Choosing the Right Lumber for Your Indoor and Outdoor Projects
One of the first decisions to make when you first start woodworking is to figure out what kind of wood to use for your projects. There’s solid wood or plywood, softwood, hardwood, construction grade, domestic and exotic to choose from, of various thicknesses, widths, and lengths. Generally, hardwoods are used for indoor projects such as furniture, trim, cabinetry, and turnings. Softwoods or often used for building materials and outdoor furniture, benches, tree houses, and painted projects.
Solid Wood vs. plywood
Generally, solid wood is cut directly from a tree and doesn’t have any composite materials like MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) or fiberboard, nor any layers glued together like plywood. Solid wood will absorb and release moisture from the air throughout the year, so be sure to take that movement into account. The most widely available solid wood here in North Carolina is Pine which is most readily available as construction material. This is construction-grade lumber, and it can be found at almost any home center or lumber yard. You can get rough-sawn pine as most sawmills and here at Wild Edge Woodcraft at Serenity Meadows Farm in Rougemont, North Carolina.
Spruce, Pine, and Firs are conifer trees, which are trees that are generally evergreen and have a cone. Woods that come from conifer trees are known as softwoods. Without getting into details too much, not all softwoods are soft, and not hardwoods are hard, but generally, that’s the case. As a woodworker, the primary benefit of this construction-grade type of lumber is the price.
What is Kiln Dried – Heat Treated Lumber?
If you go to the construction-grade lumber route for your project, just make sure they are stamped KD or HT, or both. That means Kiln Dried – Heat Treated; all the pests have been killed, and the wood is dry to 18% MC. If you come across something that’s labeled AD (air dry) or SGRN (surface green) or something to that effect, that wood is still really wet. It would be better to stay away from it because it’s got a lot of shrinking to do as that water evaporates off, and that could cause you a problem in your project. Go with something that’s actually been kiln-dried because even though it probably has a little bit more drying to do, it’s not near as much as the wood that hasn’t been kiln-dried, and it’s going to move a lot less. You can read a detailed article about Wood Drying on our blog here.
What are Domestic and Exotic Hardwoods?
Deciduous trees are those trees that lose their leaves in the fall, and we call the wood from these trees hardwood. There are exceptions to this rule, but overall, hardwood is much denser than softwood. There are a huge variety of hardwoods, but generally, we can group them into two categories, domestic and exotic. Domestics are those that grow in our region; here in North Carolina, that includes Walnut, Cherry, Maple, Red Oak, White Oak, Sweetgum, Poplar, Beech, Hickory, Pecan, etc. Exotics are those that grow somewhere else and have to be imported into the US, such as Sapele, Teak, Mahogany, Purple Heart, etc. Your ability to find these woods depends on where you are. If you are looking for domestic hardwood, consider visiting our lumber mill. Wild Edge Woodcraft has a selection of different domestics.
What is Pressure-Treated Wood?
Most wood will degrade over time in the presence of water or ultraviolet sunlight. Moisture is another deadly threat to wood; it invites mold and wood-boring insects. Some of the most durable outdoor woods include Cedar, Cypress, White Oak, and Redwood. These species of lumber contain natural oils that resist fungus (rot) and help repel insects. Pressure-treated wood has been treated with chemicals to protect the wood from rot and insects and is good for outdoor construction projects - such as decks and gazebos. If painted, the wood will last for decades.
Which type of Wood is better for Painted Projects?
For painted projects, choose wood that has a smooth texture without a heavy grain pattern. Ideally, the lumber should sand and finish so smoothly that the grain entirely disappears. Good paint-grade hardwoods include Poplar and Ash. These also tend to be less expensive than other hardwoods with more attractive wood grain patterns. Softwoods generally produce a blotchy, uneven tone when they are finished with a stain, but they are an excellent economical choice for painted projects. Pine, Fir, and other white woods are good choices for paint finishes.
What Thickness and Proportions of Lumber do Your Project Require?
Nearly all the board lumber that you will find in a home center or lumberyard will be milled under 2” thickness and under 10 feet long. We provide wider, thicker, longer live-edge slabs for large furniture projects such as dining tables, desktops, kitchen island countertops, coffee tables, and fireplace mantels. We can mill slabs from logs that are up to 8 feet wide and 20 feet long.
Which Lumber is to be used in Hidden parts of Furniture?
A common practice in furniture building is to use secondary or cheaper lumber on the insides and backs of pieces and the more expensive, nicer wood on the outer areas of the furniture. Secondary wood is often used for drawers, shelves inside a cabinet, the backs of cabinets and desks, under the tabletop, etc. Poplar and pine are often used as secondary wood.
Price of the Wood
Good quality kiln-dried lumber ranges in cost from $5 to $55 per board foot. Thicker and wider slabs are much harder to make and dry than thinner and narrower dimensional boards, so they tend to be more expensive.
