Identifying Wood: Accurate Results With Simple Tools

I've had this book for almost 2 years and it is the best I've seen. It is very well written and very thorough. It begins with an explanation of the structure of wood at the cellular level, in some cases, in rather great depth. There are chapters on techinques for obtaining and preparing wood samples as well as a description of some of the necessary instruments (hand lens, microscope etc). The sections on identification are divided up into softwoods, hardwoods and tropical woods. I will agree that the section on tropical woods is not as deep as the other two sections, but I would say its in proportion to the chances of you happening up on a piece of rare tropical wood and having to identify it. I have sucessfully indentified dozens of woods using this book. Be advised that a microscope is definately needed when using this book, in my humble opinion. It doesnt have to be a megabuck model, but 100-250x would be very helpful. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to go beyond the "if its brown, its walnut, if its white its maple" level, and get deeper into wood identification. ID-ing a chunk of wood is very satisfying and this book makes it possible!

I read several reviews complaining about lack of photos and glossary. I purchased the the hardcover version. It has an extensive glossary, index, bibliography, list of resources for materials and equipment and an excellent table of contents. There are numerous high quality color and B&W photos. The first table lists all of the woods identified in the text by their scientific and common names (about 190) divided into softwoods, hardwoods and tropical hardwoods. The author recommends early on that a microscope capable of 400X is needed. I found the text clear including pronunciation aids -parenchchyma (puh-REN-kih-muh). This is not a book for a casual reader, but if you really want to learn about the structure of wood and how to identify various species then this is the book to get.

Not always sure if things are wood. This book settles the question once and for all.

This author is THE authority on wood identification. But this is not a simple how-to guide. Half of this book is a college-level explanation of the botany of woody plants. Great knowledge to have, but it's a slog. The second half gets into actual examination and identification of individual woods. Again, it's an educational approach to the activity, not a quick reference.This is a great companion to wood-database<dot>com and that author's companion book.

Wow, what a book. It is the authoritative text on identifying wood. It has excellent sections describing the composition of wood and how to examine it. I give it four stars because it is too complex. (Others might give it 5 because it is so detailed).I love wood and was looking for a book that would teach me more about it and help identify it. This book does all that but it was too complicated and difficult to understand. I found myself staring at his pictures trying to see what he was explaining and not being able to translate the words to the pictures. I think if you are taking a college course in wood identification this would be perfect but for a casual reader who wants an easy way of identifying wood - stay away. I have found other books that explain it more simply and had I read those first this book might have been better but as it stands- you really need more then casual knowledge to get the most from this book. I found it hard to read and I skimmed sections. This is a difficult subject and he is the world authority. I wish he had explained in layman terms how to identify wood. I also wish he had created a simple decision tree that we could follow to get to the final results. I don't expect to be able to identify rare and obscure woods but I thought I would do better on simple woods.You do need to also purchase a 10X loupe to get any use out of this book.

I bought this book for my brother, who frequently shops for tools in antique shops. Often it is difficult to distinguish, even in hand, what second hand tools are made of. My brother took this reference into one of the local antique stores on his most recent tool shopping trip. He found a hand plane he quite liked, but wasn't 100% sure what it was made of. With the assistance of this book and a small microscope, he looked closely, referenced the text, and smiled at me as he confidently stated "Yep, It's Wood".

The book provides the info needed. It does not provide the jeweler's loupe or microscope, judgment or practice needed. Judgment comes with practice. The sample prep technique is very important. When I started trying out the technique outlined by the book, my first impression was wow, this is harder than you would think - then I started to see what the author was talking about, and started identifying mystery wood with certainty. Very satisfying to do. It takes more time to learn the method than you would think, but I cannot think of a better way to go about identifying wood. A very good book, if identifying wood is your goal.

IF you want to understand wood, this is the book for you. While not all woods are represented in the color plates, many, if not most, woods are exquisitely shown in vivid color. The scientific methods of examination are presented in a simple, easy-to-understand manner that most woodworkers will be able to master.

Great book. Unfortunately it is very old. I realize the author has passed away; however, it would be worthwhile for someone in the same field to update the material. especially a broader coverage of tropical woods as they are now widely available.

Excellent book! The best I've bought to help identify wood correctly and precisely. Very informative detailed information on wood anatomy with good explanations of all the "woody jargon". Was able to identify almost all the wood articles in my house, also to confirm my antique chest of drawers is really mahogany with oak drawer cases. I say almost all as the book covers native american woods and a good list of exotic hardwoods but not all the woods of the world! The analyses is concentrated mainly on end grain anatomy. This requires a very clean cut sample or you have to clean-up whatever you are looking at, say the end of a chair leg or the construction parts under a table. A good hand magnifier is also required (I use a LED lit 10x loupe). A must have if you want to correctly identify wood.

Good book, exactly as described

Extremely detailed resource on wood identification with tons of photos of wood under high magnificaton. This book is not quite what I expected, but this is my fault for not doing my research. I was looking for a big book full of photos of different types of wood from both up close and a little further away along with photos of the living trees they come from, with some details about their geographical distribution and history, etc. This book is not that. It is presented very much as a wood identification textbook, and may not necessarily be what someone with a more casual interest in wood is looking for. Certainly can't fault it for being too complete, though!

The product arrived on time, was as described, (perhaps even better), and at at a reasonable price.