Can you build real furniture with softwood?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- Hardwoods are great, but you can build strong and beautiful furniture with inexpensive softwoods.
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For knots: with Japanese woodworking (with hand tools), you can lightly spray them with water, give it a little time to soak in (like 5-10 minutes) and then plane over them without them tearing out. It actually works fairly well. Just wipe off your plane and make sure it's dry when you're done.
and if it tears out anyway, ca glue or regular wood glue does the trick.
Pro-tip! The Japanese are masters of softwood.
Rex Krueger “masters of softwood” 😉 😜😜
Can I give two thumbs up?
@@zackfishle1009 Wouldn't that be nice if you could? It would certainly be warranted here.
35 years ago or so I made a pine chest of drawers for my daughter. My granddaughter is 19 and still uses it. It looks great too.
I have a toy/blanket chest made from yellow pine that my grandpa made about 20 years ago. Still in pretty good shape and still smells like pine.
Sitka spruce has the highest strength/weight ratio of any wood in the world. This is why it's popular for making the sound board of stringed instruments and why it's the first choice of most wooden airplanes. What's best for a given application depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Thumbs up to crush a troll.
There's a story Air Force pilots like to tell about a fighter pilot flying escort for a cargo pilot. They were flying in formation and the fighter pilot kept bragging over the radio about all the things he could do in his airplane that the cargo pilot couldn't in his. After a while, the cargo pilot got tired of this and told the fighter pilot he was going to do something in his plane that the fighter pilot couldn't. They flew along straight and level, and after waiting for about 5 minutes, the fighter pilot said, "When are you going to do it?" The cargo pilot said, "I just did. I went in the back and went to the bathroom, then got a cup of coffee." Like I said, depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
That's a great one.
A 2 x 10 is dryer, and contains more straight grain than most 2 x 4's, if you want to avoid twist and warp in your pieces.
My house is only 80 years old, but it is framed with softwood, too. The house has been through half a dozen hurricanes, and hasn’t budged. Softwood is not necessarily weak.
The terms “softwood” and “hardwood” can be misleading, because some “softwoods” are harder than some “hardwoods.” For example, balsa, which is probably the softest wood in commercial use, is technically a hardwood. Any wood from a coniferous tree is classified as “softwood,” and any wood from a deciduous tree is classified as a “hardwood,” regardless of the actual hardness (or strength) of the wood itself.
You can make strong furniture from bamboo, which technically is not even wood (it’s the stems of giant grass).
My grandmother used to grow it. We used to have tons.
This is a great approach for people who, like me, have access to almost only soft woods. Kudos and thanks!
My grandfather was born in Scotland and apprenticed as a yacht joiner in Napier and Miller shipyard just outside of Glasgow over 100 years ago. He spent his life doing fine woodwork and almost all of the furniture he made for the family was from softwood (pine, generally) and all of it was elegant and beautiful (easier to carve complex curves in softwood). My siblings and children have many pieces that have been around for at least 50 years and are still going strong. Softwood makes great furniture.
This video has given me the validation to make furniture with pine. The thing is, here in Honduras, ppl didn't think that hardwoods were gonna ran out someday so now we only have pine (I think it's illegal to use other types of wood, at some point we had cedar, rose wood and we still have beautiful mahogany but it is kind of unethical to use it) thanks again Rex, you are truly the best.
Thanks so much for saying so!
LOVE THE WALL ART ON YOU BACKDROP!
(9:57)
Like so many of us, i have a kid.
For y'all in the south (I'm one), I've found the 2x6's, 8's, and above in the Big Box stores are very often, if not always, Southern Yellow Pine. My benchtop is made from them.
I watched a video yesterday of another woodworker testing the strength of his glue (no screws or dowels, etc) with MDF. The "side table" he made ended up standing up rather well to his body weight, and it was eventually the MDF that broke, not the glue. My point is that he inadvertently tested the wood instead of the glue, and it held up rather well for something that you wouldn't really expect to.
Thanks for this video, and others. Your videos really help put things in perspective.
