open main page for all woods open page 2 for articles
SITE MAP --- what you can find on this site:
(that is, in ADDITION to the 46,000 unique pictures of wood, plus enlargements)
The four main sections of the site are:
- MAIN PAGE --- A set of thumbnail images of the major woods represented on the site. Next to each wood name, below the thumbnail, is a set of numbers (a, b, c) that show how many (a) unique wood pics, (b) enlargements, and (c) enlargements of enlargements, are present on the page for that wood. Previously, many of the less common woods were relegated to secondary pages but in the makeover of January 2011, I consolidated it all into one main page.
- ARTICLES --- descriptions of, and links to, various articles on this site, regarding both the wood itself and the site
- WOOD IDENTIFICATION THROUGH ANATOMY --- a massively illustrated discourse on wood anatomy as it is available to the average woodworker in a personal workspace, NOT a science lab. This includes over 2,700 end grain images which represent the most accurate way for the average woodworker to identify a mystery wood. This includes a discussion of how to obtain and how to use that information.
- ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY OF WOOD AND WOODWORKING TERMS --- A highly cross-referenced and heavily illustrated glossary of wood and woodworking terms. There are breakouts of groups of terms such as fastener terms, joinery terms, etc which are all in the main glossary but which are broken out additionally into sub-glossaries of just those types of terms.
acknowledgments --- When folks send me wood samples or contribute pics or information to the site, I always give credit with the specific item on the page where it is inserted but this is a broader thanks to them, including people who have helped this site by donating information, many of whom have provided helpful and informative discussions of why it is they believe (usually correctly) I don't know my ass from an arrdvark.
ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS for wood and woodworking terms --- a list of some of the more common acronyms and abbreviations used in describing wood and in woodworking
Alphabetical navigation: Above the thumbnails on the main page, I provide a set of letter-links to move you to thumbnail positions based on the first letter of the names of woods, so as to at least somewhat simplify scrolling through many hundreds of thumbnails and text links on the main page.
botanical names / common names --- a table of common wood names and their botanical equivalents. This list is not definitive, or even necessarily correct in all cases, but it's what I have at the moment, and I share it with you "as is". I am working on improving and will post a more accurate and more extensive version some day.
data sets: In the articles page, at the bottom, there are links to sets of wood name data for some of the more common North American species (ash, elm, maple, oak, etc)
email address: --- I used to have a clickable email address but 'bots sucked it out and I got too much spam, so I changed the address and now only post it as this image:
fact sheets: --- On many of the individual wood pages, you will find at the top of the page an image like like the one directly below and if you click on that image, you will be taken to a text page that has information about the wood. There are about 60 of them now and I will add more over time.
links to other non-commercial wood sites --- I sometimes get requests from commercial sites to "swap" links, that is "I'll reference yours if you'll reference mine and then we both come out ahead on Google". I don't do that. I DO list a few sites that are not commercial and that are helpful to woodworkers.
MYSTERY WOODS --- a page of woods that are in need of identification
personal information: There isn't any. This site is about the wood, not about me, and while I have a dog and cats and kids and wives (oh, wait ... better make that singular in the wife's case), I can't think of any reason why that would be of any interest to woodworkers.
prejudices (mine) and how they affect this site --- A brief discussion of why it is that if you use stain to change the color of wood I will hunt you down and hurt you, and other personal rants.
site navigation: --- Clicking on any individual wood thumbnail or text link in the main page will open up a new window showing the page for that wood. Originally the individual page opened in the same window but now it opens in a separate window, which allows you to have more than one wood page open at a time. On each of the individual wood pages, I provide a link to return you to the main page (or big page if you prefer) BUT ... the "return" happens in the individual page, so you still have 2 pages open and if you use this "new" main page to link to another individual page, you will open yet another window, and so forth. This is a bit cumbersome but I believe that disadvantage is more than offset by the advantage of being able to easily open more than one individual page at a time so as to compare woods.
site history: --- A brief set of running notes about the creation and expansion of the site over time.
site statistics: --- Some statistics regarding the number of woods represented on the site, the number of images and enlargements present on the site, the number of woods that have fact sheets, and so forth.
summaries: --- On many of the individual wood pages you will find at the top of the page a brief summary discussion of the wood (in addition to the botanical and common names) and in about 60 cases, links to a "fact sheet" with a fairly full discussion of the wood and its characteristics.