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Woods of the World

Woods of the World (WoW for short) is a multimedia software application that contains information on 910 wood species and products, covering 95% of all the wood in trade. This information includes common names, common uses, distribution, environmental profile, physical and woodworking properties, mechanical values, video clips, products sources, and photos.

At one point, Woods of the World was available in several flavors including two CD products and WoW Online, an Internet based membership service.  However, it is now only available as a single CD product named WoW Pro that runs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. (Click the link above for current pricing).

I've used WoW Pro for a few years now and I'm continually impressed with how much information is available. If you look at the included bibliography, you realize just how much effort went into making this product. Although there are plenty of books on wood properties and uses, Woods of the World is the first serious effort to encapsulate this type of information into a software application. Kudos to ForestWorld.com (formerly Tree Talk) for filling a niche for all of us woodworkers.

When you first start the program, a Command Screen is presented that enables you to search for woods based on name or region. When you click on a species, it is added to your Work List at the bottom of the screen. Once you have your list compiled, you can then iteratively select each species in the list and pull up information about it using the Report button.  The basic information includes common names, common uses, physical properties (bending strength, stiffness, etc.), working properties, environmental profile, and reference sources. Other buttons can be clicked to view species distribution maps, photos, kiln drying schedules, miscellaneous tables, design values, and products sources. Like I said before, there's lots of stuff here!

One of the more interesting features is the Substitution tool. It uses the properties from any chosen species as search criteria to find substitutes for that species. If you're looking for a cheaper or more readily available substitute for a particular type of wood, this is nice.

The movie theater is also pretty cool. It consists of 13 video clips on subjects such as drying wood, making paper, cutting veneer, and furniture manufacturing. I particularly liked the video on sawmilling - it depicts the entire process from harvesting trees to cutting, grading, and stacking wood. Another neat feature allows you to simultaneously compare photos of up to 10 different woods - quite handy for finding just the right texture, color, and grain pattern for that special project you have in mind.

The interface is relatively straightforward although the navigation buttons aren't always consistent from screen to screen. For example, if you enter the Photo Library, the standard navigation buttons at the top of the screen are replaced with a new set at the bottom. You also have to use the Exit button to return to the previous screen. It would be helpful if each page had the same home page icon in the same location. The navigation also stumbled occasionally. For example, at one point while I was browsing through the Products Sources screen, the "go back to Woods of World" button was unable to find its way. By the way, the Products Sources screen is a handy way to find a company that sells a particular type of wood or product (although some of the information is undoubtedly outdated).

From a woodworker's perspective, the only thing that I feel is missing in Woods of the World is more of a narrative, "folksy" slant. It has lots of relatively dry facts and figures but not much in the way of wood history, machining and finishing tricks, human interest trivia, and so on.  If you ever read a wood article by Jon Arno, you'll know what I'm talking about. Given that the target audience is more than just woodworkers, this isn't so much a criticism of this product, but just something to keep in mind if you are a woodworker.

Bottom line: Woods of the World is an excellent reference source that will appeal to serious woodworkers as well as anyone who is really interested in learning more about different wood species. Woodworkers will appreciate the product's capabilities for identifying woods for particular applications and the color photos that give you a feel for how specific woods will look in use.