Wood choice for novice

[BKeys]

First, I'm pretty new yet and sometimes have to decode terminology on my own...so if I didn't interpret the term white wood correctly please set me straight so as to shorten my time looking stupid.  (White wood- general pine cheap box store lumber?). Anyhow my question is at what point, experience wise, did you guys move on from projects being done with white wood? and start getting into some of the more expensive woods.  I'm currently building the cabinets in my shop and only have 4 or 5 more to go.  I'm sure that won't be enough to polish my skills enough to significantly reduce the number of throw away pieces.  I feel like I'm missing out not experiencing the different characteristics of different woods that I could be learning about on these projects but on the other hand it would be painful to throw away a nice piece of a hard wood because of a mis cut.  Am I the only guy thinking this way?  I know getting rough lumber lessons the financial blow but most of what I'm finding is still $5 plus a board foot for the cheapest species.  Which now leads me to ask...I know it all depends on what wood you get but as a general rule is that a decent ball park price for the inexpensive species or do I need to find a better place to shop?

[Ronn W]

Pine certainly has its place but I moved to better woods right away. Why? Because I wanted a nice piece with a nice finish I when was done.  I think that you will find that something like white oak or red oak is not all that much more expensive than big box store pine or poplar.  Visit the lumber yard a get familiar with their stock and prices.  Buy the wood that you want for the project that you want to build.  You will find that most hardwoods are much easier to work with than the pine which is very soft.  Wood prices vary around the country.  You can get a rough idea if your local prices are reasonable by looking online. 

We have all made mistakes, in fact, I would venture to say that most of us make at least on mistake of some kind on every project.  Fixing mistakes is part of woodworking - don't let the possibility of a mistake scare you.

Above all, have fun.

[Brendon_t]

I never actually started with soft woods.  I started with red oak and progressed from there.  Making mistakes will happen.  Fixing them is an art. 

[JosephThomas]

Was in your boat for the last 6-12 months, and can say based on my experience that it really depends on the project.

For the couple cheap shop cabinets I have built, softwoods were fine...but at the same time, I wasn't trying to make dovetail drawers or anything I like that.

I'd recommend making a few things on your project list that aren't intended to be lifelong items, and make them out of red oak or perhaps cherry, both of which should be right around that $5/bdft mark you mentioned. They are both ~$5/bdft near me, and I had the same reaction as you. It's a tough process to adjust to this hobby, have to accept that the materials are as expensive as the tools...I finally realized that if I were to spend 50 hours on a project, even if I valued my time at a measly $10/hour, that would still be $500 in labor cost, so it made more sense to not go cheap and try to spend $50 on wood instead of $100. Just pony up the extra $50 so your time isn't wasted. (In most cases, anyway). 

 

[BKeys]

Hadn't really looked at it that way.  So far I've just don shop cabinets and benches so it hasn't mattered but my wife has already hit me with a wish list...

[JosephThomas]

2 hours ago, BKeys said:

Hadn't really looked at it that way.  So far I've just don shop cabinets and benches so it hasn't mattered but my wife has already hit me with a wish list...

Yeah after a couple months of putzing around with little shop projects I got hit with the list too...it's a mile long and I'm on project #2  Good luck!

[wtnhighlander]

Beware that lumber prices can vary wildly by region. Red oak that sells for $1.25 / bf here might be $5/bf where you are. Or not.

Aside from hardness, you will find hardwood lumber is likely to be a far better grade, and is likely to have been dried properly, leading to less waste in your project. Construction lumber from the big box really isn't that much cheaper, just convenient to buy. And total crap to build with. Save the frustration and find better wood!

[Eric.]

You need to find a different hardwood dealer.  It depends on your region, but you should be able to find some kind of decent species for very cheap.  My dealer has poplar for $1.50/bf (which is what I'd be using to build your shop cabinets - doors and drawers anyway), and local S2S cherry for $2.90/bf.  He even had some rough walnut for a while for around $4.  Point is, keep looking...you can find some real wood for cheap.  For god's sake, anything is better than construction lumber.

The first piece of furniture I ever built I used curly maple.  Not because I have huge balls but because anything worth doing is worth doing right.  I don't see the point in taking the time to build something if it's gonna look stupid when it's done.  If I wanted to waste my life I'd play video games instead.  Using more expensive lumber forced me to slow down, concentrate, and taught me to think about every move ten steps ahead.  It made me a better woodworker, IMO.  Did I make mistakes?  Of course.  And then I was forced to learn how to FIX those mistakes because there was no way I could throw away that expensive wood.  Fixing mistakes is another woodworking fundamental.  Using "expensive" material in the beginning prepares you for using truly expensive material down the road.

So the point is, don't dip your toes in the water...tear your shirt off and dive in.  My guess is you got interested in woodworking - at least partially - because of the beauty of wood.  Why deprive yourself the joy of using it?

All that said, I used a lot of cherry in the beginning.  It's beautiful stuff but still affordable.  And to this day it remains in my top three favorite species.

As far as the term "whitewood" goes...it's not one that I use.  It's generically referred to as "garbage," or if you're being PC, "SPF," which is short for spruce/pine/fir.  If you wanna give it a name with "wood" included, I'd call it "wallwood," because that's what it's meant to be used for.

[Cliff]

12 minutes ago, Eric. said:

 For god's sake, anything is better than construction lumber.

This is the most important sentence ever. Should be on a shirt.

