20 Best Wood For Woodworking (2022 Updated)

I purchased this to use as a mount for a stag horn fern (plant) based on the recommendation of an online forum. I set some barely damp moss on it to gauge placement, about two minutes later, there was a loud pop that left us all very confused.

I went to actually mount the plant to the wood about 5 minutes after that, to find the thing nearly cracked in half. While this may be good for wood burning and similar purposes, think twice before using for anything else.

I would return this, but unfortunately the nearest Michaels where I purchased this is close to an hour and a half away and it’s not worth the round trip.

I find wood burning on basswood to be my favorite wood so far. The live edge is a popular request for my commission work and, after enough prepping, it’s easy to burn. However, sometimes it’s not worth online ordering as last bulk batch I received contained unworkable knots and blemishes so it will take some creativity to use the rounds: I know that’s the beauty of trees, but it would be nice if order pickers thought like us crafters.

;).

The sides did flake off a bit. I used these as centerpieces for my wedding to put my table numbers one but it was good slice of unfinished wood. My uncle in law liked them so much he asked to take them home after the wedding.

He is very artistic so I’m sure he will be able to do something fun with them. I used them before and did a mod podge of a picture for my dad. He still has it and it looks great!.

They will not post your review if it does not benefit their product! False advertising and fake reviews! Big corporations selling inferior product to make a buck! Made in China! Enough said.

Aggressively cupped. Not really rocklers fault, I guess, but unusable and the boards cost more than they would have from another supplier. Just go to the lumberyard locally and pick your pieces yourself, at least then you can grab screwy lumber that is usable for your purposes.

Clean top grade dowels that have a label on each that troubles some users. Peel the shiny side off, don’t worry about all the paper and sticky stuff. I dunked in limonene (citrus oil) for two minutes and blotted away the residue with good paper towel.

Don’t scrub, may have to fine sand down if the grain expanded.

I used these dowels to make spin tops. Drilling a. 5in hole in a square 2 x 2 x 3/4 hard maple blank and gluing in a 6 in piece of this dowel I was able to make many spin tops without any breakage of the dowel.

This was not the case when using Big Box dowels. I was also able to make very thin finials. I intend to buy more.

Dowels can in a box and seemed to be ordered from store in the next city 2 hrs away. The dowels are okay, but many of them are warped and not straight. Since I was cutting them to smaller size, this wasnt too much of an issue.

The dowel rods were exactly what we expected. We cut them into 3 pieces for a craft. They were a good quality.

Bought for roman blind slats. Brilliant, they are lightweight but rigid and can be cut to length with 7 inch diagonal pliers

As described. Delivered before assigned date.

All parts are clearly numbered and match the instructions. I did have to study the instructions and lay out everything before assembly. I am very happy with this product. I set my short router table on it and I plan on making a clamp on jig for it so it can double as a base.

Overall this is a nice table. A bit more flimsy than I was expecting though. The shelf doesn’t line up perfectly but that’s not a huge deal. I would definitely recommend this table for the price.

I am in the process of restoring a 1929 Philco “Baby Grand” radio. The radio was veneered in walnut so since I had to replace the front panel of the cabinet, I needed a veneer that looked the part. What I got is strips of plain sawn pattern veneer.

What I needed was something at least rift sawn for the tight, even grain that is on the rest of the cabinet. As it stands, I have 12 square feet of worthless veneer. I gave it two stars since it is technically walnut and came wrapped in a nice package.

The only worse thing would have been rotary cut veneer. Since I have no retail store nearby. I must trust to the catalogs for items like this and wonder who would waste time veneering a project with such wild grain patterns as this.

Now I need to begin again looking for what I need.

Arrived in good shape – well protected. What more can you say? It’s maple and, as expected, good quality. I have yet to use it. Thought it might work for some fancy cutting boards.

These basswood sticks are very good quality. The only minus is that the barcode is not at the very end of the stick. So, if like I, you just cut off that annoying section, you lose a chunk of your stick.

too bad they have to “damage” otherwise nice materials this way.

I used the basswood sticks to glue parallel channels into a box so I can slide my painted boards easily into and out of those grooves. Now I have a box with parallel channels where I can store all my oil paintings vertical but separated from each other while they spend months drying.

I use all sizes of wooden sticks to finish mostly of my mixed media pieces. There are some sizes that nowadays are hard to find, and I am extremely pleased with options offered by Bus Nosen Basswood.

Their products are very refined and perfect for my line of art.

The piece was significantly bowed in two directions. So I guess it was quite bowed along the long 4-foot edge, but it was also cupped across the 5-inch length. This made it a pain to use, but I was on a deadline and managed to force everything into compliance.

Other wood I got in the package was straight and flat. Just got to roll the dice I guess. The wood itself had a decent appearance, but hardly any figuring typically seen in quarter sawn oak. Just a couple rays.

