Know Your Woods: A Complete Guide to Trees, Woods, and Veneers [Paperback]

Albert J. Constantine Jr. (Author), Harry J. Hobbs (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2005

A detailed examination of over three hundred wood types and how to recognize each one.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Know Your Woods traces different varieties of lumber from the forest to the sawmill to the craftsman's workshop. Every person interested in the broad subject of woods-their identification, characteristics, and uses-will find this book a revelation. The information is presented in clear, nontechnical style. It describes over three hundred principal woods; indicates the common and scientific names of each; shows how to recognize a tree by its leaf, bark, or berry; and features over one hundred fifty illustrations on how to identify a type of wood by grain, color, and texture.
The author spent more than forty years in the trade before writing this book, which reflects his thorough and unparalleled expertise in the field. It contains much information that appears nowhere else, including commentary on worldwide forestation programs, logging and sawmill operations, lumber and veneer manufacturing methods, and other related subjects. Know Your Woods is a unique reference guide that neither the craftsman nor the tree lover should be without.
Albert J. Constantine Jr.'s great-grandfather, a cabinetmaker, founded the family's wood business in 1812, which remains a thriving operation in the Bronx, New York, and has expanded to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The author, who passed away many years ago, was known for having devoted a lifetime to the study of woods.

Chapters include:
A Tree Lives
Identification of Woods
How a Tree is Named
Knowing Trees by Name
Out of the Forest into Logs and Lumber
From Logs to Veneers
The Physical Appearance of Wood
Woods of the Bible
Planting Trees around the World
State Trees
Drugs from Trees
Collecting Woods of the World as a Hobby
And more

About the Author

ALBERT J. CONSTANTINE JR.’S great-grandfather, a cabinetmaker, founded the family’s wood business in 1812, which is now located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The author was known for devoting a lifetime to the study of woods.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; Revised edition (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592286828
• ISBN-13: 978-1592286829
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #754,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dated, but still a classic, December 18, 2005

By 

P. van Rijckevorsel (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Know Your Woods: A Complete Guide to Trees, Woods, and Veneers (Paperback)

I have got the 1959 edition, but have the feeling the book has not changed much since then. In 1959 this was an above-average book aimed at the general public. It illustrates the woods treated by distribution maps, botanical line drawings and black-and-white photographs. Content was pretty good, with the names, both scientific and trade names, very much in order.

Today it indeed looks quite dated, and the black-and-white photographs do look sad. These days, a much more attractive book with the same content could be put together. However, I don't really know any book that actually does this (and the most likely candidates cost a lot more). All in all, I'd still recommend this book for a wood library, although obviously it would be a poor choice as a first (or second or third) book. There are more attractive books on the market today, and this is dated, but not really superseded.

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Know your Woods? Not after reading this book, October 7, 2005

By 

Alan Carroll - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Know Your Woods: A Complete Guide to Trees, Woods, and Veneers (Paperback)

I don't understand why anyone would publish a book anymore with black and white illustrations. I know this is supposed to be a classic and all that so it's my own fault for not checking when I read the description. I don't even know why I'm keeping it; I'll never read it. You have to wade through tons of technical jargon and lengthy chapters that would be much better served by some large color photographs. Maybe that makes me shallow, I don't know, but there are much more 'complete guides' out there on this topic these days.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars IT DOES OFFER YOU SOME INFO ......, April 4, 2009

By 

C. Cook "LIVE..........LOVE........AND.......... (East Coast U.S.A. Ct..) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Know Your Woods: A Complete Guide to Trees, Woods, and Veneers (Paperback)

I needed a book to help me identify some wood used to do some finishing work in my home.

I searched through many. many books--as I wanted a somewhat modern book and one that offered pictures to help identify the patterns.

This book appeared to fit the bill. It had a nice..clean, new ,modern cover..with what looked to me to be a modern printing style...so I purchased it.

Well--this book did help me to a point --it does have some pictures and text meant to help you identify different wood...............BUT--it turned out that this book was RE-PUBLISHED...by the son of the original author.He really did a nice job reconfiguring the cover and such....the problem is that this fact is not mentioned on any of the information I viewed in order to decide which book to buy. This book was originally published as a hard cover in 1975....then again republished in 1985.None of this info was told to the viewer either.

Overall--I believe that this book was well written and did offer information to the reader. Good information !!!.....but I cannot help but feel cheated over not being told the actual background of this book within its informational writings one uses to choose.

Tryig to get some basic information on woods and trees and countrys or locations or cutting methods etc ? This will be a good book for you to begin with.It is sold at a very reasonable price and is certainly well worth what I paid for it...for that I have no complained--it was very fairly priced. Also---the amount of work put into this book...clearly shows-- and for that---I salute the original author..Albert Constantine.