The Real Wood Bible: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Choosing and Using 100 Decorative Woods

by Nick Gibbs

A practical and inspiring A-Z guide to the world's most popular woods. Wood is a favored building material because of availability, ease to cut and join, decorative properties, functionality, flexibility, and a favorable strength-to-weight ratio. The Real Wood Bible is a comprehensive handbook for anyone who works with wood...or is planning to. Woodworkers, crafters, carpenters, and interior designers will find extensive information about the woods they regularly use as well as discover some new ones. This colorful, easy-to-use book An extensive and illustrated A-Z guide to the world's most popular woods is the heart of this book. Each wood is shown with a color illustration demonstrating the true look and beauty of the finished and unfinished grain. A special section on sustainability is included, with an introduction to key conservation issues. The Real Wood Bible is the essential reference for the appreciation of the practical beauty of the world's most popular building material.

Genres: Woodwork, Nonfiction, Reference

256 pages, Spiral-bound

First published August 6, 2005

Reviews

[Andrew]

This is not so much a book to read as it is a good tool to explore the different woods available for fine woodworking and wood turning. Great to have close at hand when dealing with Clients who may not have a clue or idea as to the wood they request vs the better choice.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better "wood" books I've seen. Lots of information on wood types and uses. The photos were particularly good. I'll probably buy a copy to keep as a reference.

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource for all your wood-choosing needs.

[Julia Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely collection of pictures and descriptions of woods and their various uses, and how to substitute woods.

[Michael Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful for someone looking into identifying lumber and how best to use it. This is much more of a reference resource to have on your shelf than a teaching tool for woodworkers.

[Gary Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know about Bible — but it is basically an incredibly valuable visual dictionary

[Read Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the title is misleading. I think this is more of a "Primer" than a bible.

Still a good book overall. It includes a short segment on gathering and storing your shop lumber inventory. There is a lot I have to learn about wood and woodworking. This is a handy reference source for picking material for my next project. It is a little on the large size to take with me on my shopping excursions, but what "woodworker" is going to admit their inexperience by whipping out this book in front of the shop staff? Well, I guess it might be me. It should at least be good for my discussions of projects at the conceptual planning phase.

It is a GoodReads for my reference library.