open main page for all woods          open page 2 for articles

SITE HISTORY

June 2022 --- since the last update I've added a few articles, made numerous corrections/additions to the wood name database, and have added several hundred more wood samples. Also, I added a navigation bar to the bottom of the main page.

August 2020 --- In the past 18 months I've added the ability to view the overall collection (the main page) in 4 different ways, as shown on the main page just above the actual wood listings. Also have provided a new facility in the anatomy section in that you can now just show ALL of the 3,000+ end grain pics with no labels but with the ability to click on any one of them and be taken to the page it's on. The facility is HERE and keep in mind the load can be a bit slow since it is loading 3,000 thumbnails.

March 2019 --- slow going for the last year or so. Some updates but mostly I've been concentrating on my bowls during that time and have spent less time on this site than probably any 12 month period since the site started. Number of unique wood pics did go to well over 50,000

April 2018 --- have continued to add to the site, with a lot of focus on the anatomy pages which now contain well over 3,000 end grain closeups of well over 1,000 species [I include pics on the anatomy pages of species that are not represented in the wood ID pages, where I limit myself to only those woods that are reasonably commonly available to American woodcrafters]. The main source of hundreds of new wood samples in the last year has been Mark Peet. Number of unique wood pics is now approaching 50,000

March 2017 --- Added, to those pages for which I have a "fact sheet", and to a few other pages, a section at the top of the wood page showing a a typical (as much as there IS a typical) view of flat cut, quartersawn, end grain, and a end grain closeup, with a discussion of the characteristics of the wood. Also made some cosmetic changes to the site.

January 2017 --- Added 3 new ways to view the site. One with JUST the thumbnails, one with a full list of all the species shown on the site, arranged alphabetically by botanical name, and a further one with the same names but arranged alphabetically by common name. All 4 ways are shown HERE

2015 and 2016 --- continued to get, on loan, many hundreds of samples from David Clark and Mark Peet and have continued to expand the "wood ID through anatomy" pages and other articles such as "wood terms described and illustrated"

May 2014 --- Have received, on loan, and processed, many hundreds more samples from David Clark, plus 50+ on loan from Mark Peet, plus a few more I bought myself. Total unique pics on the site is now at 37,000+ and pretty much all of the 5,000 new pics since this time last year have been ones I took myself of all these on-loan samples. Have started an extensive new article on wood identification using macro-level (including use of a 10X loupe) characteristics, primarily the end grain updates that were started early in 2013 plus a discussion of parenchyma as a help in wood ID.

May 2013 --- I've cleaned out another 40 or so woods (ones I have little or no useful info on) leaving the total at about 400 types of wood represented on this site (but mostly WELL represented). This effort is really just an extension of the Jan 2011 cleanup of the site, as discussed below. Acquired, on loan, another 250 samples and have already processed about 200 of them including the new end grain closeup update. Total unique pics on the site is now at 32,500

March 2013 --- close to finishing the first round of end grain updates. This includes only the formal sample planks that I have purchased over the years. Next I'll attack all the various cut-offs that I have in my sample boxes

SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT

Early 2013 --- started a new end grain closeup process that is ENORMOUSLY better than anything I've done in the past and that is a terrific addition to wood ID capabilities you can view a full discussion of it HERE

2012 --- added lots of pics, now pushing 30,000 unique pics

March 2011 --- Updated just over 100 of the thumbnails because they have been around for many years and I now have better representative pics of the woods

Feb 2011 --- As a follow-on to the overhaul mentioned directly below, I have also added botanical name information to the 500+ wood pages that remain on the site. A few months ago I had only a little over 100 pages that included some botanical name information and now they all have it, even if it is just a statement that the botanical name is uncertain due to multiple woods with the same common names (this happens a LOT).

There are about 100 woods for which I have NOT as yet included the botanical family along with all of the species names but I'm adding those as well, over time.

MAJOR UPDATE

Jan 2011 --- did the first makeover that the site has ever had by cleaning up the main page quite a bit. Eliminated the section on sponsors, since I no longer put advertisements on the site other than the commonly used ones from the company who's name I won't mention because they get upset if a webmaster says ANYTHING that might imply encouraging site visitors to use their links (it's a money thing). When I started this site, I was unfamiliar with most exotics, so collected info on all I could find. The goal of this site is to be useful to USA craftspeople/woodworkers, so I am now clearing out any "information" that is of dubious value, or clearly not of any value, in supporting that goal. I am removing all woods for which one of the following is true: I have very little information and I cannot FIND significant information the woods are VERY obscure and/or the common name I have is used by so many species that I really do not have any useful information I have little information and although I could possibly get more, it seems irrelevant since as nearly as I can tell, the wood is NOT available in the USA, even at the craft level. This has now reduced the number of different wood pages from just over 700 to just under 500 where it is now likely to remain.

