What's your favorite wood

Gail O'Rourke

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Can I ask a question and post a pic? What's your favorite wood? I really love walnut - but my customers keep asking for paint grade. I was fortunate enough to have a recent client ask for walnut (it helps when you bring the sample with you with some finish on it). Here is a walnut media center finished with Waterlox - sealer and then gloss - I also love that finish. All around a great project.

What's your favorite wood? What would you finish it with?











The upper doors fold up and in like barrister doors and the lower section is giant drawers. I have also made a king size bedframe for a client out of walnut. Another favorite. Thinking about a tall clock out of walnut - anyone made one?
 
Surprisingly with a last name like mine, Ash is NOT my favorite wood.

I like Cherry and Maple used together, finished with laquer.

Red Oak is what I use the most of, finshed in Polyurethane.

As always Gail, nice work!:thumb:
 
Cedar beyond a doubt. It can be used for so many different things, it is beautiful, and it smells great.

But, I would use maple or walnut if I was attempting beautiful cabinetry like yours Gail. And, I would only be attempting, not achieving what you have managed.
 
More of your excellent work Gail. I also like walnut, along with Mahogany. The open grain of these make a nice high gloss finish hard to achieve, but if I'm really feeling lazy on finish I'll go to cherry.
 
Wow Gail, your walnut piece really sings! I work with walnut a lot, then cherry and maple. I'm just "oaked out" for a while.

Maybe you could put together a "notebook" of scraps of different wood with a variety of finishes. When I show samples to prospective clients, they almost always change their minds.
 
That piece is impressive Gail!
My favorite is usually the one I'm working with! :thumb: The woods I've enjoyed most are those that have been reclaimed from something else and already have a history in someone else's life when I start my project.

Red elm is one of the prettier woods I've used IMHO, but it's not the easiest to work with. I like QSWO, mahogany, and curly maple alot too. I love walnut up close ...just wish it wasn't so dark.
 
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Good looking piece Gail! I really like the walnut too! I just finished a built in unit and used speaker cloth in a couple door panels to hide the components. I like the grid a lot, but the components showing seems to take away from the beautiful work you did! The speaker cloth is great because the remote IR will go right through it.
 
I like Cherry and Maple used together, finished with laquer.

Ditto. I like contrasting wood combinations, and cherry goes very well with maple. But I've never used lacquer. (no spray setup here.) So I've used shellac, shellac+varathane, tung oil, and waterlox... and it looks great.
 
I have to agree, my most favorite piece is always the most recent...my next project is a cherry dining table..... with a waterlox finish... so that may win the prize.

What do you guys think of alder? Ever used it?
 
My favorite would have to be butternut. The colors and wild grain finished in natural danish oil. Other favorites would be curlyu maple and black walnut. I am working on a bed made out of black walnut which will be finished with danish oil with either curly maple drawers or flamed birch.
 
Hi Gail, I'm with you, Walnut is great, I just love it, but BOY is it expensive here in Japan!!

Next would have to be Cherry, but I don't see much of it here.

Nice cabinet!:thumb:
 
What do you guys think of alder? Ever used it?

it`s a chameleon wood, can be made to look like cherry/walnut ect with the right finishing tecniques. somewhat softer than cherry or walnut, machines well and up untill the last few years was marketed to cabinetmakers as a cheap substitute for real cherry. over the course of the last few years it`s become "in-vogue" and is darn near the price of cherry so if a client wants the cherry look it`s not really much more to build with the real thing.
 
What do you guys think of alder? Ever used it?

Since you asked, I have to say I hate the stuff. Its soft, slightly stronger than balsa, and tends to move a lot when humidity changes (this in particular makes it really bad for exterior doors, as the finish comes off within a few years if there's much exposure to rain). There was some excuse for buying it at $1 a foot for upholstery framing, and it makes ok moldings, but I wouldn't use it for much else, especially if it gets so expensive you could buy oak instead.

I think I have to agree that walnut is my all around favorite. I love the look, how easy it works, and the smell of the sawdust. I've worked a lot of cherry and mesquite, so I'm kind of burned out on those, but they might give walnut a run aesthetically!
 
I have never used alder so I am of no help here but just wanted to say that piece is striking. Beautiful!!! Your clients are lucky to have you available.

Allen
 
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Cherry for furniture
Bass, butternut or redwood for canoe paddles
white pine for boxes in the shop
curly maple for fine boxes.
Ash for long tool handles. Cherry for chisel handles.

Actually, I like almost any wood. Except hemlock.

Ken
 
I once heard a master wood worker say, "If it's worth making, it's worth making with walnut."
I tend to agree. Walnut #1 with me. I call it the King of woods and Maple the Queen of woods.
But, for pens, highly figured burls of almost any kind are my favorites. Actually, the one I may be working on at any moment is my favorite.
 
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