v0.31:Wood

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Wood is produced by Template:L Template:L to be chopped down. Any Template:L with the Template:L Template:L enabled and access to a Template:L will cut down the trees, which will turn one tree into one log, the raw form of wood.

"Timber" is the name of the ninth month of the dwarven calendar, covering late Fall.

Growing

Template:L start their lives as saplings. Saplings cannot be cut down until they mature into full-grown trees, which can take several years. Saplings will randomly appear in appropriate outdoors Template:L and Template:L underground areas (underground areas will only start to sprout saplings once you have hit the Template:L) to provide a slow (but steady) supply of wood. Fully-grown trees will impede units' movement, so be sure to clear them out of active corridors.

Sources

Besides cutting down trees, wood (and some wooden goods, such as Template:L) is often available from the Template:L, Template:L and Template:L Template:L. Wood can also be purchased before embarking. Wood is quite inexpensive, costing only 3☼ per log, and you may wish to bring a large number of logs when embarking in order to jump-start your Template:L. The Template:L you start the game with can also be dismantled for three logs.

Considerations

Reasons you need wood

• To build Template:L
  • Without beds your dwarves will get unhappy thoughts from sleeping on the ground
• To build Template:L and Template:L, as well as Template:L
  • Without wood, you cannot generate or transfer Template:L.
• To build siege engines and ballista bolts
  • These can be very effective defenses when traps fail.
• If you want obsidian short swords, they require one obsidian stone and one wood each (these swords likely consist of a thin wooden "paddle" with sharp flakes of obsidian forming sharp edges, like the Aztec macuahuitl).
  • If you have access to obsidian, these can be a great source of quick weaponry early in the game, before any steel works are up to speed. Even on a tree-lite map, each weapon takes less wood to produce than a steel weapon (unless you are using magma to fuel your smelters and forges and have access to bituminous coal and lignite).

Reasons you want wood

• It is simpler to make items from wood.
  • For instance, it only takes one log to produce a bin, barrel, bucket, or cage; but if you forge them instead then they'll take three metal bars.
• Wood can be burnt to produce ash which is used in glass making, soap making and for fertilizing crops.
• All metalworks (smelters, forges) and glassworks are either coal-fueled or magma-fueled. If you are planning on having any sort of serious metal or glass production, then you're going to need either a lot of wood, or magma (and charcoal or coal for steel).
• Wooden training weapons are useful for reducing sparring injuries among your military dwarves (and to get military training started shortly after embark should you feel the need).

Reasons you don't need much wood

• Everything other than beds, axles, windmills, water wheels, obsidian shortswords, siege engine parts, and ballista bolts can be made without the use of wood.
• If you have magma then you don't need wood for fuel. If you have coal, you don't need (as much) wood to produce charcoal for steel. If you have both, you don't need wood to produce metal or steel products.
  • (Bituminous coal without magma triples the effective output of wood, lignite doubles it.)

Weight

Every different type of log (chestnut, ash, maple, tower cap, etc.) is functionally identical except for their weight. The weight of a 'unit' of each type of wood is half their density; the densities for each individual type of wood is listed under the appropriate tree. Wood has a default [SOLID_DENSITY] of 500, making it about three times lighter than most stone and fifteen times lighter than iron. Feather tree wood is extremely light, with a density of 100, and blood thorn wood is the heaviest, with a density of 1250. However, since average wood is relatively light to begin with, with the possible exception of wood hauling, this makes (almost?) no practical difference in the daily routine of a fortress or your dwarves.

Biomes

• Temperate forest
• Tropical forest
• Taiga
• Flatland
• Swamp
• Desert

See also:

• Wood Industry.

Wood FAQ
Do I really need wood?
Where can I get wood?
Where can I get even more wood?
Is it possible to grow trees underground?
How long do tower-caps take to grow?
Do dead trees spawn new trees?
How much protection does wood armor provide?
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