Q: Where can I locate a very complete listing of most of the exotic woods of the world, which specifically lists specific gravities, densities and weight-per-board-foot. I'm currently building up a few samples using wenge, padouk, zebrawood, purpleheart and bubinga. That is our marketing niche using the highest quality exotics at affordable prices.

A: A great deal of information about native and some foreign species is contained in the "Wood Handbook," which was written by the U.S. Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wis. It is available online at http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm. or in many bookstores. Another good book with color pictures and quite a bit of information about the tree and wood is "A Guide to Useful Woods of the World." This was prepared by the International Wood Collectors Society and is available through the Forest Products Society, http://www.forestprod.org