the Best Wood for Outdoor Projects is...

K&J Merch:

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Tired of dealing with rotting wood and expensive replacements?
We're gonna look at the best options for your outdoor projects.
From the durability of White Oak to the misconceptions of Cedar, we'll explore the pros, cons, and hidden secrets of different wood species and even species based on their regions.
Guiding you on how to make your outdoor furniture or structures last a lifetime, even in the harshest climates.
Regardless of if it is the best wood for outdoor projects. or the best wood for out door furniture. We will look at different lumber species that will be prefect for your outdoor benches, outdoor tables, your pergolas, garden boxes, fences, posts, beams.. anything.
Plus, I'll reveal a groundbreaking technique that can transform any wood into a weather-resistant masterpiece!
Get ready to transform your backyard into an outdoor haven that stands the test of time. #bestwoodforoutdoorprojects #DIYoutdoorfurniture #outdoorliving

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:53 Regional Woods + Tips for building.
3:29 The First Local Recommendation.
5:22 The Second Local Recommendation.
6:25 Do NOT Use Red Oak! Finish Tips etc.
7:10 Looking at options.
7:38 Shou Sugi Ban. or correctly named: Yakisugi.
11:43 Mystery Customer Reveal.
12:15 Go Build Stuff!
12:33 Bloopers.

[MrSummerbreeze]

​ Black Locost: hands down best outdoor wood. When the Archeologists excavated the Jamestown, VA site, they found sound B L foundation timbers. Grows fast but does not necessarily die young. Unless it grew in forest, tight light conditions, or was pruned while young itmay be be knotty On well drained loamy soils grows to 100' and lives over100 years. I have many such trees in my woodlot. In addition its a Nitrogen fixer so other hardwoods love to grow around its roots and the leaves are high N too. I have wagons with 2" planks with no rot after 30 years outdoors with no preservatives.

[disqusrubbish]

A note on Yaki Sugi. The side of the plank closer to the center of the tree is the side you burn. That's the side a Japanese carpenter will have facing out on siding, because the side of the plank closer to the bark is the side that will cup. If it cups, they want the edges of the plank to pull closer to the building. If the bark side is out and it cups, the edges will try to pull away from the building, possibly leading to moisture or wind getting behind the plank. (On the interior of the building, the bark side is facing the interior because it's normally the better looking side.)
Oh, and the Japanese guys who do the burning will tell you you burn it until you think you've ruined it. Haha.
Since "Sugi" is cedar you have BBQ Pine. Maybe Sugi Matsu depending on the species.

[Gundog]

It’s refreshing to listen to a lesson from a man that doesn’t say “Um”, “like”, “ah”. Good speed and no wast d words! Good job!

[BobBlarneystone]

I just rebuilt a deck that I built 30 years ago with WRC that was never coated with a finish. The surface was roughened, but after removing 1/8" with a planer, the underlying wood was as good as 30 years ago.
Also, I made a garden bench from Douglas fir and charred it (shou sugi ban) and scrubbed it hard with a wire brush. It's been on the front porch for about 10 years and is in good shape.

[CALB]

My Dad and I built an all white oak fence at their home in Iowa back in 1984. My parents moved several years ago, but I drove past our old house last year in 2024 and the White Oak Fence is still standing as strong, straight, and solidly as it did in 1985! THAT'S 40 YEARS OF DURABILITY! The posts were reclaimed 6"x6" white oak from a 150 yr old barn in NE Iowa, which my Dad had torn down for the owner in 1974. He stored all the lumber for 10 years in an extra single car garage on our property. The fence boards were reclaimed from the same barn and had been used as the exterior barn siding. They were originally at least 16" wide, so my Dad planed the surfaces and ripped each of them down to 5" wide fence boards that were 1.5" thick. As you can imagine, these white oak boards were as hard as concrete, so a nail gun would not work on them. We had to pre-drill micro holes for every nail location in the boards, before we could hand drive in every single stainless steel 3.5" nail. It was a LOT of physical work, but well worth it, considering the fence is still going strong 40 years later!

[chriskoch]

My dad, former Coast Guard, and a bunch of his buddies hand-built a replica 18th Century 3 masted tall ship out of white oak back in 1968. It's still sailing just fine.

