How to Identify Wood

It is helpful when furniture shopping, remodeling or crafting to be able to identify and match hardwoods and softwoods. Hardwoods come from flowering trees and softwoods are derived from conifers. Stains, weathering and other changes to the surface of the wood can disguise the type of tree the sample came from. This is why several methods can be used to identify wood.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Identifying Common Woods

Look at an end piece. If it doesn’t exhibit rings or grain, it is likely a piece of plywood and it won’t be able to be identified.
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Decide if it has been weathered or stained. Most woods take on a blue or grayish color as they weather in wind, sun and rain. Stained woods may be made to look like another type of wood, and you can tell if the color is very uneven or there is a varnish on it, that it may be stained.^{[1]XResearch source}
- If either of these colorations describes your wood, you may need to move on to the third method, since visual identification is extremely hard. A laboratory can look at the wood under a microscope and determine what it is.
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This is essential to identifying it based on color and grain.
This is an extremely common furniture wood. It is usually a light brown, but can look slightly red or blonde. Slightly dark lines, or "grain," run through the wood.^{[2]XResearch source}
If the wood is reddish in appearance but has a darker, browner grain, it is likely cherry. Keep in mind that stained poplar can be virtually impossible to distinguish from cherry.
This is the most common of the darker woods. It tends to have larger rays in the grain and take on a rich, chocolate brown.
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Decide if a light-colored wood is maple. This is the most common of the blond colored woods and is often used in trim, flooring and in countertops. It has a wide grain.
- Keep in mind that a blond colored wood can also be pine. However, pine is characterized by a more distinctive grain. It is also much lighter and softer than maple.
- A yellow type of light-colored wood is poplar. It is a common, inexpensive hardwood that can be stained to look like cherry, walnut or other colors.^{[3]XResearch source}
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Identifying Unusual Wood

Set the wood near your computer.
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Go to the Wood Database online. Pictures of almost every common and exotic hardwood are available on this website. Scroll through the pictures and click on a piece of wood that looks familiar to access more information about the wood.
- Type “wood database” into a search engine. Choose a URL that includes wood-database.com.
In most cases, you will want to choose appearance.
When you find the right wood, click on the photo to read more about common uses and comments.
^{[4]XResearch source}
Identification & Use” by Terry Porter if you have little access to the Internet. It provides similar pictures and information on more than 200 woods.^{[5]XResearch source}
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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Identifying Wood by Laboratory

You can cut up to five samples of different woods each year that can be processed for free. Ensure each specimen is at least one by three by six inches (2.5 by 7.5 by 15 cm) in size.
Place them in individual envelopes. Use letters one through five to label the samples, and then write a list of the samples for your records.
This organization provides five identifications per year to US citizens. It will not provide identification for legal disputes.
Send it to “Center for Wood Anatomy Research, USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Dr., Madison, WI 53726-2398.”^{[6]XResearch source}
If you need wood identified more quickly, you may be able to contact a local carpenter or wood-worker for a consultation.
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