Investigating Your Furniture’s Wood Identity?

If you’ve read my Ultimate Guide on Identifying Wood Types in Furniture, then you know…

Actually identifying a piece’s wood type based on reading some descriptions is just plain hard.

There are so many wood types. So many wood species and genera etc., etc…

So many in fact…

That it is next to impossible to be 100%, matter-of-fact correct when identifying just a random wooden board you know nothing about.

But we aren’t just investigating a random wooden board, are we?

We’re investigating a wooden piece of furniture.

A lot of wood types don’t work for making furniture.

Most wood types don’t work for making furniture.

This narrows our playing field pretty immensely.

So if we narrow the wood types down to around 40 types commonly used in furniture making…

And then investigate our furniture’s wood identity using a strategy meant to narrow a random wooden board (we know nothing about) down to its closest wood genus possible…

Why can’t we be 100%, matter-of-fact correct on its wood identity?

I personally think…

that we can.

Grain – How Does It Work?

Each of the 38 possible wood types has been placed into groups. That group has then been separated into multiple small groups based on common characteristics, and so on.

You get to compare your furniture’s wood to each chapter’s dedicated characteristic– one at a time– highlighting and crossing out woods that are listed in each group.

You will be asked to choose certain grain patterns, colors, textures, and more that are most like the furniture piece you are trying to identify.

At the end of each chapter, there will be an answer key.

Depending on your choices, certain wood types will be either highlighted or crossed off of your list.

Yes, you may have to put in some work of your own here to figure your piece out– that includes a bit of math (don’t hate me). But hopefully narrowing your furniture piece’s wood type down will make it all worth it!

By the end of the workbook, your list should be under five wood types.

The real-world examples in the final chapter should help you with any confusion you have while narrowing the field. I’ll be updating this chapter periodically as more examples come in.

The final chapter contains a detailed explanation of each of the 39 wood types. Which possible color choices, grain patterns, etc., would have resulted in that particular wood?

Plus finishing tips, distinguishing features, common uses, and extra tidbits will help you become 100% comfortable with your final choice!

Eventually– if you’re like me and need to ID a new wood piece multiple times per week– you will commit these images and examples to memory and hone your skills for future investigations.

Why Purchase This Workbook?

• It’s more than just a workbook. It’s an incredible tool that will help you not only know the wood type of your furniture piece but also obtain the knowledge to identify any piece of furniture in the future.
• Every new wood ID teaches you something new about identifying it. I will update the workbook frequently to ensure it includes as many furniture wood types as possible.
• Once you purchase your workbook, it’s yours for life. Reprint and investigate over and over again for each of your furniture pieces!