I love pine. I am just finishing up a rollaround cart for my lathe, miter saw, and scroll saw. One thing that I learned again for the umpteenth time is;
Remember, tighter grain is generally better, denser, and stronger.
I haven't done a lot of furniture, but I've done a table frame and legs out of pine and saved enough in my budget for an oak top. I just paint the pine so it doesn't have mismatched grain with the stained oak.
Pines are great woods to work with and a lot of classic country/farmhouse furniture was made from pine/soft wood. Granted virgin growth softwoods were much tighter grained then the common tree framed soft woods today. Softwoods can also be a bit finicky to finish as they don't tend to stain well but they love oils and shellacs. While its super time consuming French polished pine looks amazing on the right piece.
Sitting at a pine desk now. Used to work at a reclaimed wood place who'd saw 14" wide pine flooring out of old bridge and barn beams. Made dining room tables and such out of it too. Softwood can work just fine, especially if you like furniture that gathers "character" and "memories" as it ages.
"I get it, you're sceptical." Not if Rex says so, I'm not.
my primary objection to doug fir is how spongy it tends to be when it comes to joinery. If you can find a close-grained tubafour then definitely grab it, but cutting dovetails or square m&t joints in fast-grown construction lumber is a recipe for heartache.
The flex sounds like a bonus to me, I can imagine how to use it advantageously. Make a joint too tight with some stiff hardwood and you'll crack it. Screw it a extra turn it cracks too. I have some gorgeous ( as in potential, not condition) slabs of maple/birch from old tables (~50+ years old) that I don't dare work with until I become a freaking magician.
@@rolfbjorn9937 the flex is fine, it's the sponginess. You have to have INCREDIBLY sharp hand tools to make a crisp edge in fir. Like yeah you can just cut some vaguely dovetail shaped pins and tails and mash it together with brute force but it will look like trash. There's a wide selection of wood in between kitchen-sponge soft fir and rock hard maple. Cherry is great. Poplar is still a little soft but its better than fir. Ash and alder are also nice.
heck even nicer pine is fine. I hate the knots but if you can find a clear board it's great and still has some of the flex you're looking for.
I’ve been to big box stores and they make their expensive furniture for thousands of dollars out of mdf and veneer. Of course you can make nice furniture out of pine as long as you don’t poke it with knives or jump on it will be fine.
mokshavortice
Jumping on it will probably be fine, as long as you aren’t wearing very hard-soled footwear.
Often, it seems like wood working is this singular skill, that once you know, you know it all. Not only is there always more to learn, there is room to innovate. The simple truth is, if you make something that looks great, and doesn't fall apart, does it matter what it's made of? I've bleached a lot of wood in my day, and people ask, "What is that?" I would say, "I'm not sure, I just found it." which was sort of the truth.
"A good woodworker doesnt make good looking furniture but invisible mistakes"
Someone-
I have made several "presentation boxes" about six by four. When asked what I used, I would says that it was Imported "Paiyeeh", spelled P-a-l-l-e-t. Some of it is hardwood, some of it is softwood, and some of it is really just firewood.
Great Episode, love the fact that you're making the hobby more accessible, not more elitist!
Many years ago we use to make airplanes out of softwoods Sitka and Douglas. Didn't stop until the 1960's. Good channel many thanks
Pine is my favorite wood for workworking, but biggest disadvantage can scratch and dent far easier than hardwoods. I finish my pine porjects with many many coats of polyurethane.I like the rustic look of knots and interesting grain patterns with looks great in my lake house.
The 70 year old windows in my house are made from Ponderosa Pine, and we have a 140° temperature swing from summer to winter, and they are holding up pretty well.
the greatest advantage of softwoods is their great strength/weight ratio. This is why they are preferred for structures and for instrument soundboards(where spruce is usually considered the best)
it's worth noting the orientation of the grain also has an impact on the degree of deflection a piece of wood can both withstand and accomodate. Flatsaw wood, will have more deflection that quarter sawn,.....it's not a flaw or anything it's just the nature of wood and pretty much holds true for most woods. it's part of why certain cuts were used in certain places on furniture, reflecting the "normal" stresses that portion would encounter..
