Favourite / Least Favourite Native & Imported Woods

[Dr.Al]

I've been preparing a plank of my current least favourite native wood & have been reminding myself why it takes that crown. That got me thinking about different woods & piqued my curiosity, so...

Question: If you had to pick one native wood & one imported wood to use for everything, which would you choose (and why)? Similarly, if there was one native wood & one imported wood you'd be happy if you never used again, which would you pick (and why)?

I suspect the answers to these questions change over time, but at the moment I'd pick:

Favourites:

Native: Probably Sweet Chestnut - not too hard, not too soft, lovely to plane & chisel. Also cheap!

Imported: American Black Walnut - lovely to plane & chisel & smells heavenly.

The reason I said "probably" on Sweet Chestnut was that it was a toss-up between that and Sycamore (which isn't strictly native but close enough) but I think Chestnut is the winner for me.

Least Favourites:

Native: Ash - grain direction seems to change regularly along the length so it's a pain in the backside to plane smooth.

Imported: Padauk - grain direction changing every centimetre across the width so it's even more of a pain to plane.

From his recent thread, I'm guessing that @Woodbloke is going to choose Bubinga for the last entry, but perhaps I'll be wrong...

 

[Andy Kev.]

That's an interesting question. I recently made a new top for a garden table out of chestnut (don't know it if counted as sweet or not) and it was terribly prone to fracturing - I can think of no better term for it - in line with the grain. This meant I lost an estimated 10%+ of the wood. So I won't be using that again, unless I think it absolutely necessary.

I haven't come across an imported wood that I dislike although I do have a couple of pieces of rough zebrano that I have yet to plane. I don't know if it will be easy or difficult.

So favourites; Native Walnut and American Black Cherry.

Least favourites: Chestnut and I haven't really come across an imported one yet that I actively dislike. Some tulip wood can be frustrating if it doesn't want to be planed straight but I've never encountered enough of that for it to be decisive. Altogether, I think I've only used four imported woods: American Walnut, American Black Cherry, Tulip Wood, Mahogany.

 

[Mike G]

How far down the food chain do you want to go, Al? I mean, rubber wood, or eucalyptus, or some of the stuff from foreign pallets.......? No-one makes anything much with them, but they'd be far worse than bubinga or padauk to work with.

My favourite imported wood would be teak.

 

[AndyP]

That might depend on what I’m making.
Favourites:-
Nothing beats oak for tables and benches (for sitting on] but for smaller turned items yew has to be up there as a favourite too.
American black walnut I’ve used for toys and games and is also excellent.

Worst woods is harder as I have little or no experience with imported exotics.

 

[Doug]

Iroko is my least favourite imported timber to use, I don’t like the smell & the dust from it is vile, I’d rather turn down a job than use it.
Most favourite is Indian Rosewood closely followed by Lignum Vitae but there are so many beautiful tropical hardwoods.

Least favourite native wood is Oak simply because I tire of being asked to use it, it’s so nice to use something different.
Most favourite native wood thats difficult as I love Ash especially Olive Ash but also really like Sycamore, hornbeam & Holly.

 

[Malc2098]

Hmmm. Native, I'm going with Sycamore. The grain on the instruments I've made is stunning, and I do my best to show it off in my work.

Second, although I've not used it yet, but I do have a small stock, is London Plane from London and Hertfordshire. I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

Non native; I did find Purpleheart difficult to work, but perseverance paid off.

 

[Woodbloke]

This short clip from Rob Cosman is interesting, detailing ten of his least favourite woods:

Hmmm. Native, I'm going with Sycamore. The grain on the instruments I've made is stunning, and I do my best to show it off in my work.

Second, although I've not used it yet, but I do have a small stock, is London Plane from London and Hertfordshire. I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

Non native; I did find Purpleheart difficult to work, but perseverance paid off.

