{"id":704,"date":"2010-04-21T21:34:32","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T02:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=704"},"modified":"2013-04-19T23:24:53","modified_gmt":"2013-04-20T04:24:53","slug":"creating-a-work-in-wood-from-idea-to-finished-piece-4-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/21\/creating-a-work-in-wood-from-idea-to-finished-piece-4-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a work in wood – from idea to finished piece: 4. Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A design on paper or a monitor can never move us like the presence of the real object<\/strong>. It isn\u2019t a work in wood without the wood. Sometimes a special piece of wood is the genesis of a project, sometimes it follows the design, but either way, the choice of wood is never an afterthought<\/strong>. It goes hand in hand with the design.<\/p>\n

I never get past the first idea or sketch without considering what woods might bring them to life<\/strong>. Sensitivity to the wood is essential to creating compelling, personal woodwork. I believe that one reason that a lot of the furniture that comes from non-woodworker design “experts”\u00a0looks lifeless<\/strong> is that the wood is just “filled in,” like a color of paint.<\/p>\n

Unlike stone, clay, glass, or metal, wood carries the exciting variety of biology<\/strong> for us to behold and use! Practically, this requires that we understand and account for its properties, quirks, and even its mysteries<\/a>. The differences in choosing, for example, butternut versus bubinga will affect almost every aspect of a piece.<\/p>\n

Research as to the characteristics, limitations and potential problems of the wood may be necessary, especially if using an unfamiliar species. Here are a few helpful sources:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Understanding Wood<\/a><\/em> by Bruce Hoadley. If there is any one “must have” book for woodworkers, this is it.<\/p>\n

Wood Handbook\/Encyclopedia of Wood<\/em> from the Forest Products Laboratory. All 486 pages are available as a free pdf here<\/a>.\u00a0Click on “View” under “Wood handbook – All Chapters” for the 13.90 MB download. Also available from Lee Valley in printed form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wood<\/a><\/em> by Terry Porter. A beautiful compendium of pictures and descriptions of woods to whet your appetite.<\/p>\n

FPL Tech sheets<\/a>\u00a0Look on the right side of the page\u00a0for “Wood Properties (Techsheets).” Very helpful data such as\u00a0wood movement values for many species\u00a0.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul Hinds’ unbelievable website<\/a> with\u00a0a gazillion pictures of a zillion species of wood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Purdue Cooperative Extension site<\/a>\u00a0Select “Hardwood Lumber and Veneer Species” from the drop down list. Practical monographs on domestic species with helpful pictures\u00a0showing the range of quality and figure within each species.<\/p>\n

Most important, you\u2019ve got to get your hands on the particular wood you are planning to use, see how it works, moves, finishes, and watch and live with it a little while before using it in the project.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the mirror, the example piece for this series of posts,<\/strong> I wanted a densely figured wood that would look good in narrow widths. I held up some pieces next to the bathroom mirror: maple, other light woods, and walnut, just didn\u2019t give the look I wanted. The reddish color and swirly figure of waterfall bubinga<\/strong> were hits. I had false started with some figured makore<\/strong> only to find that I seemed to be sensitive to the dust and I wasn\u2019t as fond of the figure as I first thought. I also had to junk one of the pieces of bubinga that had some stresses in it. That\u2019s wood for you. I love this stuff.<\/p>\n

Next in the series: Researching <\/strong>the design and techniques.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A design on paper or a monitor can never move us like the presence of the real object. It isn\u2019t a work in wood without the wood. Sometimes a special piece of wood is the genesis of a project, sometimes it follows the design, but either way, the choice of wood is never an afterthought. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techniques","tag-creating-a-work-in-wood-from-idea-to-finished-piece"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2298,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/2298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}