A SMALLER SHORTLIST. A CLEARER START.
Find wood for your project.
Tell us what you’re making. We’ll suggest up to three materials to investigate, with the reasons and tradeoffs.
Your starting shortlist
How the finder makes its suggestions
GrainBench uses a small, manually written set of editorial rules—not an AI answer or a product-performance database. Project, component, finish, and exposure narrow the candidates. Your priority changes their order; ties follow the library order. Up to three candidates are shown, so this is not an exhaustive list.
“Less stock preparation” favors panel construction and selected component woods; purchasing pre-surfaced stock and your supplier’s services still matter. “Dent resistance” favors oak and hard maple for indoor consideration; it is not a measured hardness ranking. We do not estimate local price or availability.
Outdoor matches are limited to white oak and western redcedar for bench or table component investigation. An empty result means our current rules do not cover the combination, not that no suitable material exists.
Each result links to its material guide and reference. The final construction, material specification, support geometry, fasteners, exposure, and finish must be checked together. This is not a load rating or a complete build plan.