Id Wood App Reviews

No Alder? Can't believe this wood is missing. I was also expecting functionality to take picture of wood sample and have the ap provide possible matches. Should have researched more closely before I bought it

This app does not include one of the most economically important species groups, hard pines: long leaf, slash, shortleaf, loblolly.

There seem to be more common North American woods missing from the database than in it. Box elder, hard pine varieties among many others. While potentially useful it's clumsy to navigate and is missing far too many common varieties to be of much help.

Very limited data base. Only 1 sample pic per species. I work with a lot of exotics, and extremely limited there:•((

Lots of great information about hundreds of wood species. Only thing that occurs to me to improve is the search engine. The search function produces results do infrequently, I've learned NOT to use it, which makes finding info more challenging.

I'm trying to find a good guide for wood identification without carrying a book around. This app has good info but it's not functional enough. You can add woods to your favorites but then when you go to scroll from one to the next it's back in the main list mixed with African woods for example. It seems like it's just a database packaged nicely. Needs a back function, etc. I'd like to have a list of common American hardwoods I can quickly browse through. Disappointed I spent $5, right now this app is worth $1 or free until it has more function.

So many categories and ways to search with fantastic photos and extra tools

I'm new to Woodworking and this app has taught me so much about the different types of wood. It would be awesome if the developer could add an option to take a picture of a type of wood and it automatically brings up the info. Anyway, great app that has came in handy many of times.

This is a great app. Great for helping clients to understand properties of the different species of wood.

This is a great app. Great for helping clients to understand properties of the different species of wood.

Very thorough, great reference.

I bought the actual book many years ago, and I've had this app from the beginning. The app is easier to use than the book, and the selection is the same, or better. But a major problem is with the quality of the photos. Sometimes the photo is too close up to get a really good idea of the overall grain pattern. But worse, is that the colors are not corrected. On iPads, with their calibrated screens, this is disappointing. Too often, the color is nothing like the actual color of the wood. This color can significantly vary even among the same wood species when different examples are given. If they could correct the colors, that would go a long way towards making this app extremely useful in wood selection. Include two photos, one of a close-up, and one of a larger portion, and it would be about perfect.

There's a lot of great info, but the UI is frustrating (e.g., no back button), the organization isn't intuitive (e.g., the board foot calculator isn't on the calculator), and the glossary is incomplete (and some entries are rather brief). Not sad I bought it, but hopefully it improves. Another wish is to include info on woods used in instruments, but I can hardly offer that as criticism.

Really helpful. My clients love knowing about the kind of wood their project is made out of. I use it all the time.

I use alot of veneers and my clients really appreciate the photos and info on the different species. It does not replace a sample veneer catalogue,but to have this on hand,even in my phone, has been a great help.

the 5 stars is for the ipad it is hard to navigate the app on the iPhone

I'm a beginner wood worker and it had been a great tool for me. Lots of good information. Sometimes a little confusing to navigate around in. Would be nice to have more pictures of the wood samples. Maybe a a few different views of the grain.

Helped me a lot!

The wood samples are slow to navigate . After 2hours of trying to locate the calcular sample on the add I still can't find it . false advertising ??? If you want to calculate nails/lb as shown in add its not here

The descriptions of wood listed is pretty good but many of the woods that I used for turning are not listed i.e. cocobolo, olive wood, etc. would like go see an update that would add many of these woods.

Really good quick reference. Love the board/ft calculator.

Full of useful information. Would be nice to have pictures of actual tree to identify the lumber you could harvest.

All the data compiled about the wood is great. Although agree with many folks, seems as though the developer is slow to include more species. However, I find the app very easy to navigate, especially given the amount of data and reference material provided. I look forward to seeing more updates.

A lot of information, but without simple options to navigate the site it is tedious. You have to page through all of the indices sequentially - it is not possible to move directly to any of them.

I thought this app identified woods from a photo taken with my phone. This is not the case and if you have no idea what type of wood you're looking at this app isn't going to help. Plus, there is a lot of searching and scrolling to find information. I'm annoyed I paid $5 and now I'm just going to delete it from my phone because I'll never use it.

I've had this app for over a year now. So far I'm pretty disappointed in the wood selection. As a luthier I would like to see different grades of tone wood. Maybe even the ability for users to upload project photos that used particular woods. The navigation in this app is completely abhorrent. Trying to navigate it makes me want to go out and just buy a book. Not enough woods in this.

I use this to explore alternatives to planned species for a project. I don't need the expertise of the salesman to confirm wood traits.

