wood

As a designer ,always wished to have a workshop of my own,where i can myself try to make some small peices of furnitures etc...and even make my carpenters work on some exclusive deigns...
wood being my most fav material of use,i wanted to add few lines about this.
the versitality of wood,the uses to which wood can be put seems endless.so common its become in our everyday that it is often taken for granted and hardly recognised for its value.
There are many things that we should know about wood,like properties of wood,colour of wood,and most important as a designer in selecting wood.
selecting wood means how to buy wood,grading woods,defects in woods.

Buying woods.
Timber suppliers usually stock the softwoods that are most commonly used for carpentry and joinery.
generally sold as dimesion or dressed stock.most hardwoods are sold as boards of random width and length,although some can be bought as dimensions stock.

Grading woods.
softwoods are graded for evenness of grains and the amount of allowable defects,such as knots.
hardwaood are graded by the area of defect free wood.the greater the area,the higher the grade.the most suitable grades for general woodworking are "firsts" and "FAS"(firsts and seconds)

Defects of wood
wood when not dried carefully ,can be difficult to work with.
check the surface for obvious faults such as splits,knots and uneven grain.
by looking at the end section you can also see how it was cut from the log.
sight along the length to test for bowing.
under this more to come...
surface checking
honeycomb checks
shakes
dead knots....etc