wood species question
Joe Wynsma
>I'm looking for a little advice on which wood species to use for a project. I'm building a play kitchen for my 2 year-old daughter. As a relative novice (and not an owner of a surface planer) I usually end up using home center/retail lumber store stock, but I'd like to know what wood species would be best for a project like this. I'm thinking fairly hard, closed grain woods. Also light in color as I intend to finish with a blue-toned water based stain. Maple seems the obvious choice, but I hate to use it as it tends to put my underpowered benchtop tools to the test! What about soft maple? How soft is it (compared to other species)? Any other woods I should consider? If I don't come up with another option I may go with my old standby--poplar.