-
January Turning Challenge: Thin-Stemmed Something! (click here for details) -
Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Scott Gordon for "Orb Ligneus" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 20, 2025 (click here for details) -
Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.
what type of wood is this?
- Thread starter Robert Feingold
- Start date
Looks like some Pecan I was given some time ago.
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2008
- Messages
- 44
- Likes
- 5
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN (Baja Canada)
- Website
- www.mnwoodturners.org
What kind of wood?
I second the vote for Pecan. I have turned some Florida Pecan that had that same rough textured bark, same colored grain & spalting features.
Lee Tourtelotte
Minnesota Woodturners Association
www.mnwoodturners.org
I second the vote for Pecan. I have turned some Florida Pecan that had that same rough textured bark, same colored grain & spalting features.
Lee Tourtelotte
Minnesota Woodturners Association
www.mnwoodturners.org
wood id
Sure looks looks alot of spalted maple that I have obtained from Mass. (sugar maple) Gretch
Sure looks looks alot of spalted maple that I have obtained from Mass. (sugar maple) Gretch
Gretch,
I got this in Hillsdale NY a few miles from Mass but the grain does not seem to resemble maple. it looks almost marbleized. I will turn another piece this weekend and post another photo.
I got this in Hillsdale NY a few miles from Mass but the grain does not seem to resemble maple. it looks almost marbleized. I will turn another piece this weekend and post another photo.
- Joined
- May 16, 2005
- Messages
- 3,540
- Likes
- 19
Guess that kicks my ID. I was going for a maple called boxelder.
Rob:
As long as you will be posting another image, try also to show a close-up (as much magnification as you can) of the END GRAIN which is really where the telling characters are to offer a reasonable attempt at long-distance identification. (Cell structure of the end grain needs to be visible) Most "ID's" you receive without this will be educated guesses from those who might recognize certain features of the wood based on experiences they've had with "known" samples of the wood names being proposed. The confusion already present in this thread between pecan and maple is evidence there are not enough useful characters being compared. We need a close-up of end grain cell characters to do any real, meaningful identification. I have backed-off making these kind of guesses without better information, since they can serve to confuse as much as they do to try to help provide an identification.
Rob Wallace
It's probably not Pecan if it grew in NY.
when you say the grain is "marble-like" are you referring to the spalting? the black lines that run randomly through it? That can happen in any wood.
Egsegal,
The grain is swirling with tiny brown and black specs in the pores. Kind of looks like it was stained and sanded off. it may be from the decay. I was not referring to the black spalt lines. I will send an end grain photo tomorrow.
The grain is swirling with tiny brown and black specs in the pores. Kind of looks like it was stained and sanded off. it may be from the decay. I was not referring to the black spalt lines. I will send an end grain photo tomorrow.
It looks a lot like Buckeye.😱
I was thinking the same thing.
Gretch is probably right.
I've turned hundreds of Maple bowls, and the majority of those have been spalted. Maple can look very different from example to example. I've seen spalted Maple that looks just like the photos.
ooc
Last edited:
You're dealing with rotting wood here. All bets are off on color, texture, and turning characterists. Natural pigments can be gone, and that can mask the growth rings as well. If buckeye had that much spalt, you would also see patches of bluish black. It's maple, but not sure what kind.
Well, with some of the cross grain patterns, I was thinking Horse Chestnut. Doesn't look like maple to me though.
robo hippy
robo hippy
- Joined
- May 16, 2005
- Messages
- 3,540
- Likes
- 19
Nothing like the local beech, maybe an urban exotic from Europe.
No finish http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/e9b2539f.jpg
Light finish with lots of rays showing. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Beech.jpg
Full finish, with the characteristic splotch spalt. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Beech-Wing.jpg
Think horse-chestnut and buckeye are pretty much the same. The one used as the college nickname has, I believe, the most appropriate other common name. http://www.whiteriversource.com/aesculus.html
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2005
- Messages
- 13,040
- Likes
- 5,482
- Location
- Dalworthington Gardens, TX
- Website
- pbase.com
With those prominent medullary rays, that would appear to rule out maple. The growth rings seem too wide for pecan. The little dark flecks make it look somewhat like rubberwood, but obviously it can't be that since it came from NY and not the Philippines. Spalting is a precursor to rotting so the wood may be perfectly sound.
Last edited:
Reviewing this thread, and summing the species proposed so far, we have:
Pecan
Maple (incl. spalted maple)
Buckeye
Box Elder
Copper Beech (spalted)
Horse Chestnut
At the cellular level, nearly all of these woods can be readily distinguished from one another. We can continue to add species of what it might be, but to determine the actual correct name, a formal identification would be required looking at as many characters as possible (including facegrain pattern, bark, density, color, etc. if these characters are available), and using a wood identification key to systematically eliminate possibilities of what the wood might be, and arrive at an answer based on actual characters and not perceived "resemblances". Unfortunately from the close-ups we still can't see enough cellular detail to begin to go through a key, although I can see that the wood is probably diffuse porous.
Robert - do you have any pieces of this wood left that haven't been turned and finished? The best way to get an accurate identification will be to prepare a clean end-grain slice, and examine the cellular structure under magnification. If you could send a small piece of this wood to someone who knows how to identify wood using standard wood ID keys, this would produce better results than on-line ID attempts. You could try this yourself with some basic study of Bruce Hoadley's book, "Identifying Wood" (See HERE). If you don't know anyone who knows how to do this, I would be willing to run a sample through the keys and try to ID this wood for you. If you are interested in doing this, contact me directly, and I can provide some additional information for you.
Rob Wallace
Pecan
Maple (incl. spalted maple)
Buckeye
Box Elder
Copper Beech (spalted)
Horse Chestnut
At the cellular level, nearly all of these woods can be readily distinguished from one another. We can continue to add species of what it might be, but to determine the actual correct name, a formal identification would be required looking at as many characters as possible (including facegrain pattern, bark, density, color, etc. if these characters are available), and using a wood identification key to systematically eliminate possibilities of what the wood might be, and arrive at an answer based on actual characters and not perceived "resemblances". Unfortunately from the close-ups we still can't see enough cellular detail to begin to go through a key, although I can see that the wood is probably diffuse porous.
Robert - do you have any pieces of this wood left that haven't been turned and finished? The best way to get an accurate identification will be to prepare a clean end-grain slice, and examine the cellular structure under magnification. If you could send a small piece of this wood to someone who knows how to identify wood using standard wood ID keys, this would produce better results than on-line ID attempts. You could try this yourself with some basic study of Bruce Hoadley's book, "Identifying Wood" (See HERE). If you don't know anyone who knows how to do this, I would be willing to run a sample through the keys and try to ID this wood for you. If you are interested in doing this, contact me directly, and I can provide some additional information for you.
Rob Wallace
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
- Messages
- 9,085
- Likes
- 5,634
- Location
- Lakeland, Florida
- Website
- www.hockenberywoodturning.com
Rob,
Debate is so much more fun than that pesky scientific approach. 🙂
I remember reading that an academy of science debated and concluded that the evidence of snow caps on mount Kilimanjaro were false.
The Hoadley book should be in every woodturners library. It is also an excellent reference for anyone turning green wood who wants to gain an understanding of wood movement.
Al
P.S. I vote for a Beech
Debate is so much more fun than that pesky scientific approach. 🙂
I remember reading that an academy of science debated and concluded that the evidence of snow caps on mount Kilimanjaro were false.
The Hoadley book should be in every woodturners library. It is also an excellent reference for anyone turning green wood who wants to gain an understanding of wood movement.
Al
P.S. I vote for a Beech
Last edited: