Selecting the Right Wood for Your Project

When beginning a project, we frequently select woods based upon their appearance and availability in our area. However, in many situations, it is equally important to also select a species based upon their woodworking characteristics. Every species is not appropriate for every application, and in certain situations require special care in order to use.

I have made some wood selection blunders in the past, and it would have (for example) been nice to know in advance that bloodwood is supposedly toxic before I chose not to wear a mask. It would have also been nice to know that holly and ebony (while they produce a nice contrast) do not glue well together. Eric could have benefited from the fact that bocote tends to shrink/warp before using it for his spline box, and I am sure that Scott would have liked to know that cocobolo can produce allergic reactions before he bought a lot of his stock.

Also some woods require special attention to saw blades before being milled due to gooey carbon buildup, or splinter easily and require special blades or techniques. In my opinion, there are no bad woods, only bad choices of application, combinations, and cutting techniques. This is a place to share our experience with particular woods and techniques for working it.

I recommend using ?bullet point? format for each wood type to make it easier for us to research later on with the forum search feature. I will add my own list later today (and it will be a long list as I have much to say), but though I would give you guys a head start.