Rex.. i have been using pine for most all of my furniture for years thank you for the validation
I need a bench that I can stand at to plane, pound, etc. but my limited space means that I have to stand to perform delicate time consuming tasks. Your stool will be a cost effective solution to sore feet! I just cleaned up some salvaged spruce lumber to make one! Thanks for the confirmation!
I just found your channel and am a new and instant subscriber. AWESOME videos and content. I'm not sure how I didn't find you sooner. I sold 3 different wood shops (equipment and all) in order to be able to move (once when I was active duty in the military). Because of your videos and inspiration, you just saved me money on buying a bunch of the same tools I had before to starting over with the minimum and doing woodworking like I've never done before.
Interesting about the 2x10s, I'll have to check that out. I do intend to go to the local lumber yard and get select grade 2x dimensional lumber for drying indoors. Unlike hardwood, softwoods are sold green and are considered a perishable product. So they need reasonably good drying conditions. In our area, softwood dimensional lumber is hemlock and balsam. Spruce is sold as plywood and Fir and Doug Fir are specialty products for large beams and post-and-beam construction. Pine is sold like hardwood and the cost is similar. I still do use softwood, but I think in terms of a year indoors for drying. Once dry and milled, it has great structural properties. It maintains its shape and won't be case hardened. But the surfaces are soft and don't finish very well, but there are still lots of great uses.
The softness of the surface CAN actually be a net benefit, though. Working on "period pieces" for pre-code houses and decoration, the softer surface takes "distressed aging" easier for quicker turn out... and it "shows age" as it's being handled. ;o)
The kitchen table I grew up with (a simple trestle table) was made of pine. It had some dents, and needed to be oiled once in a while, but it was sturdy enough, with a top that was perhaps 3 or 4 cm thick, and a similarly thick beam connecting 10 cm thick legs.
Enjoyed the video. Great point on selecting the wood grain. A tree does not know a lot, but it does know how tall it is and it lays down longer and stronger fibers the farther from the pith it occurs.
I love what you're doing here Rex. As I learn wood working, I tend to use both power and hand tools but learning from your videos helps in both approaches. As I spend time in my shop, I strive for skill, and although my skill is in it's beginning stage, I think back to the old wood workers who developed the craft and hope to even approach their level. Your site helps me do this in a sensible, practicable way. Thanks!
Remember to take it easy on yourself; we're all learning.
You are an inspiration man, thanks for your good work. Unfortunately in NewZealand here,we aren't blessed with lots of timber species. If you want to build something , you better like Pine. Cheers.
I'm quite fond of that New Zealand Pine. Very clear.
I used to work in the lumber department of Lowes. Sometimes there would be some yellow pine come in that was friggin beautiful. It had really nice grain and a nice deep yellow color. Not all of them are like that, but with some luck and time spent looking, you can get some very good looking wood at your big box store. Furniture doesn't have to be solid wood either. My uncle had a rocking chair made out of a sheet of plywood. The design was ingenious, I think it used only one sheet.
I bet that was very clever!
@@RexKrueger needed strips of real wood on the rockers tho, too much wear otherwise. I did that for him. He would rock in it for hours and hours.
Soft woods make your house and they’ve been standing for decades! Love your work Rex keep it up
You can use pine for Windsor chair seats. I'm just not a fan of using current costruction grade lumber. But it you can some Douglass fir from a house built in the 60's or earlier use, because it has tight growth ring per inch, than you currently find at the box store.
Basically all old furniture here in scandinavia have at least some parts from pine and many high end pieces that look like hardwood are actually veneer
Great video Rex! I completely agree with you on this topic. Pine is one of my favorite woods to work with because of all the qualities you mentioned! I built my end tables from it, and I also built my office desk out of it. And more recently, I rebuilt my wife’s closet using pine! It’s probably the most underrated wood on the market in my opinion.
Hardness =/= strength.
