reclaiming wood from old furniture found in alleyways

• ▶use a heat gun to loosen up glue joints, if you want to preserve that wood
• ways to confirm that something is hardwood (or at least confirm that it's a dense wood; this doesn't always mean it's a hardwood):
  • use a sharp knife to shave a bit off its edge
  • maybe even look at a shaving under magnification
  • use a plug cutter on the underside, near a corner, and then examine that plug closely
  • use a hardness tester of some sort
    • 📔indentation hardness
      • 📔Janka hardness test is the usual one used for wood, but testers can be expensive.
      • 📔Shore durometers are often less expensive.
        • this journal article says that the Shore-D scale is appropriate for some hardwoods
      • 📔Brinell hardness tester, often kind of expensive.
      • 📔Rockwell hardness testers can be very expensive.
      • 📔Barcol hardness testers are often pretty expensive.