Fxguy Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 With "help ID this wood" posts fairly common, other than the I.D. Wood app for iOS, does anyone know of an app that can take a picture (or multiple pictures) of lumber and then either identify it or at least suggest a few possibilities to help narrow it down? I've got a ton of lumber scraps of various lengths and I'd love to be able to figure out which are pine, poplar, maple, or cherry. Anyone know of anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Google's image search may get some of the more unique woods right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySats Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Google's image search may get some of the more unique woods right. Will that work by uploading a pic of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fxguy Posted August 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Fortunately at this point I know that all the scraps in my bin are either pine, poplar, maple, cherry, or cedar. The cherry and cedar are pretty easy to identify and differentiate for me. The maple isn't too bad either, its figuring out the ones that could be poplar or pine that I would struggle with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Will that work by uploading a pic of it? Yea. I believe you can use an app on your phone or do it via computer. Here's their instructional page about it. http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Fortunately at this point I know that all the scraps in my bin are either pine, poplar, maple, cherry, or cedar. The cherry and cedar are pretty easy to identify and differentiate for me. The maple isn't too bad either, its figuring out the ones that could be poplar or pine that I would struggle with. If you struggle with their visuals then you could do a smell test. Pine has a very distinct scent. Just scratch and sniff.. Like the stickers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fxguy Posted August 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 If you struggle with their visuals then you could do a smell test. Pine has a very distinct scent. Just scratch and sniff.. Like the stickers Is that true of even old dirty and dusty pine? I thought the scent was really only with fresh pine. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 You just need to scratch deeper. It will smell where fibers are pulled apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinds Posted August 31, 2014 Report Share Posted August 31, 2014 Yea. I believe you can use an app on your phone or do it via computer. Here's their instructional page about it. http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html I am EXTREMELY dubious about that capability for wood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted August 31, 2014 Report Share Posted August 31, 2014 Yea, i don't have much confidence in it either. It was just the closest thing i knew of to try. I could see if it got things like zebra, purple heart, or maybe spalted maple. The wood would need to be fairly unique in appearance to have much of a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Bailey Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 I found this today. the site is a work in progress but they have a lot of pretty useful info on wood. the website is also not terribly organized so the link below is to the "physical properties" page and if you scroll down there are links to wood tables categorized by hard and soft woods. It took me some doing to navigate this site but it's possible to do and I at least found the info useful http://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow/Wood/Hardwoods_&_Softwoods/3_Physical_Properties/3_Physical_Properties.htm#openclosedgrain thought it might be helpful here as the site has a lot of pics of each wood with different finishes to help ID what you're looking at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 awesome link. I really like how it shows each wood in 5 different finishes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Bailey Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 yeah I agree, I stumbled across that when looking for info on wood grains/pores for figuring out finishing strategies. for that, it's just what I was looking for, and it might help ID mystery wood too. the pics are great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fxguy Posted September 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2014 Very nice link, one feature I like is the finishes, giving an example pic of each wood with various finishes, only problem is its like 5 different types of finish. Anyone know of a site that has sample pics of various woods and colors for finishes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tarbell Posted September 8, 2014 Report Share Posted September 8, 2014 I'm not sure that's really something that you could provide sample images for. There are a lot of color variations per finish type across all of the brand manufacturers. And then it further complicates things in that the more coats you apply the deeper the color of the finish. I suggest using photoshop(or gimp, which is free) in conjunction with the images from the website. For instance, if you wanted an amber shellac on cherry then you get the 'shellac on cherry' picture from the website. Then roughly get the amber color of the shellac you're using. Then apply semi-transparent overlays of that color on top of the image from the website. You can simulate applying more coats of finish to deepen the color application by applying multiple layers of the semi-transparent mask. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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