Chris Collins

Tools · woodworking

Wood species

A searchable reference of 100+ hardwoods, softwoods and sheet goods — Janka hardness, density, radial, tangential and volumetric shrinkage, decay resistance, workability, gluing and finishing notes, health cautions, CITES and IUCN status, uses and substitutes — with a picker that ranks species for what you are making and a side-by-side comparison.

Added

Works with

How to use it

A workshop reference for choosing wood: the numbers that matter, what each species is like to work, and what to watch out for. Hardness and density follow the units shared with the other woodworking tools (lbf and lb/ft³, or newtons and kg/m³).

How to use it

  1. Reference. Search by common name, botanical name, other names or use (rosewood, Quercus, carving), filter by group, origin or use, and sort by any column. Click a species for its card: description, the numbers, decay resistance, workability, bending, turning and carving ratings, working, gluing and finishing notes, health cautions, trade status, typical uses and substitutes. Species that the wood movement tool knows open there with one click.

  2. Picker. Choose what you are making — cutting board, outdoor furniture, steam bending, bent lamination, turning, carving, flooring, instrument parts or indoor furniture — and any constraints: where it grows, leave out CITES-listed, threatened or sensitising species, favour stable or easy-to-work wood, or set a hardness limit. You get a ranked list with the reasons for and against each.

  3. Compare. Up to four species side by side, the best in each row highlighted, with bars for hardness, density, tangential shrinkage and stiffness.

Reading the numbers

  • Janka hardness — the force to press a 0.444" (11.3 mm) steel ball half its diameter into the side grain at 12% moisture content. A rough guide to dent resistance and how hard a wood is on tools.

  • Density — at 12% moisture content, from the specific gravity (oven-dry weight over volume at 12% MC) × 1.12.

  • Shrinkage — percentage change from green to oven-dry, radially (across the rings), tangentially (along them) and in volume. The T/R ratio shows how much a flatsawn board will cup: near 1 stays flat, above 2 cups readily. For movement in service, the wood movement tool uses the Handbook’s per-1%-MC coefficients.

  • Decay resistance of the heartwood, from the Wood Handbook’s classes (very resistant to slightly or not resistant). Sapwood of every species is perishable.

  • Ratings for bending, turning, carving and workability, and the notes, are my summaries of common workshop experience, not measurements.

Limits

  • Numbers are averages. Boards of one species differ by 10–20% or more; growth rate, provenance and moisture content all matter. Values for species the Wood Handbook does not tabulate (several European and tropical timbers) come from trade data and vary more; a dash means I found no figure I trusted.

  • Health notes are not exhaustive. Any fine wood dust is harmful; known sensitisers can cause reactions after repeated exposure even if the first contact did not.

  • Trade status changes. The CITES listings shown were in force in 2026 — check cites.org and your supplier’s paperwork before buying, and especially before crossing a border.

  • The picker scores are a starting point; price, availability and looks matter as much.

Sources: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook — Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-282, 2021), Tables 4-3 and 4-4 (shrinkage), 5-3 and 5-4 (specific gravity, hardness, MOE, MOR), 13-5 (dimensional-change coefficients) and chapter 14 (natural decay resistance); CITES Appendices (cites.org); IUCN Red List (iucnredlist.org); trade figures, e.g. the Wood Database (wood-database.com), for species the Handbook does not cover. Descriptions are my own.

Linking to an example

Share link copies a URL with your settings — for example ?species=cherry-black opens the reference at black cherry.

Parameter Meaning

species

Open this species' card, by id (e.g. walnut-black, oak-white, teak)

q, grp, org, use

Search text; group hd, sw, sheet; origin NA, EU, CSA, AF, AS, OC; use

sort, dir

Sort column (name, janka, density, radial, tangential, tr, rot) and 1 / -1

p, po

Picker purpose (board, outdoor, steam, lam, turn, carve, floor, instr, furn) and origin

cites, threat, sens, stable, easy, maxj

Picker constraints (1 / 0), maximum Janka in lbf

cmp

Species to compare, e.g. oak-red,oak-white

units

in (lbf, lb/ft³) or mm (N, kg/m³)

Presets (?example=<name>):

example= Shows

cutting-board

species for a cutting board, no sensitisers

outdoor-bench

an outdoor bench from North American species

steam-bending

the best woods for steam bending

turning-local

turning woods, avoiding CITES-listed and threatened species

oaks

red, white and European oak side by side

decking

decking timbers: ipe, cumaru, black locust and teak

walnut

black walnut in the reference

carving-soft

carving woods sorted by hardness

Runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type leaves this page.