I was not impressed. Too bad since this is my first purchase from you. the boards were not really heavy on the quartersawn grain, they are rather plain. Plus, one board has a massive hole in it as well as some gouges.

I understand we are dealing with natural products here, but you could’ve selected one in better shape. The Purple Heart wood i got was nice though.

At first, I ordered this oak lumber online. When it arrived, I was shocked to see that the lumber was warped, had knots and splits. It was quite unusable for my woodworking project. I returned this sub-standard lumber to my local Rockler store in Concord, CA.

I showed the store clerk the defective lumber and they happily exchanged it for a perfect piece. The clerk noted to me that the warehouse staff just grab anything and put it in a shipping carton. I will NEVER order lumber from Rockler online again.

This is not Blick’s fault as I’m sure Midwest Products packaged the wood. Within the 5 pack, the outer boards look great. Open it up and sandwiched in between are boards that are very notty- LOOK AT THE PICTURE.

I cannot imagine that this is an unintentional mistake.

Midwest has always sold quality wood for the modeler to use. I actually sold there products in my Hobby Shop until I retired in 2013. Someone complained about the labels but Midwest has done this on their sheet wood ever since we first purchased from them (actually from distributors).

Not difficult to work around. I cut length from the opposite end or the label can go on the hidden side of the project.

I have purchased these in the past and this time I was very pleased to find that they were a little thicker than normal, making my need for them so much easier. The employee at the store was very helpful in helping my husband find them as I sent him on mission to buy them.

Always please with selection and helpful and friendly staff.

I give the product 5 stars. It’s beautiful wood and quality craftsmanship. The seller and Houzz were less than stellar. 2 days after shipment was due I emailed, them phoned. Difficult to get a response from Houzz.

The shipment began 3 days later. I felt like they didn’t attempt to ship until I complained and threatened to cancel. You can do better!.

Our corbels arrived on time, were installed a few days ago by our builder, and look very nice even though they are not painted yet.

These are going underneath a Craftsman bay window. Perfect.

I have had this item for about a month. I have had no issues with stability – it seems sturdy and not in need of any extra bracing, as some reviews have suggested. As others point out, the top is only 3/4″ or so thick.

The edges make it look 1. 5″ thick. So maybe not the best for really heavy work, but fine for me as a weekend woodworker making things around the house and for the grandkids. Please note the item is made primarily of two different wood products.

The first is small (6″ to 12″ or so) lengths of unnamed hardwood splined together to make boards which are then glued (I assume) together to make the legs and top work surface. The splines are all well done and the surface well-finished with a smooth satin finish overall.

Too early tell about the durability of the finish under use. The second wood product is a particle board or MDF type board with a wood veneer where necessary (drawer sides and bottoms, drawer supports.

) I surmise part of the reason the cost is relatively low may be the re-use of wood scraps and sawdust and chips, perhaps from other wood products of the company. I did not assemble the drawers since I do not need them and I have read the critical reviews about the fit.

Drawer guide do have some sharp edges. When assembling the drawer support pieces to the legs and top, be sure to include the screws that fasten these items to the both the legs and the pre-assembled top support strip that runs across the bottom of the top.

– that should help with the stability. There is no built-in provision for leveling the legs on uneven floors, but use woodworker ingenuity if needed for your floors. The written instructions were terse and not the clearest, and steps 11 and 12 seemed to still need updates from the previous 4-drawer model.

Watch the assembly video Harbor Freight provides – it is more up to date and pretty clear. The video emphasizes parts orientation and includes assembly tips that are presented better in the video than in the written instructions.

I did not have a helper to assemble the workbench and found it no problem to turn the top over to attach the legs and then set it upright to install the vise (and drawers if you use them. ) A helper is recommended if you need to move the finished bench to a different location than the spot you assembled it.

The item comes all in one 114-lb. carton. It could be unloaded without help by opening the box in your vehicle or where the delivery people drop it off and taking out the pieces a few at a time. Everything was well-packed and there was only one small blemish on the bottom of one of the side rails, not critical or noticeable when assembled.

No parts were missing, and a few extra fasteners were included. The workbench was assembled using only a Phillips screwdriver and the supplied hex wrench. Other reviewers complain about the numbering on some pieces.

I found the numbers useful to help make sure I used the correct parts when several parts looked almost the same but were different. In the finished bench, the numbers remained hidden from normal view.

I would allow two full days to completely assemble the workbench and the drawers, taking the time to confirm the right parts were installed with the right orientations at every step.

I bought this in lieu of the 4 drawer model they’ve discontinued. That model can still be seen on HF’s website at the time of this review, along with it’s middling overall score. Among some of the more prevalent complaints was an apparent QC issue with the drawer slide alignment.

I took this 3 drawer offering as an approach to reducing the complexity of the drawer alignment by 25%. A kind of strange solution given whatever issues were going on were either equipment, labor or repeatability related.

