Understanding wood
"Understanding Wood is updated to include new information on composite materials, adhesives, and finishes developed in the past 20 years. R. Bruce Hoadley explores the nature of wood and its properties, the basics of wood technology, and the woodworker's raw materials. You'll learn the best ways to cut, season, machine, join, bend, fasten, and finish wood, and explore the crucial interaction of wood and moisture. You'll also find the latest on wood products and where to buy them."--BOOK JACKET.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
4people
2019–2024years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Polyurethane is one type of varnish so if you're going to contrast it you'll have to be more specific (phenolic resin or alkyd resin)
Usually oils would be combined with some other varnish, especially on a floor, because they offer nearly zero abrasion or water resistance. You'd think oil finishes like boiled linseed oil or tung oil would offer some water protection because of the oil but they don't. Better than wax or nothing but much worse than varnishes.
This is a table from a book on my shelf by Bob Flexner on the subject, Understanding Wood Finishes. It's a good reference https://imgur.com/a/TzacsLs
- The Wood Book that’s part of this site was a huge help to me when I did my woodworking tech projects. The best wood book, IMO (and others in this thread) is Understanding Wood. That book is next level and is my go to for any wood reference or question.
If anybody is interested in what it takes to CNC a lot of mahogany and rosewood into a shippable tech product, I wrote up a four part series a couple years ago: https://medium.com/@samuelclay/everything-you-need-to-build-...
- I'm not sure how this applies in softwoods (like the hemlock & fir type stuff usually used in construction), but it is not really so obvious that slow growth (tight rings) is better than fast growth (wide rings) in hardwoods. The fast growth wood is usually much less likely to shatter or split under strain -- which for some purposes (anything delicate, or with staked construction such as Windsor chairs, basically stuff which needs to bend some under use) is preferable.
I'd need to break out my [Hoadley](https://www.tauntonstore.com/understanding-wood-2nd-edition-...) to confirm, but my belief is that you are trading modulus of elasticity for modulus of rupture.
- Why is that? Sap content? I just started reading Hoadley's "Understanding Wood" [0], which has gotten me interested in wood's characteristics.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1561583588/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
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