Natural Edge Bowl: What type of wood is this?

[Chris Gunsolley]

Back in May, I took a chance on an offering for free 'firewood'. I wasn't sure what type of wood it was, but I took a chance on it anyways. Here is what the logs looked like after I got them, and the end grain and side grain after I cut it:

0a Logs.jpg 0c Log Cut Endgrain.jpg 0d Log Cut Endgrain.jpg 0e Log Cut Endgrain.jpg

What type of wood do you think this is?

I never did come to a firm decision as to what type of wood it is. I got to it long after the opportunity to inspect any of its leaves. After I cut it, I believe it had a slightly pleasant smell, and as you can see, the end grain was sunshot. The shavings are orange-brown. Considering the bark and end grain, at this point, I think it is most likely spalted plum.

Yesterday, I finally got around to turning one of the blanks into a bowl, and here it is:

8 overall.jpg 9 overall b.jpg 10 overall.jpg

It was turned entirely with scrapers, with the exception of a skew to form the tenon, then sanded with 220 grit only. So far, it's been saturated in walnut oil, then 2 thin layers of polymerized linseed oil.

Let me know what you think!

[John K Jordan]

Chris, you have the bark which is more than most, who show a picture of the wood. If colored by spalting, ID by color and figure, iffy at best, is out. You can narrow the guesses down by looking a prepared transverse section (end grain) to see if the tree is diffuse porous, ring porous, or something in between. You can compare what you see with a magnifier to endgrain photos in the Wood Database and other resources.

One easy way to know for sure: send a small sample to the US Forest Products lab. They will ID and send the answer without charge. The details are near the bottom of this page:

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/ce...dfactsheet.php

JKJ

[Joe Kaufman]

Reminds me of Apricot

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

All I can guess is some sort of fruit wood.

[John Grace]

While I have nothing to offer you with respects to wood ID it is nice looking material.

[Joe Ruden]

Cottonwood

[Mark Greenbaum]

Red Birch?