I purchased this because I need a tool to identify common native American woods. It is mediocre at that task. The resolution is good but not excellent. There isn't much narrative that helps identify wood species, for example the size of the rays can help you distinguish between whit oak and red oak. The image in the app store show an end grain image, but I didn't find any end grain images in all the woods I looked at. The app has several tools that are probably useful, but they aren't useful to me. It will probably be enhanced over time but for now it is too immature for my needs. Wish I could get my money back.

Great app. Just wish it was easier to use.

Great app. It would benefit from from a measure of the strength of woods.

I love the app and all of the features... The BF calculator is indispensable, the glossary is just what any craftsman needs. Developers are very responsive with any help or questions that may arise. Thanks!

I like this app in helping me identify wood I am not yet used to. However, it needs updating as there is a lot of wood not yet in data base. Some woods used in turning really need included- different types of Olive, box elder, are just a couple.

My own fault I should have read more reviews. I like most, who are I’m guessing, wanted an app where you take a picture of a piece of wood and the app through the pic of the grain wood tell you what it is. Waste of 5 bucks

Tons of information

If you want a list of a bunch of different kinds of woods with a picture or two, then this reference is fine. However, if you are really trying to identify a type of wood, you'll come up short with this app as I did. There are not enough pictures or detailed descriptions of the wood to really tell because the photos shown look very similar for varieties. For example, by looking at the pictures I really couldn't differentiate between, say, black walnut from cherry. I was trying to identify the wood on pocket doors in an old Victorian house and this was no help. To do an adequate job identifying wood, you need some close-up shots, some pics of a large piece to show variation, some with different finishes, some quarter-sawn, etc. Different pieces will have a different look, and one or two small sample shots really won't do the trick. I ended up just doing a Google search for images and found a plethora of examples for free. I was disappointed I spent money for such a limited view here. Somehow I thought the description said you could take a picture of wood and it would help you identify it. That was why I bought the app. If really this is a feature somewhere, I have yet to find it.

Great product❗️ Tons of reliable info in 1 (1️⃣) Place 👏. Great Pix of wood (Very Necessary for Wood ID). If only 1 critisim it would be, no easy way when looking at wood sample to get back to list, & ability to 'order' wood differently, Otherwise Great ‼️

Has an abundance of wood types and good descriptions, uses and wood properties with a simple interface.

There is an extremely limited database. The application setup is not user friendly, and the app often crashes. Overall, for any serious woodworker it is a waste of money.

Not all woods are there. Hard to identify one by one. Navigation is hard. Very simple app. Just look it up on google.

Great info for everyday common woodworkers

Good app

A very abridged and and lightweight compendium of wood species. Not much specific information over species. It's more of a "common wood at a glance" than a complete ID tool. Many species left out or lumped into groups even when they are distinct woods. Photos are often not representative or are difficult to identify even with common woods like Douglas fir. More complete info available online wood ID sites and in books. Probably an ok app for the occasional woodworker or curious. Pretty disappointed as a professional. As it stands this is a $1 app, not $5. Save your money and get a book.

I don't like this app it only has 1/4 of the kind of woods out there it is not worth the money

A little short on some species...especially domestic. Navigation takes some getting used to. Overall, though, a handy pocket-sized tool. Good for showing a customer what wood choices actually look like.

This is an outstanding reference app for anyone who works with wood or wants to learn about the wood in our lives and worth every cent. It would be very cool to be able to take a picture of wood and have the app identify it, but that may be next to impossible to do, given the complexity in identifying wood. This is the next best thing, and you get to learn about other similar woods along the way. Nicely done, and highly recommended.

I’m greatly disappointed. I wanted a tool that could help me ID a piece of wood in hand. If this app isn’t worthless from a practical use standpoint, then it deserves the low rating simply on poor instruction and functionality. For example, I performed a search and got 75 hits, but the app only lets me see 50 of them. Way too many, but still, why can’t I see them all? And why can’t I narrow my search further? If you are looking for a simple wood ID tool, this isn’t it.

Lots of great info, find the app very useful. Wish navigation allowed you to go back one screen rather than start the search all over. As example if you go into the list for "use" and select "turnery" and select a wood u have to go back to the list screen rather than just back to turnery

Average info on basic woods. Doesn't cover enough.

It's a decent help, for a moderate amount of woods. The problems would largely be a lack of images for the woods. If anything, there might be an end grain picture, and one other image. The addition of a back function, a full list of thumbnails, without needing to select a letter category first. The last update being more than a year ago isn't confidence inspiring, either