Pine was often used for shafts and axles in early mills and line shaft shops, despite thousands of acres of oak and chestnut available.
Old growth wood, that is diffuse porous, is very tough and resilient.
Old growth deciduous woods, like red oak and white ash, have a larger concentration of voids (pores) for any given cubic foot.
This reminds me of the time back in 1947. We were in a rented house without table & chairs in the kitchen. My dad brought home some Douglas fir and that evening he built a kitchen table and chairs for our family. He had only hand tools in 1947. Yes, he was a carpenter.
Doug Fir and southern yellow pine are both awesome to work with, especially if you get straight grain. Actually any straight grain pine is great to work with and looks good finished too. And, like you said you can't beat the price as long as you are willing to sort through stacks
hi there! Architecture student in her senior year here! I just wanted to thank you for such a helpful and thorough video about woods, as my study for my project this semester is on wood types. EXTREMELY beneficial, thank you so much again and hope you're having a great day!
Glad to help!
I was just at a hardwood store the other day picking up some basswood and realized how EXPENSIVE hardwood is. My woodworking skills are so paltry I'd be scared to mess up any other wood. The basswood is for carving, not good for much else. But this is great! Pine and fir are everywhere and cheap. And I do need a shop stool to sit on while carving!
Yeah seeing the prices of the "good stuff" is painful
Basswood is another “hardwood” (because it comes from a flowering, broadleafed tree) that is softer than most “softwoods.” Those terms can be misleading.
I can build damn near anything out of plywood and 2x4s! It ain't always pretty but it works!
In the mountain west, there is a fair amount of old furniture made from pine, aspen, and fir then have oak grain pattern hand painted on.
I have built hoist frames, engine supports, and all kinds of things from normal 2x4s supporting some serious loads in the past
If they'll hold your house up...
Absolutely right, Rex. Pine is certainly underrated! I think pine is beautiful. That's fortunate because, here, in London, it's extremely expensive to buy any other wood! (That's London, England, U.K.)
My box store (Menards) has many different dimensions of pine boards, but I may look through 50 boards before I can find one that is in good shape (not warped, twisted, disfigured, ...). I bring along a square to check if the board is OK especially to see if board is cupped, also lay the board on a stack of 3/4" sheets of plywood in the store and check all 4 sides.
Typed in 2x....and 2x4 chair was at the top of the suggested entries..... way to go!
If you want to make pine more durable, I have a solution. Mix one part of oil-based polyurethane with three parts of mineral spirits. Put it on liberally and let it soak in. Then finish as normal with poly, undiluted. The diluted poly soaks in and bonds the fibers of the wood, making it harder and more durable. This only works with the oil-based poly. I use the Minwax brand. 👍
Nice looking stool! I think that line can also be great to use because you don’t feel bad painting it. I made some great side tables and even a desk out of pine, and they look great painted. Thanks for another solid vid!
For generations pine has been used for furnitures in scandinavia and northern-europe. Spruce like Douglas or Sitka on the other hand have very little tradition in a furniture shop. The strength/price tag have made them very interesting lately for things painted or not visible. At the builders shop you get kiln dried materials at a fraction of pine. In forestry, spruce is making the owner a lot more money. It grows fastest and straight. I turn slender ballusters to be painted in spruce. For steam bending furniture parts I use spruce inside and some hardwood as the last layers.
Wood Database man.
I'm not a woodworker
I have nothing to do with wood
but i have spent MANY HOURS OF MY LIFE GOING ACROSS THE STATISTICS OF MANY TYPES OF WOOD
This is ofcourse an outlier and mostly just a fun anecdote, but have you ever heard about the tree border? It's used when talking about mountains and it signifies the place where trees can't grow anymore. The ones that do grow, grow really slow. So you end up with a pine tree that's 2 meters high and 200 years old. Extremely durable
Hey Rex, how many times did your projects come out horribly or outright fail when you first started out woodworking? I'm extremely new to it and every project I've tried to do has failed pretty badly. It kinda crushes my confidence to keep going when all the tools and materials are pretty pricey.