[DT-ylyb]

We have a corn crib at our farm in Maud, OK that my wifes grandfather built before 1900. It is still standing and in use today.. This corn crib was made from white oak that grew and was cut on our farm. More amazing is the fact that it has never been painted. I had one board on the corn crib that I removed and took home. At home, I examined the board more closely. The outside appeared very rough, many cracks, etc.... For kicks, I ran it through my planer and was amazed that the inside was not cracked at all. It was a very beautiful piece of wood. I plan on making a small box for my wife out of it.

[DennisMathias]

You know, I'll bet you never would have guessed you would be making videos 20 years ago! Look at those subscribers! Now, I'm hundreds of miles away from you but just look at what I've learned. Youtube is such an amazing thing. This would have take hours of research at a megacity library. And here it is right in my hands. And you're so entertaining you should be on SNL or Jay Leno Show..if there was a Jay Leno show.

So, now I'm a Lumber Jack and I'm okay!

[MichaelRatkowski-ux]

I live in a white oak log house built in 1870 in Wisconsin, logs have never had finish on them and still look fantastic.

[dougscott]

Thank you for the knowledge, Been working with wood since 7th grade, I'm now 68, but I'm
building furniture and repair.

[jaimebrownell]

I am building two Adirondack chairs with white oak. The wood is very dense and heavy.
I decided to make the chairs with white oak because I worked in the railroad industry for twenty-one years.
The best wood railroad ties are made from white oak.
The railroad ties lasted thirty years, even in a salty air environment.
A word of caution for any woodworker working with white oak is to be sure to pre-drill prior to driving screws.
If not, the screws will snap, especially if using stainless steel screws. Coating the screw threads with wax will also help the screws thread into the wood more easily.
As someone commented. White oak has become extremely expensive.
The lumber for the two chairs cost me over $500 two years ago.

[riknitzburg]

Awesome that you acknowledge the toxicity and environmental issues of pressure treated. I hate that everything is pressure treated

[MtlCstr]

Another hearty rot resistant wood we have in the Southeast is Black Locust. Makes great fence posts.

[onedbell]

Dude you are informative, funny and inspiring. Keep it up!!

[OwlMoovement]

Fun video. Thanks kindly for making it. Another couple adds about yakisugi (sorry if they're repeats, I only ctrl+f'd through the first load of comments).
- The "sugi" in yakisugi is the specific Japanese cedar traditionally used, but you're right that the process can basically be used on any variety. Guessing the benefit of thujaplicin stacks nicely as a second line of defense behind the charred skin.
- The char is inherently rot and bug resistant as it has little nutritional value for fungi and pests who aren't willing to eat through it to reach the unburned wood, but I believe it's usually still sealed with a lacquer to repel water. Charcoal has a very fine, porous/spongy form that is actually great for holding water (think biochar).
- As I've seen and tried a few times, the triangular tube is stood up on end, slightly leaning on something tall and a small fire is lit at the bottom. This reduces the amount of kindling you need and uses a bit of a rocket/chimney effect, pulling air up through the fire at the bottom while the wood itself becomes the main fuel for the burn. It's really quite dramatic seeing the fire erupt out of the top. Kind of a good demonstration of why those of us who still use chimneys want to avoid a creosote fire :D

[DocWiggles]

I am old enough to remember going to a real lumber yard with my dad. Young enough to never go to them myself.
There is only 1 mill within realistic driving distance - they are very proud of their business & not nearly as knowledgeable as this guy.

It would be great to have a local resource such as this businesses. Unfortunately, across all industries, these types of businesses are all but extinct it seems.

Great vid.

[bruceuthus]

Dude, love your videos because you just act like yourself, genuine. Only question I have is how do I get a belly like yours, that's badass!

[ern]

Nice video, burning the wood really does work!. When I was a kid my dad pulled some red cedar gate posts out of the ground in a coral that had been buried well over 30 years. The surface of the buried post had been burnt and it looked just as good as the day it went into the ground. Depending on the soil and ground moisture 10-12 years would have been about the maximum life expectancy of a red cedar post in our area.

[robohippy]

The west coast Indians used that burn method as well, mostly with split cedar planks and would stick the ends in the fire since end grain is where most of the checking/splitting happens first.... Also, from the mid west farmers (I grew up in Misery), "A black locust fence post will wear out one fence post hole. An osage orange fence post will wear out 2 fence post holes". The locust is ideal for split rail fences, depending on how much you have around....

[phoenix]

Nice job, loads of information delivered with no fluff. Glad I ran across your video. Keep up the good work and thanks.