You may well be very disappointed with London Pane; it's soft and 'wooly' (for want of a better word). I thought it might be good stuff but I've ditched all my small bits of London Plane, apart from a large chunk of quarter sawn (830x140x43mm) stuff that you're welcome to if you fancy a drive to Salisbury - Rob

Edit - Most favourite could be Cocobolo as I have several thick chunks and one large board of the stuff. However as it's 69lbs/cu', is very difficult to glue and very oily, I will no doubt change my mind very rapidly once I start to use it...and no @Malc2098 they're not a freebie.

 

[Malc2098]

This short clip from Rob Cosman is interesting, detailing ten of his least favourite woods:

You may well be very disappointed with London Pane; it's soft and 'wooly' (for want of a better word). I thought it might be good stuff but I've ditched all my small bits of London Plane, apart from a large chunk of quarter sawn (830x140x43mm) stuff that you're welcome to if you fancy a drive to Salisbury - Rob

Thank you, Rob. I might just take you up on that.

 

[Woodbloke]

Thank you, Rob. I might just take you up on that.

You're more than welcome Malc - Rob

 

[SteveMP]

Great question!

Favorite native wood: black walnut. Easy to work with hand tools and i also love the smell. But has gotten really expensive here even though it is native due to its popularity in China

Favorite imported: mahogany, although the prices and quality vary dramatically. I think the African type is a good quality to cost where i live. Works well with hand tools and finishes beautifully.


Least favorite native: white pine. Too soft for most uses. Can dig your finger nail in and leave a deep scratch. It tends to have a lot of tension so when you cut it twists and warps. And even though it is soft, when you chisel it, it kind of “crumbles”.

Least favorite import: wenge. Got a splinter once and thought i was gonna have to rush to the hospital.


Notable other species of various rapport:

African bloodwood, super brittle, things just snap off when least expected.

Cocobolo, i like for turning but can be a beast to work with hand tools.

Bocote: turned this once into a wine stopper and my forearms started itching unbearably for hours.

 

[duke]

Favourite native wood is Cherry and Maple. Don't have a least favourite and no experience with exotic wood.

 

[Woodbloke]

As I'm at Yandles tomorrow I'll have to keep a look out for some of these woods, notably American Walnut (& Cherry), Brown Oak if they've got some (unlikely) and hard Maple which I've never seen there before - Rob

 

[TomTrees]

Free wood, or as close to it, is my fave...
though the iroko normally gets first preference (when in the skips.)

 

[thetyreman]

not a huge fan of american white oak, it doesn't work well with hand tools and when it has been kiln dried it's very hard to work, also don't like sapele much because of the reversing grain and I don't like the smell either.

My favourite woods are maple, cherry, walnut, ash, beech, ebony, rosewood, and even pine, yes pine.

 

[GaryR]

Hands down favourite domestic for furniture is American black cherry. Works wonderfully with hand and machine tools, finishes well, looks better as it ages. And relatively inexpensive here. I like walnut to work but I don't like that its colour tends to fade over time. I don't really have a favourite imported wood since I haven't used many but I do like European beech and the various flavors of mahogany. Least favorite: anything that can't easily be worked with hand tools.

 

[MattS]

I'm with you Al, favourite native is sweet chestnut not only as a wood but a tree. Gives us the wonderful chestnut and being from Sussex I love a coppice wood, nothing better.

Not native, certainly on the amount I have in the shop would be iroko, but only as a teak substitute for mid century furniture for our house.

 

[AJB Temple]

I like almost all woods. Wenge is spectacular as an import, (splinters not nice though) and I really like ebony. Maple as a contrast works beautifully. For furniture ABW. Teak for worktops and outdoor furniture.

Native - English oak every day. Then maybe yew, holly and boxwood.

Sorry Al - I know that's not 2.

 

[Woodbloke]

Home grown has to be English Walnut and imported would probably be Teak, though it's a bit difficult these days to get hold of the genuine article. Having never used it, I'll be interested to see what the American variety is like, having bought a few sticks:



...amongst a few other odds n'ends at Yandles this morning. The African Blackwood chunks in the foreground were £7.50 each, which is an absolute steal - Rob

 

[SteveMP]

Home grown has to be English Walnut and imported would probably be Teak, though it's a bit difficult these days to get hold of the genuine article. Having never used it, I'll be interested to see what the American variety is like, having bought a few sticks:

View attachment 58282

...amongst a few other odds n'ends at Yandles this morning. The African Blackwood chunks in the foreground were £7.50 each, which is an absolute steal - Rob

Have you ever used African Blackwood before? The piece i had was like iron!

