Lumber

Here you’ll discover tips and advice to help you choose and understand a wide range of woodworking materials, including lumber, furniture hardware, woodworking hand tools, power tools, and supplies of all kinds. A collection of woodworking articles, videos and blog entries, you’ll learn how to choose the best boards both on the racks at the lumber yard and then how best to select grain so that it enhances your furniture. You’ll also beef up your knowledge on the latest tool steels and learn which sandpaper lasts longest.

The Way Wood Works

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by Nick Engler Wood is a cantankerous substance; there’s no two ways about it. Its virtues, of course, are legendary. It’s attractive, abundant and easy to work. Pound for pound, it’s stronger than steel. If properly finished and cared for it will last indefinitely. But none of that makes up for...

grain direction

Understanding Grain Direction

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I often tell people that the grain direction in a board is like the fur on a cat. Stroke the cat (or board) one way and the cat will purr, and your tool will produce a nice surface. Stroke the cat (or board) the wrong way, however, and the cat will...

How Quartersawn White Oak is Sawn

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Most woodworkers have an idea of what quartersawn wood is. The accepted definition is that the growth rings are between 60° and 90° to the wide face of the board. In some species, notably white oak, this exposes the medullary rays and changes the figure from “that’s nice” to WOW!” Where...

How to Calculate Wood Shrinkage and Expansion

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Wood movement can ruin a seemingly well-constructed project. Luckily getting ahead of the material and calculating wood shrinkage and expansion is fairly easy – all you need to do is multiply three numbers together. Here’s how to find them. Step 1: Measure the board’s width. ● Know that wider boards expand...

How I Buy Wood & Why I’m Weird

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Compared to many of my woodworking friends, I buy wood and treat it a little differently than most. Many of my friends have a significant stock of lumber on hand, from a garage-full to a few barn-fulls. When they find good lumber, they buy it. In many ways, this is an...

Quartersawn Animation

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Quartersawn white oak is one of my favorite woods, and we’re fortunate in Cincinnati that the largest source for this wood in North America is just a couple hours away. Frank Miller Lumber in Union City, Indiana has been producing this wood for more than one hundred years, and it’s worth...