Wood

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v50.12 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

"Timber" redirects here. For the month, see Calendar.

Wood is a hard material found in nearly all trees. It forms the main substance of tree trunks, branches, and roots. For the most part, different kinds of wood are identical except for minor differences in density and color. It is generally more weaker and lightweight than other heavy-duty materials, such as stone or metal. All wood is flammable, with an ignition point of 10508 °U , the same for most organic materials. Only nether-cap wood is magma-safe due to its fixed temperature. The harvesting and use of wood to make products is known as the wood industry.

"Timber" is the name of the ninth month of the dwarven calendar, covering late Autumn. It is the only month of the dwarven calendar to not be named after a stone.

Occurrence and production

Chopping trees

Wood is obtained by designating trees to be chopped down. Any dwarf with the wood cutting labor enabled and access to a battle axe will cut down the trees, which will turn one tree into variable amount of logs, the raw item form of wood. Bigger trees yield more logs than smaller ones.

Trees start their lives as saplings. Saplings cannot be cut down until they mature into full-grown trees, which can take several years. Creatures frequently moving on a tile with a sapling will eventually kill the sapling, leaving you with a dead sapling occupying the square for a time before it disappears and another plant starts growing.

Saplings will randomly appear in above-ground soil, only if the tiles underneath it are unmined and has at least another z-level of open space above it. If the soil does not have an immediate support for the roots, no saplings will appear. If there is no open space above, saplings will not grow. Underground saplings will begin to randomly appear in soil and muddy underground rock only once one of the caverns are exposed. Unlike above-ground, underground saplings don't require the below level to be unmined. However, they also require open space on the z-levels directly above them, otherwise the saplings will never grow.

It is recommended to clear trees out of active corridors. Tree trunks act as walls and block the path of wagons to the trade depot. Building roads and smoothing floors prevent new saplings from growing on the tiles.

Civilizations

Entities with [OUTDOOR_WOOD] and [INDOOR_WOOD] use wood from above-ground and underground trees respectively from their local environment for their products. Additionally, [USE_GOOD_WOOD] and [USE_EVIL_WOOD] allow entities to use wood from good or evil-aligned trees: feather trees and glumprongs. Except kobolds, all civilizations use some type of wood.

Entities with [WOOD_WEAPONS] and [WOOD_ARMOR] will use wooden weapons and armor. Elves and subterranean animal peoples possess these tokens.

[USE_MISC_PROCESSED_WOOD_PRODUCTS] permits the availability of certain wood-derived products: lye, charcoal, and potash. Dwarves, humans, and goblins possess this.

Logs and wooden products are available from trading by any friendly civilizations. Wood can also be brought before embarking. Logs are quite inexpensive, costing only three points per log, and bringing a large number can help jump-start the wood industry immediately.

All wooden items made by elves are referred to as "grown". It has been theorized that the elves use an unseen (and unimplemented) magic to "grow" their products from trees without chopping them down.

Other sources

"Wagon wood" can be obtained from wagons. The initial wagon after embark (an entirely different wagon) can be dismantled for three free logs of any type.

Types

Comparison of density, weight, and color

Wood	Density (kg/cm³)	Weight (Γ) per log	Color
Feather	100	5	Cream
Papaya	130	6.5	Taupe pale
Candlenut	140	7	Ochre
Kapok	260	13	Tan
Custard-apple	360	18	Tan
Willow	390	19.5	Tan
Alder	410	20.5	Tan
Cherry	425	21.25	Gold
Cacao	430	21.5	Chocolate
Chestnut	430	21.5	Dark chestnut
Saguaro	430	21.5	Ecru
Cashew	450	22.5	Dark chestnut
Ginkgo	450	22.5	Peach
Rubber	490	24.5	Flax
Default wood	500	25	Brown
Highwood	500	25	Brown
Tunnel tube	500	25	Violet
Wagon	500	25	Brown
Pine	510	25.5	Beige
Durian	520	26	Taupe pale
Mango	520	26	Burnt sienna
Avocado	540	27	Chestnut
Maple	540	27	Rust
Carambola	550	27.5	Flax
Nether-cap	550	27.5	Dark indigo
Tea	550	27.5	Taupe pale
Walnut	562	28.1	Dark tan
Cedar	570	28.5	Olive
Hazel	580	29	Taupe pale
Bitter orange	590	29.5	Taupe pale
Desert lime	590	29.5	Tan
Finger lime	590	29.5	Tan
Kumquat	590	29.5	Taupe pale
Larch	590	29.5	Light brown
Lime	590	29.5	Tan
Orange	590	29.5	Burnt sienna
Pomelo	590	29.5	Ash gray
Round lime	590	29.5	Tan
Acacia	600	30	Peach
Ash	600	30	Pale brown
Fungiwood	600	30	Lemon
Goblin-cap	600	30	Red
Mahogany	600	30	Mahogany
Pear	600	30	Buff
Spore	600	30	Teal
Tower-cap	600	30	White
Guava	610	30.5	Tan
Coffee	620	31	Taupe pale
Rambutan	620	31	Bronze
Birch	650	32.5	Burnt umber
Black-cap	650	32.5	Black
Palm	680	34	Dark taupe
Sand pear	690	34.5	Buff
Bayberry	700	35	Pale brown
Citron	700	35	Ash gray
Oak	700	35	Auburn
Macadamia	705	35.25	Pale brown
Pecan	735	36.75	Peach
Apple	745	37.25	Chocolate
Apricot	745	37.25	Light brown
Pomegranate	770	38.5	Peach
Almond	795	39.75	Copper
Peach	795	39.75	Dark tan
Plum	795	39.75	Pale brown
Lychee	800	40	Taupe sandy
Date palm	820	41	Burnt sienna
Paradise nut	820	41	Light brown
Mangrove	830	41.5	Dark taupe
Persimmon	835	41.75	Tan
Olive	990	49.5	Pale brown
Glumprong	1200	60	Purple
Blood thorn	1250	62.5	Crimson

