Any good books or links for wood identifying?  

link in a thread
Somebody posted a great link not long ago. I sadly forgot to bookmark it. Can somebody else help?

sorry, I can't resist
yep, it's wood.

LOLOLOLOL
that's really tickled me, great book, but maybe a little involved for what I'm looking for!!
if there's a good link already up I'll go and have a good search for it, thanks

Paul Hinds / Hobbit House
Here:
http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

thank you fastfwd
just what I was looking for.
Bx

In my search for the same I'v...
In my search for the same I've come across any number of nice sites and literature. The main thing being...it takes a lot of practice to determine some woods.

I find wood ID madly frustrating
I can confidently ID wood I've seen thousands of examples of-- oak, pine, teak, rosewood, maple, mahogany (if accompanied by a Mahogany Association label, that is).
The problem with books on wood ID is that one can't possibly get a true idea of what a wood type looks like from a small swatch. I'm sitting at a rosewood veneer desk but I'd never recognize it from the samples on this website. (When colored wood stains enter the equation, fuggedaboudit-- "yep, it's wood" is the best I can muster.)
There's not only grain & color to take into account, there are differences of density that a photo can't possibly convey.
One might be better served by knowing which woods were popularly used when & where, then determine if your piece is one of those.

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I have a number of books but none i would recommend.
I rarely refer to them.
You could spend a lifetime working with wood and still get
stumped.
i'm guessing you just want to be familiar with mid-century
furniture?
Just get familiar with the basics. Google each of the woods you
would most like to learn and hit 'image'. It gives you a good
starting point.
I no longer get frustrated. I'm not sure if i ever did.
http://www.google.com/images?q=rosewood&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=...

"i'm guessing you just want to be familiar with mid-century furniture?"
Yep, correct.
I had been doing the googling but was having trouble deciding between elm and beech for a coffee table, what veneer was on a sideboard and whether some dining chairs were actually rosewood!!
I'm super happy to have just found this forum, SO much great information. But didn't want to start posting 'please id this' threads all over the shop.
I guess it's just a case of practice makes perfect and research, research, research.
Thanks for the advice on leaving the books, I'll stick with google for the mo then 🙂

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Just to confuse the matter, i could place a sample of beech, elm
and cedar with different clear coat finishes, no stain, and they
could all look very similar side by side.
It does make internet shopping difficult.
At this very moment i am mixing a half dozen custom stains. I have
a cedar cabinet that needs to match 50yr old cedar tongue and groove
walls. A prototype louan garbage can to match teak, etc.
pic below is cedar
(i know it is cedar by the smell)