Wood

v50.13 · 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

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

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

Wood is produced 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 form of wood. Bigger trees yield more logs than smaller ones.

For the most part different kinds of wood are identical except for minor differences in weight or color. Only nether-cap wood is magma-safe, thanks to its fixed temperature.

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

Growing

Trees start their lives as saplings. Saplings cannot be cut down until they mature into full-grown trees, which can take several years. Frequent unit movement over a square with a sapling will likely kill the sapling, leaving you with a dead sapling occupying the square for a time.

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

Full grown trees will impede units' movement and can block the path of wagons, making your trade depot inaccessible. Be sure to clear trees out of active corridors. Building roads is a good way to keep trees from growing where you don't want them to be.

Sources

Besides cutting down trees, wood (and some wooden goods, such as barrels) is often available from the elven, dwarven and human caravans. 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 wood industry. The wagon you start the game with can also be dismantled for three logs.

Considerations

Reasons you need wood

• To build beds. Without beds your dwarves will get unhappy thoughts from sleeping on the ground.
• To build water wheels, windmills, and axles--without wood, you cannot generate or transfer power.
• To build siege engines and ballista bolts. These can be very effective defenses when traps fail.
• To build practical cages in most cases as wooden cages are much lighter than metal or glass. They would be the only cages you can mass produce if you have no access to sand.
• To be burnt for ash, which is used in glass making, soap making, glazing, and for fertilizing crops.
• If you want obsidian short swords, they require one log of wood in production, presumably for the handle. Note that these are primarily a novelty; all metal weapons are superior.
• Wooden training weapons can be used for military training started shortly after embark should you feel the need. They are also useful for live training and danger rooms.

Reasons you want wood

• It only takes one log to produce a bin, cage, wheelbarrow or minecart; but if you forge them instead then they'll take two or three metal bars. Wooden tools are also much lighter than the metal alternatives (apart from adamantine), which is a large benefit when the items are moved by hand.
• All metalworks (smelters, forges), glassworks, and ceramic kilns need either magma or fuel. Magma is inaccessible to most early forts. "Fuel" means either coke or charcoal. Coke is produced from bituminous coal or lignite, neither of which is guaranteed to be present on your map. Thus charcoal is the only reliable option for an early fort, and it's made by a wood burner from wood.
• Production of steel, the best mundane metal for armor and cutting or piercing weapons, requires coke or charcoal as a carbon source, even if you have access to magma.
• Crossbows can be made from wood (or bone) and may be preferred if you have a skilled bowyer but not a skilled weaponsmith. They will suffer reduced damage if used to bash enemies in melee combat. However, since even metal crossbows are spectacularly bad melee weapons, this is a fairly unimportant consideration.
• A stack of 25 Crossbow bolts can be made from a single log. Wooden ammunition is sufficient for training and use by hunters, though significantly less effective against armored opponents.
• Shields can be made from wood, and currently material does not affect a shield's ability to block, so shields can be made without consuming precious fuel and metal. The low weight can improve the movement speed of soldiers, but the occasional shield bashes in combat will also be weaker than those delivered by metal shields.
• Wooden floors can be useful to reduce falling damage, the lighter the better.
• A handful of building destroyers prioritize destroying wooden doors and floor hatches, so they can be used as bait in areas with a lot of cage traps.
• Aesthetic reasons. A few types of wood have a color not commonly seen on metal or stone. See the below chart.

Reasons you don't need much wood

• While beds, axles, windmills, water wheels, siege engine parts, and ballista bolts absolutely require wood, and soap, clear and crystal glass and fertiliser are based on wood ash, almost every other wood product has non-wood alternatives.
  • In particular, barrels can be replaced by stone pots without having to use either fuel or magma. Stone pots can also be traded to the elves, should you wish to export liquids or barrelled foods.
• Once you have magma then you don't need wood for fuel. If you have coal, you can get by with much lower wood usage until the deposits run out. If you have both, you shouldn't need wood to produce metal or steel products.

Weight

The 'unit' of raw wood, the log, has a "material size" of 50 litres; the weight can be derived by dividing the density of the material by 20. An oak log will thus weigh 35Γ, a featherwood one 5Γ and a bloodthorn log 62.5Γ. The density for each individual type of wood is listed under the appropriate tree. Wood has a default [SOLID_DENSITY] of 500, making it about five times lighter than most stone and fifteen times lighter than iron. Feather tree wood is the lightest, with a density of 100, and blood thorn wood is the heaviest, with a density of 1250. Candlenut (140), and glumprong (1200) are also notable. 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.

The density of a material is not always important, but can be, depending on the use of that material - see Density article for a full discussion.

