alcohol. The alcohol evaporates almost immediately to yield a finish that is completely safe but shellac will attach itself to virtually any surface, even glass, and virtually any other finish can be used over it.