This course is designed to give you, the student, a grasp of wood characteristics which will result in more attractiveness and structural integrity in all your future projects. You will learn:

- the five parts of a tree trunk and the two that are most serviceable

- how wood structure makes end grain gluing worthless

- how to read wood grain and why its important

- how wood grain relates to wood movement

- why reading wood grain is critical to proper planing direction

- about wood strength and how heavy loads are handled with wood in compression

- how to avoid boards with uncorrectable defects

- how to select good boards

- what species and types of wood are suitable for your projects

- to do a “cut list” to figure out how much wood to buy for a project

- characteristics of veneers, plywood, and marine plywood

- when it is necessary to use dimensionally stable material.