How to Identify Wood in Furniture
You do not need to read this from top to bottom. Most of the time you arrive here because you are trying to figure out what type of wood your furniture is made from.
The sections below are organised around what you need next. First, how to recognise wood grain, colour, end grain, and wood cuts. Then, how to match those clues to the wood species most commonly used in furniture.
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Learn how to identify wood in furniture | Identify specific wood species in furniture
Learn How to Identify Wood in Furniture
Before you can name a wood species, you need to know which details actually help identify wood. Wood grain patterns, colour variation, wood cuts, and end grain all give useful information when you know how to read them.
This is where you train your eye to recognise those features so identifying wood becomes a process of observation instead of guessing.
Identify Specific Wood Species in
Furniture
Now you use what you have learned to work out the wood in front of you. You look at the grain, the colour, the pores, and any end grain you can see, then compare those details to woods that are commonly used in furniture.
Each wood focuses on the signs that show up most clearly in real pieces. What the grain looks like, how the colour usually appears, and the small details that help you confirm whether you are looking at oak, maple, pine, walnut, mahogany, birch, and others.
