Is Pine Good For Carving?

We have mentioned before that we are not wood carvers, but we have friends who are.  When we have questions about carving, we turn to them and follow their advice. In order to answer the question of this article, we …

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Does Pine Stain Well?

While we have moved away somewhat from default staining our woodworking projects, turning instead to wood oils or products like Rubio Monocoat, we still will occasionally use a wood stain as part of finishing the project.  Stains come in a …

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Can You Use Pine For A Cutting Board?

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t use a wooden cutting board in my kitchen.  All of my cutting boards are wooden, although I’ve used hard plastic cutting boards in the past.  Two are of bamboo, and one is …

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Is Douglas Fir a Hardwood Or A Softwood?

In a previous article, we asked the question of whether something that was hard can also be soft.  In this article, we ask in the reverse:  can something that is soft also be hard?  We’re talking wood here, and we …

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What is The Difference Between Whitewood and Pine?

Wood comes in a variety of colors by name – redwoods, green wood, and even whitewood. Redwoods get their name because of the bark and heartwood, with their reddish-brown color.  The color comes from a high tannin level in the …

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Is Pine a Hardwood Or A Softwood?

We all know the words hard and soft, and we know what they mean, generally.  When it comes to wood, though, it is not quite so intuitive as we might think. Those of us who work with wood know that …

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Is Pine a Strong Wood?

We’ve written of hard and soft woods in the past, and each has its best uses in a woodworking shop.  Don’t conflate hard and soft as strong and weak, though.  When used in the right projects, all woods have strengths …

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Is Poplar Stronger Than Pine?

Is a hardwood a hard wood?  That may seem like a silly question, but it is a fair one, and the answer depends on something called the Janka test.  It also depends on the wood to which one is being …

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