lighthearted Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 This may be a silly question but.... I try to do a lot of skill building projects in my shop. Mostly improvements to my shop, jigs and things of that nature--and I tend to use a lot of pine, both for the cost savings and the supposed ease of working with soft wood. Lately, I feel like I am struggling with soft wood rather than honing my skills, especially with hand tools. Is this just in my head? What's your "go to" wood for skill building and shop projects? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Pants Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Typically poplar or southern yellow pine, whatever I have lying around in the shop really. I tend to stay away from regular SPF (spruce/pine/fir) as I think hardwoods are better for skill building (fibers don't crush as easily, not as fuzzy etc.). The exception to me is southern yellow pine, while it's a softwood it's a pretty hard softwood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike M Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I tend to use soft maple for skill building, shop cabinets, prototypes, etc. The price is a few cents more than poplar or clear pine and it works more like furniture woods than construction lumber. That being said, I built most of my shop furniture (bench base, miter saw table, base for router table, etc from some almost clear 2x4's I found at the local HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlloydparks Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Pine is nice for lots of things. I have a workbench with the base made from pine. This was Southern Yellow Pine, it is great for lots of shop uses. It is a pain to cut dovetails in. It is good to teach planing because you quickly learn to read grain direction. My most recent project was made out of Eastern White Pine and was the packing box from The Joiner and Cabinetmaker. Eastern White Pine planes so nicely that you can usually plane regardless of grain direction without tearout. It also dovetails wonderfully well. Pine will quickly teach you what sharp is. If your plane blades or chisels are not sharp it will get fuzzy real quick. In addition, if your chisel is not sharp you will crush the end grain fibers instead of cutting them. Pine is a great teacher, but at some point you need to move onto poplar (tulip) and soft maple or other hardwoods. Your tools are just going to act a bit differently in these materials, but pine is a great starter and I often come back to it for many of my projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lighthearted Posted January 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 Thanks for your comments guys. The fibers do seem to crush on the pine, and the sharpening note is well taken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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