The Real Wood Bible: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Choosing and Using 100 Decorative Woods (Spiral-bound)

~ (Author) "Most woodworkers have a "palette" of woods that they favor, experimenting with alternatives for a specific purpose, or perhaps because they come across or are..." (more)
Key Phrases: Weight Medium, Grain Straight, Type Tropical (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

You'll learn all about wood color and grain, sustainability and storage... It's a must-have reference. (Sara Scott Log Home Design Ideas 200510)

Every type of wood has its own personality and its own best uses, according to The Real Wood Bible. (James Cummings Dayton Daily News 20050818)

It's the book you'd expect from a guy who made his first tool box from utile, an African mahogany. (Mark Feirer This Old House 200510)

Invaluable for the novice but also a good reference for the pro. (Peggy Mackenzie Toronto Star 20051201)

Written to answer any wood-related question... a book like this is likely to become the Holy Grail of wood. (Hardwood Floors 20050828)

A thorough guide that can help beginning and advanced woodworkers choose between 100 types of decorative woods. (Rebecca Swain Vadnie Orlando Sentinel 20051103)

There's more to wood than just how it looks.... learn the strengths and weaknesses of all types of wood. (Heidi Rose Lamirande Boston Globe )

An essential reference for anyone who works with wood or makes decisions about how and where it's used. (Home and Design )

Comprehensive guide... can help you select the best one for your project... Great for woodworkers, designers and homeowners alike. (Diana Luciani Style At Home )

Of particular note is a full-page photo of each species showing the wood in two states... valuable and useful guide. (Anatole Burkin Fine Woodworking )

36 pages of pertinent advice, including seven steps to choosing wood and discussion of issues surrounding certified supply. (Sharon Wootton Olympia Olympian )

Product Description

A practical and inspiring A-Z guide to the world's most popular woods.

Wood is a favored building material because of availability, ease to cut and join, decorative properties, functionality, flexibility, and a favorable strength-to-weight ratio.

The Real Wood Bible is a comprehensive handbook for anyone who works with wood...or is planning to. Woodworkers, crafters, carpenters, and interior designers will find extensive information about the woods they regularly use as well as discover some new ones.

This colorful, easy-to-use book features: - How trees are converted into boards and veneers - How to convert your own trees into boards - Woods that incorporate beautiful natural effects - A list of woods available from sustainable sources - Useful advice on buying and storing lumber.

An extensive and illustrated A-Z guide to the world's most popular woods is the heart of this book. Each wood is shown with a color illustration demonstrating the true look and beauty of the finished and unfinished grain.

A special section on sustainability is included, with an introduction to key conservation issues.

The Real Wood Bible is the essential reference for the appreciation of the practical beauty of the world's most popular building material.

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Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 256 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (August 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1554070333
• ISBN-13: 978-1554070336
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 6.5 x 1.1 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.com Sales Rank: #142,316 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, May 29, 2006

By	David C. Brayton (Healdsburg, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book because a quick glance showed the the photos are very good. As one reviewer noted, most woods includes a full page photo that is split in half, one showing unfinished, one showing finish.

However, the book doesn't offer much practical advice for working the wood. A lot of the lesser used species include advice like "Gluing: Little is known, best to experiement on scraps." Uhh, thanks?

The reason I purchased a reference book was so that if I use something uncommon, I could look up things I don't know. Instead, the author, an editor of a woodworking magazine no less, tells me that the only thing his book is good for is the pretty pictures. This is especially true of the section called "Secondary Woods"--substamtially lacking in useful information.

Why isn't there a book that compilies USEFUL information about a wood?

Some of the photos on unique aspects, such as quarter sawn surfaces and figure, do not illustrate the wood well. For example, the photos of figured cherry, curly maple and crotch mahogany don't even start to illustrate the beauty of these woods. The spalted maple photo makes one think that spalted maple should be used for heating the house. The burl photos do a very good job however. (Why is bog oak listed under diseased wood?)

Also, there are inconsistent names used. For example, American elm is listed with the note that it is "often referred to as white elm" but later in the description it is referred to as "gray elm". So, is this just a typo or is there another type of elm called "gray".

Finally, the information provided is not very consistent. For example, Some woods have information regarding assembly (screwing, nailing, gluing) others don't. The omission of assembly information is inexplicable and rather unforgiveable. Anyone who buys woods will assemble it, won't they?

Another example, under Dutch elm, it says that it must be given "the opportunity to move when used as a panel or tabletop". Don't you need to do this with all wood? And if so, why isn't mentioned with any other wood? Is Dutch elm special?

And here's a list of woods not covered that probably should be: aspen, big leaf maple (aka oregon maple), ipe, lyptus, pernambuco, myrtle, claro walnut, peruvian walnut, granadillo, black acacia, red gum, canarywood, regular/american chestnut, mesquite,, goncalvo alves, cypress, box elder, lacewood, leopardwood, olive, lauan/phillipine mahogany, kwila, doussie, alaskan yellow cedar, port orford cedar, vera/argentinian 'lignum vitae' and sycamore.

If I could, I change my rating to 1 star.

BTW, the picture for horse chestnut is wrong.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Likable, December 17, 2005

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

This is a likable book, with plenty of color pictures of a nice quality, that present the true colors rather faithfully. I can well imagine this will be a convenience for somebody who is thinking about selecting wood for a project.

However, this is a book written by a woodworker for woodworkers. By this time I can make a list (prior to opening the book) of the errors that are likely to be in such a book. Opening this book I find all these errors faithfully perpetuated, as expected. A rather spectacular new blunder is made in the entry for /Aniba/ (in this case /Aniba rosaeodora/ under its synonym /Aniba duckei/) where the text points out that there is an African "pau rosa" and a South American "pau rosa", and then blithely combines the name of the South American "pau rosa" with a picture of the African "pau rosa" (to be clear "pau rosa" is a vernacular or trade name attached to several woods: the two woods that are linked in the book have less in common than a Boeing 747 and a Rolex watch).

Another quible is that $30 is rather pricey for a middle-of-the-road book, that offers nothing new. Still, all in all a likable book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reference book for the beginner and expert woodworker, March 16, 2006

By	A. Ciuraneta Murgarella (Barcelona, SPAIN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Very good book, can be used as quick reference guide when trying to choose a wood to build any furniture, I found very useful the fact that it shows the wood appearance with and without finish so one figure out how the colour will change when a finish is applied.
For the ecological concious woodworker it tells you those species that are endangered. It describes the characteristics of each wood, hardness, grain, workability etc.

The only drawback I found was that I would have appreciated that in addition to the latin name and english one it should show the name of the wood in other languages