# STL334: Understanding Hoadley

- Show: [Shop Talk Live](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live)
- Published: 2025-02-07
- Length: 1h 18m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley
- Listen: https://shoptalklive.podcast.static.taunton.com/stl334-understanding-hoadley

## Summary

Furniture conservator and wood identification expert Randy Wilkinson joins Shop Talk Live to discuss his work and his e-learning course on identifying wood. Wilkinson explains how he transitioned from electrical engineering to 18th-century furniture reproduction and conservation, eventually specializing in wood anatomy using microscopes. He details how identifying secondary woods helps attribute furniture to specific regions and craftsmen, and discusses the complex ethical and scientific challenges surrounding endangered species like mahogany and rosewood.

## Chapters

- [0:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley#t=6) Introduction: Randy Wilkinson and Wood Identification
- [5:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley#t=337) Randy Wilkinson's Career Path: From Engineering to Conservation
- [12:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley#t=735) Smithsonian Furniture Conservation Training Program
- [24:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley#t=1440) Using Microscopy and Wood Anatomy for Attribution
- [35:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley#t=2105) CITES, Illegal Logging, and the Mahogany Study
- [53:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley#t=3183) Wood Color, Oxidation, and Finish Effects
- [1:07:40](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley#t=4060) Conservation Ethics: Refinishing and Coating Decisions

## Topics

- [Materials & manufacturing processes](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/materials-and-processes)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Sustainability & circular products](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sustainability-and-circularity)
- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Shop Talk Live (other)
- Fine Woodworking (other)
- Hoadley (other)
- Smithsonian (other)
- Yale (company)
- CITES (other)
- Brazilian rosewood (material)
- Mahogany (material)
- Magnolia (material)
- Poplar (material)
- Whale baleen (material)
- Cedrella (material)

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- [Episode 033: More listener questions](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2015-08-21-episode-033-more-listener-questions) (Making It)
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- [420: People Who Cut Wood](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2023-11-27-420-people-who-cut-wood) (Making It)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/shop-talk-live/2025-02-07-stl334-understanding-hoadley. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Shop Talk Live.