Favorite/Least Favorite Wood?

My favorites would be cherry and maple. And my least favorite is pine.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

My Favorite is Pine HAHA

My least Favorite is Pine.

-- San Diego, CA US Navy

Oak and Babinga…no pine

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas

Favorite: Cherry

Least: Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings)

-- http://www.federalsaw.com

i also like babinga

White oak and Walnut. I hate Fir

-- Gene

My favs…maple, walnut, cherry, bubinga, purpleheart, yellowheart, mahogany, hickory, vertical grain fir, red oak, quarter sawn white oak, canary, redwood

My least favs….pine pine pine pine pine pine pine…oh and pine especially with a generous blotchy coating of dark stain to make it look like a better wood. The only time I would give pine any sort of props at all would be some nice knotty pine tounge and groove boards on the walls and/or ceilings of a timber frame house….thats it

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

My favs are rosewood and ebony, as its alot here and the figures,i dont like pine

-- http://picasaweb.google.com/deniirawan66

Favorite?....ha!...so many nice woods…..but I think I love Black Walnut.
Less Favorite?........MDF…..I hate it!

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

Swiss Pear is a fantastic wood but too expensive for me to use for furniture.

Mahogany is my wood of choice for furniture.

All exotics are nice.

The only pine or softwood I ever use is Southern Yellow Pine. (Except for special purposes)

I don’t like oak. Nothing personal, I just don’t like the coarse grain.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

I like Cherry, Maple – especially Ambrosia Maple for the rich colors. Walnut is a nice regal wood. I really don’t like softwoods, White Pine is not too bad because it doesn’t have the pitch like other pines.

I love a lot of veneers, but am especially fond of any figured and colorful woods. The uniqueness the better.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Pine really isn’t that bad… I guess you just have to take a few more steps to get a decent finish :)

-- San Diego, CA US Navy

Tiger Maple & Walnut for me.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

definitely yellow cedar, and pacific yew. for me they are local, rare, and behave well for my hand tools.
they also smell wonderful when worked.

-- Junior -Quality is never an accident-it is the reward for the effort involved.

California black walnut and maple. Hate chinese plywood

-- My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist....medic20447@gmail.com

Favorite wood – Free
Least favorite wood depends on price

-- If at first you don't succeed...Don't try skydiving

I agree with bowyer…. Favorite wood Pallett Wood (it’s free for me)

Least favorite….The one that kicked back on the saw! haha

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Favorite. White Oak

Least: Red Oak.

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

My favorite/s have to be walnut/cherry/figured maple. My least favorite? I’m a woodworker, and I like ALL types of wood! Real wood that is, I’m not even getting into a plywood rant…...

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

Every hardwood,noooooooooo pine of any kind(here in peru they think pine is better than mahogany)lol

-- peruturner,lima peru

Black walnut and Honeylocust, together in the same project! Or Elm because people tell you about that junk wood and then tell you how nice something you have made looks and wonder what its made of….................................... Could it be Elm?? haha

-- There is no such thing as scrap wood! Rastus NE www.nativelumber.net

Have you guys ever even looked at Pine? Some of the most beautiful grain is pine. It is a very renewable resource. Folks go Eco-crazy and import Bamboo from the other side of the world when Pine grows right in our back yard. The herd instinct says Pine is “cheap”. When the interior designers decide Pine is in again you will all love it. Just like you did Oak. Nothing smells better than a fresh cut pine board. If Pine was running $7.50 a board foot we’d all be praising it. Don’t know how to finish it? Or how to deal with it’s softness? Does it dent on you? That didn’t seem to bother Krenov or many other masters.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Well, it all depends….

I do a lot in maple—spalted, birds eye, tiger….I like purpleheart because it mills well and tastefully done is a great for an accent.

The worst—pine & fir.

-- If she asks please tell my wife that I can sell my tools for what I paid, okay?

Right on Dennis. Dead on about the interior design crowd. Some of this “eco-crazy” stuff has one of my local customers using a board product made out of sunflower seed husks.

-- http://www.federalsaw.com

I screwed up and bought some Cottonwood once. The stuff has zero grain character and bowed like a leafspring when ripped on the table saw.

