Types of wood

Don't try and remember too many woods 'cause you will only forget them.

I have listed some of the main solid woods and man made boards that are about.

NAME	PROPERTIES & WORKING CHARACTERISTICS	WHY WOULD YOU USE THIS MATERIAL FOR YOUR WORKSTATION
Beech - Hardwood	Close-grained, hard, tough and strong, works and finishes well, wears well but prone to warping and weather, difficult to work	Excellent for veneering worktops such as workstations. Good for solid wood constructions as well. Fairly cheap.
Oak - Hardwood	Very strong, heavy, durable, hard and tough, it finishes well, open grained, it contains acid which rusts steel fittings, expensive	Good for veneers. Very expensive.
Cherry- Hardwood	A beautiful wood with a fairly close grain. It is pinkish/brown in colour and has sweeping grain features.	Desks and desk tidies.
Mahogany - Hardwood	Easy to work, fairly strong, medium weight, durable, available in long wide boards, some difficult interlocking grain, prone to warping	Good for veneers. Very Expensive.
Scots pine - Softwood	Straight grained but knotty, fairly strong, easy to work, cheap and readily available	Excellent for solid wood constructions such as the one shown in diagram number 8 on your prep sheet. Cheap
Parana pine - Softwood	Hard, straight grained, almost knot free, fairly strong and durable, smooth finish, tends to warp, expensive	Good for solid wood constructions. More expensive than Scots pine.

Man made boards.

Man-made boards are ideal for making desk tops, shelves and sides. You can get them in large sizes and when coated with plastic such as melamine formaldehyde the become very durable (hardwearing) and can be made to look good too.

Basically there are three different types of man-made board - 1. Blockboard and laminboard which are strips of wood stuck together and covered with veneer. 2 - Plywood which is thin layers of wood glued together and 3 - chipboards and fibreboards which are particles of wood mixed with glue and shaped into boards. (Chipboard is large chips glued together and this always needs coating with either veneer or plastic to make it look good) (Fibreboard is very small particles of wood (almost sawdust) glued together and shaped into boards). There are two types of fibreboard, Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF), and High Density Fibreboard (HDF) both of which have a very smooth finish and can be veneered or painted.

Plywood made of thin layers of wood stuck together	Chipboard made by gluing chips of wood together and forming into large boards.	Many man made boards are ugly to look at and veneers can be stuck to them to make them look like solid wood. (Veneers are very thin layers of real wood).

Blockboard is thin strips of wood glued edge to edge then thin ply stuck top and bottom.	Hardboard is very fine particles compressed together in a wet process. Flat and fluted shapes are shown below.	MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) are dust particles glued together (HDF is High Density Fibreboard)