There are 71 types of wood, excluding the default one. Of the 72 trees, two of them do not possess wood. Nine are only found underground, while the rest grow above-ground in various biomes, except mountains, glaciers, tundras, and oceans. One wood is found in wagons. All wood possess the same material properties except their density (which affects the weight of an item) and color. It is brown by default, and very few types exhibit a color besides it.

The density of the material is the most important when choosing different types of wood. Wooden products made with heavier wood slows down hauling, which negatively impacts the work speed of a fortress in the long-term. The type of wood used in weapons and armor also becomes important in regards to its force, durability, and weight.

Weight of logs

A "unit" of raw wood—the log—has a volume of 5,000 or 50 litres. The weight can be derived by dividing the density (kg/m³) of the material by 20. An oak log will thus weigh 35Γ, a feather wood log 5Γ and a blood thorn log 62.5Γ. Weight is displayed in integers in the game, so a blood thorn log's weight will be displayed as just 62Γ in-game. Wood has a default [SOLID_DENSITY] of 500 kg/m³, about five times lighter than most stone and fifteen times lighter than iron. Feather wood is the lightest at 100, and blood thorn wood is the heaviest at 1,250. Papaya (130) and glumprong (1200) are also notable.

Applications

Ash

Burning wood is the only major way to produce ash. It is otherwise rare and difficult to obtain naturally. Ash is essential in the production of lye, potash, and pearlash. Lye is used for making soap, and potash is used as a fertilizer for farm plots to yield larger harvests. Pearlash is used for making clear glass and crystal glass in glassmaking. Ash can also be used as a glaze for ceramic products. In total, ash has major applications in the soap, farming, glass, and ceramic industries, all of which derives from wood.

Charcoal

Charcoal is a type of fuel produced by burning wood. Smelters, forges, glass furnaces, and kilns need fuel to operate. Coke is produced from bituminous coal or lignite, neither of which is guaranteed to be present on a map, thus charcoal is typically the first reliable fuel for an early fortress. If coke sources are present though, it is recommended to use coke over charcoal so that wood can be used for other purposes.

Once magma is acquired, charcoal becomes obsolete as a fuel source for workshops. Despite this, charcoal is still significant in the production of steel, where refined coal is required as a source of carbon.

Bed

Beds can only be made from wood, with the exception of artifact beds made from strange moods. Without beds, citizens get unhappy thoughts from sleeping on the ground.

Machine components

The following machine components can only be made from wood: water wheels, windmills, and axles. Axles are necessary in the transfer of power over distances. Water wheels and windmills are the only power sources to not require a dwarf to generate power.

Lightweight storage

Wooden items used for storage are lighter to carry than items made of most stone or metals. Barrels, bins, buckets, jugs, large pots, wheelbarrows, minecarts, and cages are items that can be made of wood and are frequently used in hauling stuff between stockpiles and workshops. Using a lighter material for storage decreases encumbrance and increases movement speed.

The type of wood is very important in storage items. Among the trees with the lightest wood are: feather tree, papaya, candlenut, kapok, custard-apple, willow, alder, cherry, cacao, chestnut, and saguaro. Making storage items from the wood of these trees provide the best results. Trees to avoid include blood thorn, glumprong, olive, persimmon, mangrove, paradise nut, date palm, and lychee.

In addition, it only takes one log to produce a bin, cage, wheelbarrow or minecart. Forging them with metal will take two or three bars instead.

Weapons and armor

See also: Weapon § Material

Wood is an extremely terrible material for combat. It has the worst impact and shear properties out of the standard weapons-grade materials (even against bone), making it ineffective in dealing substantial damage, both blunt or cutting. Denser wood has a small effect on its force power, but it remains weak compared to metal. A creature's natural weapons can be more lethal than a wooden weapon. Wooden armor provides little to no protection. Wood durability is low, and breaks very quickly from repeated hits against harder materials.