Dec 2010 --- now up over 22,000 unique pics and have added a lot more pics of bowls made from the various woods, because bowls show a mix of grain in a way that individual planks do not. Also, have started removing some of the more obscure woods for which I have only one pic and for which I can find VERY little information.

Feb 2010 --- having spend last year focused on the ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY OF WOOD AND WOODWORKING TERMS, I'm now back to adding pics and information to the main site. Approaching 20,000 unique pics and my backlog of unposted pics is now huge.

late-2008 --- now up over 19,000 unique pics and have added a lot of single-wood bowl pics and am up to more than 60 full or partial fact sheets.

mid-2008 --- now up over 18,000 unique pics and have added a few more fact sheets.

mid-Aug, 2007 --- added more pics and a couple of new species; now over 17,000 unique pics with over 680 species

March, 2007 --- I just keep adding more pics, mostly of wood that I have purchased.

Dec, 2006 --- pics now at about 16,500+ and I've started to clean out some of about two dozen species that I have identified as duplicates (different common names for the same species)

May,2006 --- have brought pics to 15,000+, added a donation button to help defray site costs, and have added some sponsors for the same reason. Individual wood fact sheets have been increased a litte and summaries have increased a lot, and I have FINALLY gotten around to adding a site map.

Xmas season, 2005 --- continue to add more pics and more end grain shots. Number of unique pics is now approaching 14,000 and I still have many dozens of wood samples that I have not processed yet.

July, 2005 --- added about 120 new end grain shots from my wood-sample boxes taken with an extreme-closeup camera. Also, merged "white" and "black" limbas into one page

June, 2005 --- Added 100's of new pics and several more fact sheets --- my focus now is moving away from more pics and to more text information

May, 2005 --- Added 100's of new pics and made a major navigation change such that enlargements now open in their own window which means you can compare woods by opening more than one enlargement at a time

Xmas season, 2004 --- finally went through my entire backlog of images that I've been stocking up for many months (some of them for years) and added over 50 new species and over 1,000 new unique images to the site, bringing the total up to almost 550 species and over 10,000 unique pics. Also significantly increased both the volumn and the variety of veneer for sale at the Jewlery Box Veneer site, which supports this site.

early Nov, 2004 --- made my first trip to an exotic wood lumber yard in about 10 years and came away with some really gorgeous stuff, which is currently pictured at the top of the main page and which is also now represented throughout the site on the appropriate pages. It took me a whole weekend to take all the pics, color correct them, and post them on the site.

Mid-Aug, 2004 --- have now added enough pics to bring total unique pics to well over 8,000. I've been buying veneer like crazy and taking pics of it, so most of the new pics that I have added personally are veneer, not lumber.

Mid-Dec, 2003 --- have now added enough pics to bring total unique pics to well over 7,000 and I've also posted pics of many more of my laminated bowls

Mid-Sept, 2003 --- have now added enough pics to bring total unique pics to almost 6,000 and I've also posted pics of many more of my laminated bowls

Late July, 2003 --- added hundreds more pics, bringing total unique pics to over 4800

July 2003, added 50 new species and many hundreds more new pics, bringing the total unique pics to about 4,400 for 480 total species. Reorganized main page to improve load time for modem connections, so there are now TWO secondary thumbnail pages and the main page only has about 125 thumbnails instead of over 250. Also added many new fact sheets and greatly expanded the section on wood terms. Made available a separate main page that has ALL of the thumbnails for those with a high speed connection.

June 2003, added hundreds more new pics, bringing the total unique pics to about 3500

May 2003, took end-grain pictures of all my wood samples and color corrected them and added them to the site. this added about 100 unique pictures. Also added a couple hundred more new pics, bringing the total unique pics to over 3000 and total pics to over 6000

Late March / Early May 2003, added several hundred more pictures plus many enlargements and clarified some text throughout and added a section on mystery woods (woods that I can't identify --- submit your own if you have one). Total unique pics now over 2400

Jan/Feb 2003, added many more pics and a little more verbiage plus a section on wood toxicity

Dec 2002, added another 150 species and 800+ unique pics. bringing total unique pics to almost 1800 for almost 400 types of wood

November 2002, added fact sheets, some project pictures, several new species, and many pictures. Unique pictures now over 900 with 230+ species represented and total pics almost 2,000

early November 2002, site opened to public with about 800 unique pictues of over 200 species.