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Mystery Wood

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Apr 24, 2004
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My son brought home a bunch of slabs of rough wood from packing crates (I think its from south-east asia) I turned this saucer from a piece of it - really nice looking wood. Sanded to 1200 grit and it shines like it's waxed. NO finish of any kind was applied.

Could this, by some chance, be teak
 

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It does look like Maple, except that it looks a bit grainy like Red Maple. Especially in those stripes it looks like Ambrosia Maple. Except for the pitch pockets, which is similar to Cherry, or are those insect holes up at the top of the picture (which could explain the stripes)?
 
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boehme said:
It is Rubberwood. It is a member of the maple family.

Bill
I am seconding the rubberwood which can be attacked by the ambrosia beetle and will turn red from the same fungus that candies box elsers. And for what it is worth to the ambrosia maple comment, ambrosia maple is not a species of maple, but the result of any maple being attacked by the ambrosia beetle. Most commercially available ambrosia maple in the US is silver maple with boxelder a close second btw.
 
Sure looks like soft maple. Hardly seems likely that pallet grade lumber would be exported to the Far East, though.

Strong seasonal differences which we in the temperate latitudes call "annual rings," say it's not likely from the islands, where climate is pretty steady. Could be latitude, altitude, or monsoon, but this tree has had some changes in its life. Other than that, it does not appear to have the vascular structure of a tree which has to deal with a lot of water or height.

I suppose that the best thing to say is to echo Woodwish. It was free. You may, however, never see its like again. Unless you want some soft maple. I used to use dunnage acquired on Guam for woodworking, but it was a case of first sorting for similar if constructing anything large. Nobody puts SKU stickers on trash!
 
Thank you all for the replies.

Jim, Under a magnifying glass, the spots near the center ring
have smooth edges and light can be seen thru one of them; the spots near the rim all have raged edges.

Next project, glue some of the wood together to build a blank big enough to turn a cup to fit the saucer.

I did a google search on "rubberwood"; result - I'll take all of it I can get.
What is Rubberwood?

Rubberwood is a hardwood from the maple family of woods
Rubberwood has very little tendancy to warp or crack
Rubberwood-Eco Friendly !

Here is the link that quote came from: RUBBERWOOD
 
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