Its weakness serves as an advantage in situations where damage is desired to a minimum. In justice, inflicting punishment with wooden weapons deal very little damage to the accused, which reduces the chance of accidental deaths.

Shields and bucklers can be made from wood. Bashing with wooden shields in melee combat is weaker than those delivered by metal shields. The material does not affect a shield's ability to block, and even dragonfire can be blocked without getting burned at all. Taking in their lower weight, wooden shields are more effective over metals for their maneuverability. There is still the drawback of wood breaking faster than metal.

Dwarves can only create wooden melee weapons in the form of training weapons, which are used in the military for training. They are useful for live training and danger rooms, but are not necessary. Training weapons can also be bought from caravans at a cheap price.

Short swords made of obsidian require one log in production. They are more or less a novelty, as metal weapons are superior.

Crossbows can be made from wood by a bowyer. Wooden crossbows suffer reduced damage in comparison to metal crossbows if they are used to bash enemies in melee combat. However, since even metal crossbows are spectacularly bad melee weapons, this is a fairly unimportant consideration. The lighter wooden crossbow should be prioritized over metal ones for its less weight, minimizing encumbrance. Bone has a density of 500 kg/m³, so bone crossbows should replace wood whenever the type of wood being used is over 500 kg/m³.

A stack of 25 bolts is made from a single log. In comparison, 5 bolts are made from a single bone. Wooden bolts are sufficient for training and hunting, although significantly less effective against armored opponents than metal bolts.

Siege engines

Siege engine parts can only be made from wood. Although siege engines require lots of effort to manage, they can be very effective defenses when traps and soldiers fail. Both wooden and metal ballista arrows also need a log to be made. Wooden ballista arrows are inferior to metal ones. Wooden ballista arrows made from denser wood deal more damage than lighter wood.

Trading

All logs are valued at 3☼. Wooden products are a poor choice for trading, because wood has a material multiplier of ×1 (no bonus). Elves do not accept any items made from non-grown wood, including decorations made of non-grown wood. They get extremely upset when offered regular wood and will leave with no further possible trading for the season.

Other uses

Almost every other wooden product has non-wood alternatives. Items can be decorated with wood.

Wood from underground, good, and evil trees have a wide array of colors, including white, red, yellow, teal, blue, purple, and black. Colorful wood is useful for aesthetic creations.

Wooden constructions are highly flammable, so using other materials is recommended where fire is a potential risk. Floors constructed using lightweight wood will reduce the damage from falls. The lighter the wood, the softer the impact.

Building destroyers prioritize destroying wooden doors and floor hatches.^[Verify] Wooden buildings can be used in trap designs as cheap, affordable bait to lure them toward traps.

"Wood" in other Languages Dwarven: lolum Elvish: ave Goblin: dôr Human: pado

Raws

[MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:WOOD_TEMPLATE] [STATE_COLOR:ALL_SOLID:BROWN] [STATE_NAME:ALL_SOLID:wood] [STATE_ADJ:ALL_SOLID:wooden] [STATE_COLOR:LIQUID:BROWN] [STATE_NAME:LIQUID:n/a] [STATE_ADJ:LIQUID:n/a] [STATE_COLOR:GAS:BROWN] [STATE_NAME:GAS:n/a] [STATE_ADJ:GAS:n/a] [DISPLAY_COLOR:6:0:0] [MATERIAL_VALUE:1] [SPEC_HEAT:420] [IGNITE_POINT:10508] [MELTING_POINT:NONE] [BOILING_POINT:NONE] [HEATDAM_POINT:10250] [COLDDAM_POINT:9900] [MAT_FIXED_TEMP:NONE] [SOLID_DENSITY:500] [LIQUID_DENSITY:NONE] [MOLAR_MASS:NONE] [IMPACT_YIELD:10000] [IMPACT_FRACTURE:10000] [IMPACT_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [COMPRESSIVE_YIELD:10000] [COMPRESSIVE_FRACTURE:10000] [COMPRESSIVE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [TENSILE_YIELD:10000] [TENSILE_FRACTURE:10000] [TENSILE_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [TORSION_YIELD:10000] [TORSION_FRACTURE:10000] [TORSION_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [SHEAR_YIELD:40000] used pine [SHEAR_FRACTURE:40000] [SHEAR_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [BENDING_YIELD:10000] [BENDING_FRACTURE:10000] [BENDING_STRAIN_AT_YIELD:1000] [MAX_EDGE:1000] [ABSORPTION:0] [ITEMS_HARD] [ITEMS_WEAPON] [ITEMS_WEAPON_RANGED] [ITEMS_AMMO] [ITEMS_ARMOR] [ITEMS_SIEGE_ENGINE] This general material classifier determines various in-game behaviors. There are several others below. [WOOD]

Wood FAQ
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