I have a similar experience. A good approach is to take on projects where mistakes may not be so devastating. My last little project was to make new drawers for a smallish, 30 year old Ikea cabinet in my garage/workshop. They're not perfect, it doesn't matter, and I got experience for future drawer building where it might matter. But foremost: Keep On Trying!
Start on easier projects perhaps and with exact plans you can follow. That's were I'm at right now and so far so good.
When braced properly soft woods are incredibly strong. Any of the tables I've built I use a 45 degree angle brace from 1/3rd way down the leg back up to the under side of the table top. If I don't need to sit at it I also 90 degree brace it a few inches from the bottom of each leg as well, just enough room to sweep or slide the vacuum under. My work bench, plain old framing stock, Spruce 2x4's, legs set at 15 degrees outward away from center and also turned 15 degrees away from square. No tipping or shifting. Save the hardwoods for the fancy stuff and even then you can use stain to make soft woods look however you want.
For people in the pacific northwest, hemlock is a superb wood for inexpensive woodworking. It has a gorgeous red-pink grain, and a funny quirk in that as it ages, it gets harder and harder. it can wind up harder than most hardwoods. truly underrated wood, and it's the main framing timber along with douglas fir up here in the northwest, so it's asolutely dirt cheap
My favorite gurniture wood is Southern Yellow Pine. My house was built in 1890. It is framed with Adirondack Red Spruce.
About the whole avoiding knots topic, I agree for the most part but I do think if you have the patience to work through a knot and get a good finish, they can look amazing with finish on them. Great video!
Pine, spruce, and fir are the common species of wood found in construction lumber around my region. Word to the wise, the water content inside is very variable so before building it would be prudent the sit on it for a month. If having reliable straight, stable legs say for a table... laminate two smaller pieces together and that protects against the wood warping
i have used pine for yrs, sanded and restained as long as you use the right fastners.
SYP and Douglas Fir are not available (or premium priced) in most of the US. What you get is spruce/pine/fir (SPF) even in #1 boards. At a minimum, I would use popular. Usually fewer knots and more even grain.
You know, here in Sweden they have used pine and spruce for centuries when making funiture. You will not make the exactly same thing as with fancy hardwood - but it works just fine.
Another great video! When shopping from the box stores, buy more than you need and wait longer then you want to to use them.
Very nice. Ive got some old growth and long leaf pine in my shop that amazes me with how dense it is. Love the tight uniform growth rings on it
About the 2x4 furniture... I built my room's door out of palletwood. Filled the nailholes with black epoxy. I think it looks gorgeous
If anyone has used cottonwood thats a underappreciated wood thats stronger and tougher than most pine even and although botanically its a hardwood its cheap like a soft wood at least here in western Colorado most people give it away as firewood
Cottonwood, in my opinion, does not make first-rate firewood (it sparks and pops a lot). But it’s good for carving. I’ve seen some nice art made of cottonwood.
It’s basically poplar. Same genus. So everything from drawer backs and sides to timber framing and log cabins.
Thanks
You're using a few terms interchangeably, but from a material science standpoint:
Hardness - resistance to scratching, marring, indentation.
Strength - amount of force per unit area (stress) that can be applied to a material before it yields (in this case, breaks - I don't expect very much plastic deformation in wood)
Elasticity (Young's Modulus) - amount of TEMPORARY deformation a material exhibits when a load is applied.
I made a set of bunk beds with pine. It took 20 2x6s.
My dad made a set of bunkbeds out of 2x4s when his second or third daughter was born. My sister is using them over 20 years later
I love tables made from douglas fur 2x8 or whatever custruction grade boards... but the biggest issue imho is drying and creating cracks or gaps, but i assume that is more to do with curing difference of building materials and fine wood working materials
Agent 47 is a woodworker? You learn something new everyday.
Sorry if I came in rude I'm Canadian🇨🇦
Everyone needs a hobby, and there is always an extra demand for large war drobes a grown man can fit into in his area.
@_ David _ lol
I got two #2 SYP 2X8s. I’m ready for this!
