Need help identifying this wood

[John K Jordan]

Paulownia, interesting thought ... there certainly is a resemblance, although it doesn't feel unusually light weight.

Paulownia is soft enough to mark with a thumbnail.

To use weight to help with ID, cut a rectangular piece appropriate for your best scale, measure the volume carefully, weigh, and compare with the numbers in tables or on the Wood Database. I have good gram scales so I can use small pieces but for more common household scales you might weigh the entire board. Density is usually given in oven-dry weight so even kiln dried wood will weigh a little more than the tables.

But again, looking at the end grain and comparing it with photos of candidate woods might easily rule out some species. Guessing the species by looking at the board is often just a wild guess since there is wide variation. Just look at the variation in hickory boards here: http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/person...cs/hickory.htm

Note that hickory often has dark heartwood, white sapwood.

Depending on how important it is to know this species and how quick you need it, you can get positive IDs by sending a small sample to the US Forest Products Laboratory. They will ID up to 5 pieces per year per citizen for no charge. It may take a few weeks to get results back.

JKJ

[robert baccus]

It appears there is insufficient evidence here to make a decent ID.

[Tim Boger]

I was for a brief period, great club ... unfortunately my work schedule and the monthly meetings overlapped.

Tim

No kidding! I'm horrible with names, Tim, but are you a member of Palmetto Woodturners?

[Tim Boger]

Thanks for your feedback Robert, I'm going with Hickory.

It appears there is insufficient evidence here to make a decent ID.

[Aaron Craven]

I was for a brief period, great club ... unfortunately my work schedule and the monthly meetings overlapped.

Tim

I can understand that. Luckily my weekends are usually free (at least as far as work is concerned). If you get a chance to drop in some time, you'll be welcome.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Just a picture of some face grain is not enough to get any idea of what kind of wood it is, and I’m not going to guess on it.

There is no way one can be reasonable sure of what kind of wood it is by just looking at a picture of some face grain IMO, but you can give it a name you would like it to be of course

[John K Jordan]

There is no way one can be reasonable sure of what kind of wood it is by just looking at a picture of some face grain IMO, but you can give it a name you would like it to be of course

I've seen club turnings from ring porous wood labled "cherry"!

How about this? I might start writing "Tree Wood" on my turnings.



JKJ