A couple of pieces, one in Mystery Wood...can you ID the species?

[Pete Moe]

Thanks everyone for posting your projects. It's really interested and inspirational to see your work. Here are a couple of pieces that I cranked out right before Christmas, to give as gifts. The first is a small goblet for my Nephew, who frequents Renaissance Faires, made from a branch of purple-leaf plum that I harvested from the back yard a couple of years ago. It was really a test piece to give him an idea of what kind of piece I could make him as a custom piece to his specification. It's finished with natural Danish Oil on the outside to just below the rim, and the inside with mineral oil. It wasn't designed as a user, so I didn't make it totally food-safe, but I knew he would immediately pour some beer in it, which he did.... The grain of the plum is nice and tight and it works and finishes beautifully.

Goblet.jpg

The second piece is just a simple bowl I made for my Mother. I started working the piece and watching the grain pattern to see what I wanted to do with it. The outside curve worked to feature the grain pattern, but when I started to hollow it out, I feel that turning a rather steep wall would feature the grain a little better than following he curve of the outside. It's finished just with mineral oil. This piece came from a slab of wood I got from a retiring wood shop owner. Neither he nor his shop mate could identify the wood. It's dense and tightly grained, like a fruit or nut tree. It works and finishes well. I have the rest of the slab to work with - can you ID the species for me?

Bowl.jpg

C & C always welcome.

Cheers!

[Reed Gray]

The second piece looks like some Elm I have seen, but generally they don't have growth rings that are that wide. Here in Oregon where it is very wet and mild, they do.

robo hippy

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

good, large, clear photos of the remaining slab will help with ID.

both side grain and end grain.

[Scott Ticknor]

Looks like Elm or perhaps Ash, the wide growth rings made me think of the Ash we made kitchens from in the late 70`s. . Elm has interlocking grain , was it tough to get a good finish ?

[Jim Seyfried]

Here are a couple of resources to help identify wood. You can send up to five samples to the Forest Products Laboratory -USDA Forest Service for identification and the HobbitHouse Wood ID site is a good online resource. I just recently read about both these in a similar thread as this one. I am planing on sending a piece of wood that I'd like to ID to the Forest Service and see how that works.

[Pete Moe]

Thanks fellas. I will take some good pictures of the remaining slab and offcuts from the piece that I sawed off (by hand). I ran into another good species identification site the other day, focusing on end-grain structure - at http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...dwood-anatomy/ I just haven't been able to get down to the shop to shave off a clean section of end grain. I will report back when I do.

[Pete Moe]

It's definitely elm. Now which variety of elm is still up for grabs. Looks most like English elm, but has wide growth rings more like Chinese elm. I'm just gonna say elm and move on. Good stuff to work with in any case. Thanks for the replies.