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[BodyGripper]

I want to pretend that it matters what kind of wood I use.  If wood worked like it did in real life, what would be the best choices for various objects?  At the moment, I'm interested in walls, stairs, beds, and cages, but I'm interested in any recommendations. 

[Cuppsworth]

Hickory, oak, maybe ash. Mostly trees in temperate places, I would imagine.

[Montague]

IRL... ash, elm and yew are the best wood for bows. Since there is no elm or yew, I embark with tons of ash wood, since a -mango wood crossbow- makes absolutely no real sense at all. The underground woods like tower-caps and bloodthorn, I just don't really like using since I have no idea what the hell these materials are supposed to be.

As for furniture and the such, oak and cedar are good. Cedar is especially nice, since it is one of the lightest woods in DF. Good for shields, I guess.

Also, cedar smells good, which, IRL, is nice. All said, I only request ash wood from the liaison. That about sums up my thoughts on wood in DF.

[Agent_86]

As for furniture and the such, oak and cedar are good. Cedar is especially nice, since it is one of the lightest woods in DF. Good for shields, I guess.

But heavy materials are good for bashing heads in.

[twwolfe]

Heart Pine is nice for furniture. Its a pity you can never find a lot of it. It has a very enticing glow

[IronyOwl]

Wikipedia can give you some basic ideas on what each kind of wood is used for.

Oak and pine are generally good for anything. Ash is often valued for furniture, though depending on what you're caging you might want oak for its strength.

[Montague]

As for furniture and the such, oak and cedar are good. Cedar is especially nice, since it is one of the lightest woods in DF. Good for shields, I guess.

But heavy materials are good for bashing heads in.

Yep, that's right, I forgot about that. Too used to 40d, when dwarves endlessly twisted their embedded weapons in their enemies, rather then all this biting and scratching and shield-bashing. Just pull the damn thing out and swing it at them again.

[Lightning4]

For stuff you would want hardwood for (constructions? furniture? mechanics?)... the densest stuff is probably the best. I could be wrong but that's the correlation I see.

DF has two very dense woods, glumprong and blood thorn. They also both produce unusually-colored wood, which can either be a good or bad thing.
The densest real world wood it has is maple, which is also the hardest real wood present in DF. Ash and oak aren't far behind.

[Uristocrat]

For stuff you would want hardwood for (constructions? furniture? mechanics?)... the densest stuff is probably the best. I could be wrong but that's the correlation I see.

DF has two very dense woods, glumprong and blood thorn. They also both produce unusually-colored wood, which can either be a good or bad thing.
The densest real world wood it has is maple, which is also the hardest real wood present in DF. Ash and oak aren't far behind.

It's a real pity we don't have ironwood.  It has a density around 1200 kg/m^3 while most other woods are in the 400-600 range.

I wonder if something like saguaro wood wouldn't be good for cages.  It seems to be pretty strong and it usually comes in long ribs that would be great as bars.  In fact, I have a whole box full of little pieces of it sitting right behind me right now, which I used to measure the density and I've been trying to find out if there's anyone out there capable of duplicating my experiments to provide confirmation (or, even better, someone who can test the other material properties that could go into the raws).

[Naina]

Is bamboo a valid tree type? I know it grows as 'grass' tiles for the Panda people to eat. If it occurs as trees too, that would be an awesome cage material, as well as a neat material to construct temporary scaffolding out of.

[nanomage]

Is bamboo a valid tree type? I know it grows as 'grass' tiles for the Panda people to eat. If it occurs as trees too, that would be an awesome cage material, as well as a neat material to construct temporary scaffolding out of.

it does not. the best you can do is to mod the bamboo to bee shrubs, collest it and mod a custom reaction to make logs of it

[Satarus]

No love for mahogany furniture?  Nice straight grain with few pockets.  Also rather durable and resistant to rot.  Plus it has that nice reddish color that just gets better with age.

[Greyejoy]

If only South American Snakewood was in Dwarf Fortress. You can actually bend and dent metal with that stuff.

[Necro910]

As for furniture and the such, oak and cedar are good. Cedar is especially nice, since it is one of the lightest woods in DF. Good for shields, I guess.

But heavy materials are good for bashing heads in.

You can either have

a) Heavy shield. It's like duel wielding weapons! One axe, one mace.
b)light shield. Nothing can touch you! If your shield fails, you can dodge.

I prefer b, as you can only use one attack at a time in DF.

[monk12]

No love for mahogany furniture?  Nice straight grain with few pockets.  Also rather durable and resistant to rot.  Plus it has that nice reddish color that just gets better with age.

Plus it's fun to say. Mahogany. Mahogany. MAHOGANY. maHOGENY. HOGENYHOGENYHOGENY.  MAhogeny... Mahogany.