Awesome!
2x4 cantilevered chair is like a wooden Barcelona chair, looks awesome.
Here in Norway where i live, it's hard to get anything but Pine and fir, lots of forest here tho, but there arnt many hobby woodworkers i guess.. I was able to aquire Birch for my Ruobo bench, at a local sawmill, that birch has since been sold out, and they dont usually mill it, they say that the problem with Birch in Norway is that it's not very straight. About 18 years ago when i was studying woodworking, we did buy hardwood from a local sawmill, that mill no longer produce or sells it. I feel like everything today is just made for the average person who only uses pine and Fir for building decks or changing boards on their house, it's like old fine crafts has almost died out. Now it's not impossible to get hold of hardwood, but it's so incredibly expensive, you can buy expensive furniture for the price you would pay for the hardwood, except Birch. And that is probably down to that it's not massed produced, or it's only massed produced for furniture companies and stair companies. Oh i wish i had a small farm with a forest of hardwoods. I do envy you americans who can get it so easily, and probably for much less money.
Yes you can
Use quarter dawn pine it’s beautiful I’ve done it
Those Acme anvils are useful if you need to turn a pesky coyote into an accordion.
The actual definition for a hardwood is a tree with flowers and softwoods are trees without true flowers. Australia has many non-deciduous hardwoods. This puts trees like Balsa in the hardwood category and Cyprus in the softwood category which is just nuts.
Yup, Balsa is a hardwood. Strange.
“Deciduous” and “evergreen” are loose terms when applied to hardwoods and softwoods. Flowering plants versus coniferous plants is a more accurate terminology. You could also call them “broadleaf” and “needle” trees, but the leaves or needles of both types actually have a wide variety of shapes. Where I live, live oak trees are not deciduous (inasmuch as they have leaves year-round), but they are definitely hardwoods. (Live oak wood is considered less desirable than other species of oak for building, though).
Hardwood doesn't have to be deciduous, and doesn't always mean it's harder than than a softwood, balsa being one of the softest wood you can buy and it's a hardwood, all hardwood means is that it flowers.
A thing I struggle with, working with soft woods. If im cutting a material to an exact length, when working with metal or plastic I cut it over size and grind or file down. With soft woods the end grane is annoying. the plane or chisel seems to break off the fubers especially in the corners. So I'm back to using a rasp and that does the same thing on a smaller scale
Have you tried a disc sander? Works fine if you give the wood some time to cool down. If you dont have a disc sander try a sanding block with coarse sandpaper
Just a note on soft/hardwoods, its actually categorised by the seed types, not the properties of the timber. Balsa wood is a hardwood, known for being very lightweight, also breaks really easily and you can put marks in it with just a fingernail.
I wouldn't make anything like cabinets with pine though. It warps way too much over time and is a pain to remodel in the future.
I like and use Douglas Fir quite a bit, as well as yellow pine (southern - that's nearly impossible to find in California). The chief "cons" I've encountered are that the difference in hardness between early and late woods (the rings) can deflect tools and particularly fasteners. Light weight 18 ga brads from a pneumatic gun will literally ricochet or bend coming out in places you don't want a hole, much less a brad tip. Power drill twist bits can also deflect when they encounter a dense ring structure. The other problem that can emerge is sap (pun intended), which can cook out of green lumber for years, even kiln dried lumber may do this.
I go with Doug Fir most of the time. It's a good choice.
@@RexKrueger Another good thing is no one complains of you paint it. I haunt the "hardwood" lumber stores because they often carry vertical grain DF, which makes for nice looking, stable door frames in cabinets.
Good stuff, most beginners don't realize that different woods have such large differences in their properties....and you've reminding me of a few.
1:27 The softest wood is a "hardwood," so the overlap is not _just_ in the middle. It's basically the entire scale for the softwoods.
dunno what you talkin' bout willis! them 2x4 chairs are AWESOME! LOL!
I goggled, there were actually a few I liked. Dear lord do I have terrible taste?