-- miles125, Alabama.."Architecture is frozen music""

Black Walnut for the workability and Paduak for the smell when cut. Cedar for the smell too!

i love pine, if it;s 200 years old,, snake wood, osage, purple heart walnut pecan maple burbinga..

i hate wood that is not in my shop

-- It's not a sickness, i can stop buying tools anytime.

Well, I’d say my favorite woods that I’ve actually worked with is bubinga, wenge, padauk (padauk kills my lungs), claro walnut, mahogany, cherry, cocobolo, etc. My favorite wood of all time, that I haven’t been able to afford would be Ziricote. The wood is amazing. On that note, I also like Macassar Ebony.
I use Alder for all of my general cabinetry. I think quarter sawn white oak looks good on mission furniture, however, that style is not my style so the oak family is at the bottom of my list. These are just the woods that are affordable (although wenge is out of the budget there was a time when I could get it) that I enjoy working. I like to carve Maple, Mahogany, and Walnut. I simply enjoy material, so long as it’s not oak.

Now, for the pine. I think it’s in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone will like it, but there are cases where it looks good.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

thats some nice pine!

when you guys all say that pine is cheap, what are you referring to? pine at my local hardwood dealer is about the same price as other more usual woods like poplar, red oak… are getting your pine from dimensional lumber?

Wood is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Or something. Favorites are cypress for softwoods, cherry for hardwoods. Not especially fond of tulip poplar’s look or mortising in fir. Pine is OK by me. Oh Alaskan yellow cedar is wonderful stuff, if a bit expensive. Dovetailing oak can be a bit nerve wracking due to its lovely habit of splitting off a bit of that tail you just cut.

-- Ooo, er.

Didn’t know there was so much dislike for pine. Crazy. It’s easy to work, relatively dimensionally stable, has pretty grain. Sure, it doesn’t stain easily, but neither do some other more popular woods … like my favorite: maple, which has beautiful but subtle grain patterns, amazing variety, is predictable, stable, hard.

Least favorite would be poplar (which doesn’t stain well, either) – boring grain, weird colors, stinky … and worst, it is not stable.

-- http://www.north40custom.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

I like working with the hard exotics, like purple heart and padouk. but my favorites and most used are walnut and Birdseye maple together. Don’t like working with pine at all, with its mixed soft and hard grains and stickyassed sap! I don’t use stains, I use wood to match the desired color of what I want to make. I say what I want to make because I don’t use plans or requests for what I build. LOL

-- Dan-- Info for all @ http://www.hoistman.com

i actually think poplar smells pretty good… although when a whole classroom full of people are working with it, it can get annoying

That’s a tough question. I could never pick a favorite, too many. For great smell , aromatic Cedar. Least favorite, (which I realize is odd) is Oak. From cutting it, sanding, shaping, and the smell, I just do not care for it.

-- Allison, Northeastern Ca. Remember, Amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic!

Lots of the same answers here…but no one’s claimed Mulberry yet. Neat stuff; unique color and interesting grain.

-- "We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act but a habit." ---Aristotle

fav. is Cherry, Maple (love that elegant grain), and mahogany (love that smell),

not a big fan of Oak… just don’t care much for the look.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

No. 1 Blkcherry , No. 2 Blkcherry thanks for asking ….Blkcherry

Strike oak. After working with it a lot, it gets old. it’s… ok

I like the figured maples,Cherry’s, and walnut but mostly the kind of wood that comes from trees LOL

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

man i cant believe how many of you dissed the pine…yea i know its soft…sometimes can be pitchy..but there is some beautiful pine out there that has a place…like the cabinets shown here..those are great….well i know there all opinions…i for one will stick up for the pine…i have beautiful pine floors in my home..and they are holding up just great…I’m pretty rustic….so that is that….the rest of my home is done in antique heart pine..which is a hard wood..not in the sense of species…but its rated almost as hard as oak..