 

[Dr.Al]

Hands down favourite domestic for furniture is American black cherry. Works wonderfully with hand and machine tools, finishes well, looks better as it ages. And relatively inexpensive here. I like walnut to work but I don't like that its colour tends to fade over time. I don't really have a favourite imported wood since I haven't used many but I do like European beech and the various flavors of mahogany. Least favorite: anything that can't easily be worked with hand tools.

I've heard black cherry is nice stuff. I've got a little bit of cherry (bought from Yandles in Martock if memory serves) but it didn't specify any more details on variety. I don't think I've ever seen anything this side of the pond being advertised as "black cherry".

Home grown has to be English Walnut. Having never used it, I'll be interested to see what the American variety is like, having bought a few sticks:

You won't regret that purchase: it's wonderful stuff. Make sure you breathe deeply through your nose after hand sawing or planing: it smells lovely.

 

[GaryR]

There are four North American cherries, but only black cherry (Prunus serotina) gets large enough to use for lumber so if you have cherry wood, it is black cherry. We also have chokecherry, Prunus virginiana, which is a nice tree but smaller and often shrubby. There are a couple others but they are also small and not widely distributed.

 

[Woodbloke]

Have you ever used African Blackwood before? The piece i had was like iron!

Most accent detail stuff on my projects (catches etc) is African Blackwood, which is easier to work if you treat it like metal so rather than use a chisel, I use a metalwork file; works a treat - Rob

 

[Trevanion]

Tricky, but fun question.

Favourites are harder to pick than least favourites, as there are usually very good reasons to dislike certain timbers.

My favourite native timber is Elm. I love the character in the boards, which stands out nicer than Oak in my opinion, and I've generally found it quite nice to work with. Unfortunately, it's not something I work with regularly, as it's hard to find now in decent sections, so quite expensive. I'd love to make a staircase from it one day.

My least favourite native timber is Beech, specifically Spalted Beech. I don't actually mind regular Beech, a lot of people find it bland, but I think it works in the right places and is somewhat underrated and quarter-sawn Beech can look very nice. However, I cannot abide Spalted Beech, which there was a craze some years ago for furniture made from it. It looks awful, it doesn't take a finish well which looks awful, it doesn't plane well and you end up with awful tear-out which looks awful, it smells dreadful, and because it's already partially or mostly rotted, it's far more susceptible to insect infestation.

My favourite imported timber has to be Scots Pine (I appreciate that this is also a native tree, but most commercial timber that you buy comes from Northern Europe), which will probably raise a couple of eyebrows. I just enjoy working with this timber; it's easy on the tools, it works nicely with machine or hand tools, it's reasonably inexpensive, and when you get some nice clear-grained stuff there's no nicer timber to work with, in my opinion, especially for linear moulding work. It obviously has its downsides in that it's pretty poor for external use, and often planks have heavy drying shakes which can run throughout.

My least favourite imported timber is American White Oak (closely followed by Iroko, as Doug). This stuff is just awful to work with, it is so ridiculously hard from being aggressively kiln-dried, and this also has other side effects like awful honeycomb shakes which don't manifest until you cut into a board, orange staining, and the pieces can be so full of tension that when ripping them down they can explode apart towards the end of the cut. Its only saving grace is that it is generally much clearer than European Oak and is usually available in much longer lengths.

 

[SteveMP]

Most accent detail stuff on my projects (catches etc) is African Blackwood, which is easier to work if you treat it like metal so rather than use a chisel, I use a metalwork file; works a treat - Rob

Makes sense. I only turned one piece on a lathe, one part kind of "shattered" off and forced me to change the shape of the bottle stopper i was making. I ended up resorting to using sandpaper while the lathe was on to shape the rest of it.