Can you please please teach cross grain construction furniture builds. Methods for correction of this?
could be your best video yet-- very exciting idea, the stool
Yes balsa is best they should build bridges and hopes and dreams out of it
Balsa is a hardwood. It's deciduous.
Sort of like yew is a softwood. "Hard" and "soft" are random terms in wood science.
They aren’t random, but they don’t mean what newcomers to the art think they mean.
@@evanbarnes9984 i miss read that as salsa is a hardwood it is delicious
Also true.
No, wait ...
I'm from Sweden, the county where IKEA was born. Over here we have used pine and fir for building houses, small boats, furnitures, you name it since the stone age. The only thing to keep track of, is as you said the knots. The knots contains a higher concentration of resin than the rest of the wood and might be a problem if you are going to paint whatever you are building. Therefore, take in consideration of always using a base coat that locks the resin in so it doesn't start to shine through after a while.
The resin also have a tendency to shrink when it's drying, becoming brittle and causing the knot to loosen and fall out of the wood. One tip to get rid of knots is to just drill them out and glue in an other piece of wood. Works perfect on pieces that don't show on the finished piece or will be covered with paint.
When choosing lumber, look for construction grade lumber, preferably in the class C24, or the slight cheaper C16. Then you'll know that the lumber at least has some good construction qualities and it wont give you any surprises that you couldn't see beforehand.
When looking at the grain, chose lumber with as much dark lines as possible. The best lumber has a 50/50 dispensation between the light and the dark grains, giving the best average of hardness and elasticity strength. The best quality pine and fir has been growing between 3000 - 6000 feet above sea level where the summer and winter is equally long without any major sudden temperature changes.
If you have the possibility, try to soak pine or fir in white vinegar spirit, compress the wood tightly under high pressure and let it dry. Then you have your homemade light weight hardwood with completely different qualities.
Follow this link, it's a google image search for "furu möbler" and you will see loads of typical swedish and scandinavian style och furniture made of pine wood.
That's a pro-tip!
really cool style and all, i just dont get it with the hand powered Drill. there are also some nice very inexpensive things to modern technology
In Sweden they have found a skii made of pine that is over 5000 years old... quite good for a softwood. They also found a pine trunk thats 9500 years old!
I am not a woodworker, not at all... but, I do enjoy the material... keep up the great work!
I usually gather my own wood from the forrests around here. (Nw washington) got a lot of bigleaf maple, doug fir is a staple around here, and a lot of others.
I wish we had more Doug Fur here in NC in the box stores, you can find it in 4x4's although, 90% of it is pift. I priced out some Fur from a local lumber yard for porch Balusters, wow, the price has increased lately, oak was cheaper. I really like your approach to teach beginners practical techniques. Use the more affordable woods until you hone your skills. When I stated woodworking, I threw away 80% of my projects, but it doesn't matter! Every project is a learning experience, throwing away something that didn't come out perfect is still 100 times better than not even trying at all!
And all Pine is not junk wood. This falls into a different topic, that Rex could probably do a separate video about. I'm talking about Old Growth Heart Pine. I got my hands on some and it completely changed my perspective of Pine. This particular pine was reclaimed from 1840, I'm guessing it's 300 years old. It splinters easily but the gain is unbelievable. Anyone how likes pine should try to find some to work with. It's not that hard to find reclaimed wood. Happy wood working.
Pine makes excellent furniture.
Really interesting! 😃
All I have here is Garapeira, that is pretty hard... 😬 (But great for cutting boards!)
I'm going to try to get some soft wood! 😃
I've never considered soft wood weak just not rot resistant. But then I build timber frames for a living.
I've remodeled enough 300 year old houses to know it takes just as much to break it. I mean have you never been inside a castle. Go outside the lords quarters it's all just caladonian pine . Most Tudor houses are only oak on external walls. Interior stud is usually caledonian pine once you smash the wattle and dorb out.
But I'm tight anything I build I just smash up some pallets with a hatchet. Find the best bits run em through the resizer . I ain't paying for wood under 2 meters never gonna happen .
The sagulator is a very handy tool