What kind of wood is this?

[travis howe]

Any thoughts on what this might be?

[William OConnell]

Any thoughts on what this might be?

theres no picture

[Chris Schumann]

Trick question! That's a picture of Jupiter.

[Wade Lippman]

Very pretty, but it could be almost anything.

[John Michaels]

I'll take a wild guess and say maple.

[Eric Sayre]

Possibly Pecan or Hickory?

[Mike Parzych]

My first 2 guesses would be some sort of soft maple or a weird cut of poplar. Poplar because of the black streaks. Where are you located might help narrow the field, and your impressions of its hardness too.

[travis howe]

When I jointed it, it was about as hard as red oak. There is another piece that has more light colored wood on the outside, sort of like poplar but seems too hard.

I'm in Colorado but here's the story.... There were hundreds of train cars that came from the east I believe that carried out some water pipe. They build chucks on the end of these rough cut 2x8's to carry the pipe. Someone around here bought it for firewood and then discovered there was some red oak in it so he sold it for $3 a stick!

I bought about 150 pieces for red oak... as it ends up there is this stuff, spalted oak/maple - poplar, red oak and who knows what else, I've only cut into about 30 of the pieces.

[John Parker]

I think this is black walnut.

[James Phillips]

Walnut....

[Fred Voorhees]

My first thought when I saw it was a severe case of ambrosia maple.

[Jim Becker]

Black walnut. Look at the heartwood and the sapwood. It's just pretty "busy" figure in the heart...

[Chip Lindley]

Since the wood came from the East in RR cars, it could possibly be black walnut which is spalted and unsuitable for veneer making. I see worm holes and streaking. The log was sold off for a lesser purpose in life. Of course many wood species can be identified by their smell when sawed. Compare it to other woods of like coloring and grain. Few woods smell the same! Alder or Red Gum are two other reddish dark woods....hmmm