what type of wood should i build furniture with?
Answers:
In my production career, Ive built various kinds of furniture, out of many types of wood, composites, and other materials. It really does depend on what your goal is...what kind of furniture do you wish to make?
There are certain benefits to be gained from various products. For instance, panel/case goods are usually made with a veneer (either wood, laminate, or thermocoating) with a core that is not 'solid wood'..usually, hardboard, medium density fiber board, plywood, etc... because it is more stable, and less prone to warping, and splitting than solid wood. You also have less trouble with expansion and contraction, which is important, if the piece is in a 'frame' of some sorts, like a raised panel door. In a raised panel door (like you find on kitchen cabinets, or entertainment centers), the frame of the door, stiles and rails, may be solid wood, but the panel, is usually a veneer covered composite.
If you are building upholstered furniture, then you can stay away from the more expensive 'decorative use' hardwoods.
Plywood comes in many species, these days too... oak, mahogany, poplar, just to name a few.
Then we can get into how is the furniture going to be used? Indoors, outdoors, etc.... Is the wood going to be exposed?, Or covered?
Last but not least, is what kind of a 'finish' are you looking to put on the wood? These days, if you are willing to put in the time, and have the resources, you can make a piece of wood look like anything.....but there are certain kinds of wood that lend themselves to certain types of finishing, much easier, than others. Do you want the wood grain to show? Do you prefer a stain, or paint, or...?
And we can also talk about production numbers, how many pieces are you planning on making, how much money do you want to invest in the materials, etc.
Your question really does need to be more specific. ;)
Other answers:
depends on the type of furniture you want to build and whether or not you want to paint, stain, or leave it natural.
depends on the type of furniture you want to build and whether or not you want to paint, stain, or leave it natural.
depends what youre building, oak walnut cherry teak poplar pine any of it actually.
oak, or pine work well. But, it does depend on what kind of furniture.
Oak is by far the strongest, so use that for large pieces of furniture. Ash/Maple/Pine are all fairly strong, but cheaper than oak. Mahogany and Cedar are both beautiful woods, the former being a deep red/almost maroon, and the latter being a light red (and it smells good).
Oak is both durable & has a nice grain. I prefer hard woods like oak, mahogany or walnut. Walnut is beautiful. Pine is easy to work worh, & very light.
It really depends on you; what look are you shooting for?
depends on what type of wood u like...i like cherry wood better than oak cause i think that cherry wood looks more better and appealing than oak.
Where do you live? Depending on your location on the planet may help you decide what type of wood you might choose to use. If you are in North America I would recommend you choose some sort of hardwood that can be procured from your local lumber yard or other specialty lumber mill. Wood that is suitable for furniture is generally of the hardwood variety, such as maple, oak and ash. These woods will give you strength, color, grain and texture, as well as being workable and durable, providing long lived pieces of furniture that you can be proud of and may well out live you, and can even out live future generations. Of course some furniture is constructed from more than one type of wood, in order to give the project some outstanding features such as color, grain and texture. Woods like mahogany, cherry, rosewood, teak and lignum vitae will add these characteristics. Somewhat softer woods can also be used to construct furniture as well. I've seen beds made of pine, larch, spruce and fir, clothing chests made from aromatic cedars, stools made from birch and chairs made from willow and hazelnut. There are other woods you may discover in your furniture making journey, but mostly they are very exotic and can be hard to find, expensive and even environmentally unsound as some tree species are nearing the limits of their harvestability since some of these logs are cut in sensitive forest areas that are being over harvested and even plundered for their timber.
PINE IS ALWAYS NICE, but my favorite is mahogany or oak.