Pairing down the number of drawers without addressing the systemic issue still results in f@#&ed up drawers. QC must be non-existent. Of course, I’d hoped the reduced number of drawers was an indication that HF had recognized the issue in the previous run & was a mere indication of what should have been a number of other efforts to make this model a success.

ABSOLUTELY NOT. My second issue is that the product doesn’t match the manual. The manual instructs you to place left, right, front and back pieces according to stickers or markings that do not exist.

I spent a days worth of critical thinking juice in the hour or so assembly. The fact that the drawer assembly and installation is the final step really chapped my donkey. At first I thought the drawer issue was on the mating part of the slides that is on the sides of each drawer.

So I spent a bunch of time removing them, filling the holes with glued matchsticks and carefully sawing off the excess then realigning the slides so they ran parallel to their sides. They were simply all over the place so I figured that had to be the culprit.

Imagine my outrage after spending all that effort only to find that the mating parts on the actual carcass were similarly, apparently, installed by the same far eastern toddler? Way to go, Harbor Freight! This is the last time I buy anything north of a bottom shelf item from you guys.

What a shame y’all still haven’t worked out a better balance between cost:quality. The irony is yeah, I’m getting into woodworking but building a workbench from scratch isn’t a priority. Given all the time and energy I’ve spent on this -still with messed to drawers I feel even more ripped off.

My time counts for something!.

It wouldn’t have taken much more to make this a good quality workbench. The unit as a whole is pretty nice for the price until you go to put together the sliding drawers. They used good quality wood on everything except for the drawer sides where the sliding mechanism is attached.

Here they decided to use some pressed paper or carboard product which virtually disintegrates if you have to deviate from the pre drilled holes like I did because the holes were not located correctly.

All of the drawer sides had mismatched holes. That’s a total of 6 drawer sides with misaligned holes. To make matters worse, the sliding rails and relievers were either misaligned or the drawers are wider than they should be which creates friction when opening and closing.

Two of the drawers are very difficult to open and shut. It’s all more aggravation than what’s it’s worth which is a shame because they could have easily put more quality into the sliding drawers. The price makes this workbench attractive but be warned! You will have to spend your precious time fixing or replacing the drawers!.

I absolutely use this companies balsa products exclusively. My whittling shop is stocked with their big blocks and thick planks for hand whittling all kinds of dolls. It’s soft and easy to cut with a paring knife too.

Available at Hobby Lobby.

Just what I needed good price

High quality balsa wood ,excellent for sheeting wings and fuselages on RC airplanes

Used it with my Cricut Maker to create a 3-D style name plaque. It was flimsy and I was worried as this was my first go at it, but it turned out great.

This is a wonderful material to use for diy small animal chew toys.

Ordered these to use for a guest “book” and comment register for my husband’s retirement reception. It worked beautifully! Will be hanging them in his office at home. He got everyone’s signatures and memories in a format that lasts forever.

Thank you!.

Came shrink wrapped individually. Very nice quality. Beautiful addition to a natural themed event. Goes with burlap or buffalo plaid very nicely.

Arrived VERY well packaged. Each strip is finger joined which was an unexpected and great surprise as cheaper wood counters are often just glued. This being UNFINISHED was of optimal importance to me as others already have an oil in them, which is incompatible with my chosen finish of pure tung oil.

Be aware of this. We went against recommendations of finishing immediately and let it climatize unwrapped in a neutral spot near our kitchen where it was installed, this may not be a good idea for others and may void warranty.

We did so as we run strictly wood stove near our kitchen and if wood is going to flex, we wanted it to so before installation. This is a great product for people who have realistic expectations of hardwood and the possible issues that can arise even from a near perfect piece, like when cutting to shape you may come across surprise knots that can splinter or need filling, etc.

The piece has one good side, as many products do. Be AWARE of how close you are cutting to finger joints and stay at least an inch away. We had professional help cutting to shape and joining but I am finishing it myself with 100% pure Tung oil, which in my opinion and thorough research to be the best option for water resistance and actual use.

This isn’t just for looks, i will be cutting, butchering, dough kneading etc on this. Pure tung oil requires a LONG application process with drying times between each coat of up to or beyond a week, with up to or beyond 6 coats for best durable results.

I have another counter finished in this way and it beads water for days. Pure tung oil ALSO polymerizes naturally, so it dries and hardens within the wood, unlike the often used mineral oil. Do your research thoroughly if finishing yourself.

Beware of articles written by the product’s company and blogs, even beware of some professional sites and the finish info out there. Finish all sides and cuts no matter what you use for even flexion as it moves with the moisture content of your house’s climate.

The most important thing with hardwood countertops is to have realistic expectations and do some research. I personally will be using mine to cut and cook on. To cut and butcher up meat etc, and look forward to the character that will bring.