Wood	Weight (Γ)	Density (g/cm³)	Color	Climate	Biome	Dry/Wet	Surroundings
Feather tree	5	0.100	Cream			Dry	Good
Papaya	6.5	0.130	Taupe pale	Tropical		Dry
Candlenut	7	0.140	Ochre	Tropical		Dry
Kapok	13	0.260	Tan	Tropical		Dry
Custard-apple	18	0.360	Tan	Tropical		Dry
Willow	19.5	0.390	Tan			Wet
Alder	20.5	0.410	Tan	Temperate		Dry
Cherry	21.25	0.425	Gold	Temperate		Dry
Cacao	21.5	0.430	Chocolate	Tropical		Dry
Chestnut	21.5	0.430	Dark chestnut	Temperate		Dry
Saguaro	21.5	0.430	Ecru		Desert	Dry
Cashew	22.5	0.450	Dark chestnut	Tropical		Dry
Ginkgo	22.5	0.450	Peach	Temperate		Dry
Rubber	24.5	0.490	Flax	Tropical		Dry
Highwood	25	0.500	Brown			Dry	Savage
Tunnel tube	25	0.500	Violet		Caverns 2-3	Both
Pine	25.5	0.510	Beige			Dry
Durian	26	0.520	Taupe pale	Tropical		Dry
Mango	26	0.520	Burnt sienna	Tropical		Dry
Avocado	27	0.540	Chestnut	Tropical		Dry
Maple	27	0.540	Rust	Temperate		Dry
Carambola	27.5	0.550	Flax	Tropical		Dry
Nether-cap	27.5	0.550	Dark indigo		Cavern 3	Both
Tea	27.5	0.550	Taupe pale	Tropical		Dry
Walnut	28.1	0.562	Dark tan	Temperate		Dry
Cedar	28.5	0.570	Olive			Dry
Hazel	29	0.580	Taupe pale	Temperate		Dry
Bitter orange	29.5	0.590	Taupe pale	Tropical		Dry
Desert lime	29.5	0.590	Tan	Tropical	Grassland, savanna & shrubland	Dry
Finger lime	29.5	0.590	Tan	Tropical		Dry
Kumquat	29.5	0.590	Taupe pale	Tropical		Dry
Larch	29.5	0.590	Light brown	Non-tropical		Dry
Lime	29.5	0.590	Tan	Tropical		Dry
Orange	29.5	0.590	Burnt sienna	Tropical		Dry
Pomelo	29.5	0.590	Ash gray	Tropical		Dry
Round lime	29.5	0.590	Tan	Tropical		Dry
Acacia	30	0.600	Peach	Tropical		Dry
Ash	30	0.600	Pale brown	Temperate		Dry
Fungiwood	30	0.600	Lemon		Caverns 1-2	Both
Goblin-cap	30	0.600	Red		Caverns 2-3	Both
Mahogany	30	0.600	Mahogany	Tropical		Dry
Pear	30	0.600	Buff	Temperate		Dry
Spore	30	0.600	Teal		Caverns 2-3	Both
Tower-cap	30	0.600	White		Caverns 1-2	Both
Guava	30.5	0.610	Tan	Tropical		Dry
Coffee	31	0.620	Taupe pale	Tropical		Dry
Rambutan	31	0.620	Bronze	Tropical		Dry
Birch	32.5	0.650	Burnt umber	Temperate		Dry
Black-cap	32.5	0.650	Black		Caverns 2-3	Both
Palm	34	0.680	Dark taupe	Tropical		Dry
Sand pear	34.5	0.690	Buff	Temperate		Dry
Bayberry	35	0.700	Pale brown	Temperate		Dry
Citron	35	0.700	Ash gray	Tropical		Dry
Oak	35	0.700	Auburn	Temperate		Dry
Macadamia	35.25	0.705	Pale brown	Tropical		Dry
Pecan	36.75	0.735	Peach	Temperate		Dry
Apple	37.25	0.745	Chocolate	Temperate		Dry
Apricot	37.25	0.745	Light brown	Temperate		Dry
Pomegranate	38.5	0.770	Peach	Tropical		Dry
Almond	39.75	0.795	Copper	Temperate		Dry
Peach	39.75	0.795	Dark tan	Temperate		Dry
Plum	39.75	0.795	Pale brown	Temperate		Dry
Lychee	40	0.800	Taupe sandy	Tropical		Dry
Date palm	41	0.820	Burnt sienna	Tropical		Wet
Paradise nut	41	0.820	Light brown	Tropical		Dry
Mangrove	41.5	0.830	Dark taupe		Mangrove swamp	Wet
Persimmon	41.75	0.835	Tan	Temperate		Dry
Olive	49.5	0.990	Pale brown	Tropical		Dry
Glumprong	60	1.200	Purple			Dry	Evil
Blood thorn	62.5	1.250	Crimson		Cavern 3	Both

Biomes

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

Trivia

Wood, or "Timber", is the only month of the dwarven calendar to not be named after a stone. Timber is the equivalent of November.

See also

• Wood industry.

"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
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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