-- The Grizzone

hey i think particle board is selling at woodcraft for 12.50 a bf…...now don’t everybody head there all at once…..its such a multi colored wood…..with grain patterns that are just unbelievable…

-- The Grizzone

Walnut and… apple tree ;P ofc. ive only used apple on a lathe, but it is awesome

I do not like scots pine, not even if its painted and you cant see what it is! =/
Dont like oak very much either

-- My signature is awesome.

Heah in Maine we have 75 foot white pine trees in every back yard. We’d burn the stuff but it goes up like paper. So, we burn.. tons of red oak. Go figure.

We all grew up with pine boards, pine cabinets, pine walls sometimes. When someone want’s some pine kitchen cabinets I think, cheap, soft and easily dented, knotty, and short lived. It’s all perception I guess.

But, i do love the “kings masts” as they are called here in the state. But only as trees.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

what about huon pine?

Huon pine is one of the slowest-growing and longest-living plants in the world. It can grow to an age of 3,000 years or more. Only the bristle-cone pine of North America lives longer.
Huon pine is found in western Tasmania (not far from Strahan), on the Central Plateau and in the Huon Valley.

Today, the tree is wholly protected and cannot be felled. However, wood on the forest floor, or buried in river beds, remains usable after hundreds of years and is still prized by modern woodworkers.

-- BRODY. NSW AUSTRALIA -arguments with turnings are rarely productive-

Can’t afforf the exotics in quantity, so Walnut is my favorite wood I actually use (Love he few board feet of cocobolo I’ve played with.) Of course, no one really loves pine, so to be different, I don’t care for cedar much. It has it’s uses, but apart from some outdoor things and box lining, I don’t like it. Covers my shop in red dust and splits like no other. Sap and Heart are contrasting. It is cheap though!

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Cherry & walnut are my favorites; maple, alder, and q/s white oak are among my favorites as well. I love the look of VG fir, but hate to work it because the corners splinter so badly.

Of all woods I have ever worked I would say my least favorite is red oak. I absolutely hate the wide, open grain. And, it smells putrid. It reminds me of bad 70’s and 80’s furniture and cabinets, and walls and walls of terrible looking paneling. GET IT AWAY FROM ME!!!

-- Jarrod, Taos, NM http://jzmurphree.wordpress.com/

I’ll take mesquite any day.

-- Al, South E. Az., But it's a dry heat.

huon pine bowl-

http://www.steveusher.com.au/images/1670%20Huon%20Pine%20(Lagarostrobos%20franklinii)%20195mmx75mm%20$65.JPG

-- BRODY. NSW AUSTRALIA -arguments with turnings are rarely productive-

I like mostly whatever hardwoods I can get a hold of at a price I can afford.

I don’t usually like pine much because of its coarse grain which obscures construction details, and the fact that it darkens with age. However, in defense of pine I would say that tight grained old growth pine can be nice. You just can’t hardly find it! In Norway most of the old growth pine was gone by the 1890s, used for fencing on farms. Old growth pine was so tight ringed it was widely used by wood carvers. In the old days harvested pine was laid in fast running streams for a time to wash out the sap before use (not for boat building). Most of the wooden ships built in Norway through the eons were carefully selected pine and they held up extremely well over long periods of time.

-- Mike, American in Norway

What are we building? <g> I’m not sure I have a fave or any that I hate. I’ve worked with many domestics and mahogany, but I haven’t worked with many true exotics.

It seems that every wood has a personality that we need to address. Some don’t work under certain finishes, some need sleds, zero clearance inserts, and backer boards to prevent splintered ends, still others hate thickness planers and power jointers, some burn if a cutter is turning the wrong speed and out feer rate is off, still others are PITA during hand work…

I think pine gets a bad rap, mainly due to bad finishes. I really like nice pine for certain looks, as well as clear stock for drawer sides to be left unfinished. Pine looks absolutely awful stained dark walnut, but can look really sweet under orange shellac on the right item.

I hear Jarrod about the crazy red oak grain. I prefer to work with rift or QS red oak, leaving the cathedrals for panels. Bad pigment stain jobs and use of plywood in inappropriate places can also accentuate the bad red oak look! A simple ambering clear finish or simple dye can tone down the figure.

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