Wood : Identification & Use

Rating:
Summary: Greenish
Review: Every time a new book on wood is published I get my hopes up. This new book is closely comparable in set-up to 'World Woods in Color' by Lincoln, but with a bigger page size; illustrations of wood samples in the solid instead of veneer samples; and a lesser number of woods treated (203, versus 270 in the earlier book). The book has going for it that it is a hardcover on nice glossy paper, with the woods presented by botanical name rather than at random (i.e. by tradename); the extra size is occasionally used to present (in the margin) an object made of the wood in question, a distinct bonus. The book appears rather carefully edited and seems pretty much free of silly mistakes. That is the good news.
The worst thing this book has going against it is the color of the wood samples: this can be described as if the pictures (all, or most of them) have been shifted towards the olivegreen. Woods that should be bright and clear are presented as greenish: red oak is shown as distinctly green in color! Dark woods turn out close to black. Curiously this 'greenshift' only affects the samples: the finished objects in the margin appear unaffected, a most striking contrast. Lesser evils include a selection of surfaces that is not always to best effect; sometimes wood samples with defects such as knots or fungal infection were included; a few samples would appear to be of a wood different than they are supposed to be, but it is difficult to be sure because of the `green-shift' which obscures features. A few obsolete names were used (Chlorophora excelsa, Piratinera guianensis, etc), including a highly obsolete family name (Triplochitonaceae), but it is not all that uncommon for books aimed at the woodworker to have this wrong. Note that the misidentification (traditional in books aimed at the woodworker) of Brazilian tulipwood as Dalbergia frutescens is present as well.
All in all this looks to be a creditable effort at a middle-of-the-road-book that weirdly turned out wrong. On a value for money basis the `Good Wood Handbook' by Jackson & Day remains the top favourite, followed by the `Woodworker's Guide to to Wood' by Rick Peters. For the woodworker who already has these books and wants to go beyond that it is hard going. For pure information `A Guide to Useful Woods of the World' by Flynn & Holder (ed.) will be the best choice. For pictures `World Woods in Color' remains attractive (but beware the pitfalls!). This new book would unfortunately only be worthwhile for those who have the ability to do wholesale color corrections in their heads.