2010 Wood Handbook

The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) has recently released the printed edition of the 2010 Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material.  While you can download the entire book from the FPL website (see below), I encourage anyone serious about wood design to buy the printed edition as a desk reference.  At a cost of $60, this may be one of the least expensive engineering reference books you will find. 

If you are looking for a textbook on wood design, such as how to design beams, etc., this is not the book for you.  (I would recommend Design of Wood Structures by Breyer, Fridley, et.al.)  This book focuses on the physical and mechanical properties of wood and wood composites and provides information on wood preservation, fastening, finishing, and adhesives.  

This is taken from the FPL website:

The Wood Handbook is one of the most widely used documents in the wood literature. The 2010 edition is the first update of the 21st century and includes several new chapters. The original handbook was first published in 1935 by the USDA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL).
The Forest Products Society (FPS) is pleased to cooperate with the FPL to present this newly updated edition in hard copy. This 2010 edition is your one-stop source for information on wood as an engineering material and offers content such as:

• Properties of wood and wood-based products
• Design information for architects and engineers
• Wood and non-wood composites
• Wood-moisture relationships and wood durability

...plus NEW CONTENT on:
• Wood as an environmentally responsible, sustainable building material
• Heat-treating and sterilization procedures for wood infected by invasive insect species
• A special COLOR chapter on low-magnification micrographs of cross sections of commercial wood species 

You can order your hard copy of the 2010 Wood Handbook here or you can download content or sample the material that is in the book here.