About This Site

By Donald is a compact reference for hobbyist woodworkers in the United States — the person building bookshelves, cutting boards, and the occasional wobbly first workbench in a garage or basement shop.

The site does three things. It maintains a wood species comparison table covering the common project woods sold at US lumber dealers and home centers. It publishes short guides that each answer one specific question — about lumber sizing, wood movement, glues, finishes, dust equipment, and tool purchases. And it points readers to the primary references worth knowing about, especially the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook, which is the closest thing woodworking has to an authoritative textbook and is freely available from the federal government.

An honest note on what this site is and isn't: these pages are reviewed reference material written in plain language. They are not professional advice, and nothing here substitutes for the manual that came with your tools, the label on your finish can, or hands-on instruction. Where a topic touches health or safety — fine dust, finishing fumes, blade guards — the guides explain the equipment and cite the relevant public authorities, and they leave decisions about your health to you and the professionals. Questions and corrections are welcome; accuracy matters more here than volume.