 

[gee-dub]

Good advice here so far.  I'll add another angle.  Often more dense materials mill better.  Many folks starting out haven't gotten their sharpening skills up yet or have not had that eureka moment when they take after a piece of material with a truly sharp tool.  This can make things like trying to chop mortises in pine frustrating let alone more complex joinery.  Soft fibers crush rather than shear unless your cutters are nice and sharp.

As stated, leave your ego at the door and walk into a few lumber yards.  Around here, yards have personalities and some get my business while others I only enter in desperation. Once you find one where the staff aren't "too cool to move", let them know you are a beginner and ask questions fearlessly.

Maple, ash, birch and others are often low dollar woods around me.  Your area may be different.  I would not hesitate to tell someone I was just starting out and practicing my joinery skill and could they tell me what general hardwood they have on hand that is pretty reasonable per board foot.

Even though I just mentioned it, fibrous woods like ash and red oak can be a battle when it comes to burning and tearout.  Really hard material like pecan can be discouraging.  I find maple, cherry and birch to all mill "like buttah" and they work well with hand tools too.  Poplar can be an inexpensive, although not as dense, material for practicing. I used poplar for a bench base.  It also paints very well if you're going that direction.

[Unknown craftsman]

I had a long run using Alder.It can get it pretty cheap with knots and even the clear stuff ain't that bad.Its easy to work kinda looks like cherry.

Or poor mans cherry.

I used some cut offs to cook a pork roast and it came out great.

I recommend Alder.

[Eric.]

46 minutes ago, Aj3 said:

I had a long run using Alder.It can get it pretty cheap with knots and even the clear stuff ain't that bad.Its easy to work kinda looks like cherry.

Or poor mans cherry.

I used some cut offs to cook a pork roast and it came out great.

I recommend Alder.

Alder is a great suggestion if you live in a part of the country where it's plentiful.  We have knotty alder at our yard, but because we're in the midwest it has to travel across the country to get here, so it's almost as much as hard maple.

Alder is soft like poplar, but has better color and grain, and takes stain well...if stain is your thing.  Don't stain okay?

[Ronn W]

I second or third the motion on Alder

[BKeys]

Terrific info....the cabinets I'm making for my shop are a mix of standard 3/4 sanded on one side and I got a few sheets of 3/4 birch that I just went through today...I must say there was quite a difference just between those two and it's just plywood.  Given that the "birch" is just a veneer I would have thought it would have cut and milled the same but it was definitely better to work with.  A plywood question....local home center....cherry plywood $70 sheet, lumber mill/woodworking store price $125 sheet.  Certainly there is a difference that warrants such a price difference....what might that be?  Also will definitely check the alder / poplar idea....I had been going with pine for the ease of running up the street to get it as much as the price...given that I'm painting the cabinets, I didn't really think it mattered...but the doors and frames are being stained and polyed so I will check that right away.

[Coop]

If you're going to paint the ch....., PAINT THE CHERRY? And it's going in the shop, definately stick with the birch ply!

[BKeys]

11 hours ago, Eric. said:

Alder is a great suggestion if you live in a part of the country where it's plentiful.  We have knotty alder at our yard, but because we're in the midwest it has to travel across the country to get here, so it's almost as much as hard maple.

Alder is soft like poplar, but has better color and grain, and takes stain well...if stain is your thing.  Don't stain okay?

I'm in Michigan...I'm guessing alder will be a little expensive but I will definitely check that....I love the look of alder.

[BeingFrank]

I worked with pine for my first few projects.  Partly out of not wanting to waste money, partly not knowing better, and partly because I didn't know the first thing about wood working and it was easy to go buy at Home Depot.  I have two end tables that I built from pine that we use, and I WISH I could go back and make them from Walnut.  Instead they are pine, stained "dark walnut".  I learned a lot building them, and a lot on all the projects, but I should have gotten better materials from the get go. 

However, had I not just been able to grab some pine and build them with my father in laws miter saw on a whim, I might not have even gotten in to wood working.  A drill, a pocket hole jig, and a borrowed miter saw is all I had.  Sounds like you are already putting some projects together.  Step up to better materials and you will probably keep all the projects you make a lot longer.  

All the above points about your time being worth more than the materials are dead on. You will be much happier holding on to a piece of furniture you built from hardwoods with a nice clear finish that has a few mistakes, than looking at a piece of pine furniture you built 3 times to get perfect.  

[JosephThomas]

If you're painting get poplar.

[Ronn W]

1 hour ago, BKeys said:

A plywood question....local home center....cherry plywood $70 sheet, lumber mill/woodworking store price $125 sheet.  Certainly there is a difference that warrants such a price difference....what might that be?

Besides the quality of the hardwood surface ply, the difference is mainly in the number a quality of laminations.  The more expensive probably has more laminations and will be more stable against warping.  You will also find that the interior laminations on the cheaper stuff has a lot more voids.  I have found that the good stuff is less likely to chip or tear on the edges when cut.  I still use put tape on the surfaces and cut through the tape when using the expensive stuff as a precaution against tearing the face lamination

[JosephThomas]

9 minutes ago, Iceballs Burnham said:

How's working with hickory?

[..Kev]

OUCH! 

[mat60]

OUCH.....That hurts....

[RichardA]

Hickory is for smoking meat, or a good fire!  It looks nice, but you spend to much time sharpening your tools!

[JosephThomas]

Not my finger, thankfully. But seriously it would be pretty tough to learn on, since this was a "novice" thread. I guess you would move on from novice to pro at sharpening fairly quick

[Eric.]

WHY would you post that?  OMG, chills up my spine.  Thanks for that.

To answer your question, hickory is hard, stringy and horrible.  Seems to have higher than average tension as well and tends to move a lot when you rip it.  It's also ugly.