What wood is this? (w/pics) - Updated

[SwingKing]

Thanks to hitekrednek I have a selection of wood from one of these Lumber Liquidator bundles. My problem is that I don't have much experience with different types of wood and I can't tell what I've got. I've taken pics of some of it and I'm hoping you more experienced folks can give me some ideas what I'm looking at here.

Update: I've finally received results from the Wood Anatomy lab, so I've updated each picture's description. The answers certainly aren't what I expected.

#1 is fairly dense and has a fairly strong sweet, musky aroma. Certainly made the shop smell nice when I cleaned it up on the jointer. Type: Callitris also known as (Australian) Cypress.



#2 is fairly light in weight and has these distictive patterns in the wood. Type: Caryocar. Has many different common names, comes from Columbia, Costa Rica, Brazil, etc.



#3 is very dense and tight grained. The angular lines are cracks where the board is separating into chunks. Type: Astronium (aka Tigerwood, Kingwood, etc.)



#4 has a dark chocolate brown color and seems fairly coarse grained. Type: Samanea (aka monkey-pod, raintree, etc).



#5 is finer grained and the color varies across the grain with reddish and brown/tan streaks. Type: Lauraceae / Ocotea rubra (aka determa, red lauro, etc.) Note: the note indicates this is probably sapwood.



My guess is the #4 and/or #5 are some type of cherry or mahogany, but I'm drawing a blank on the rest. Any ideas?

Thanks!

-- Ken

[WoodPirate]

Hi Ken,

Pat (Popeye) and I got some of all 5 of what you got plus some purpleheart and 1 or 2 pieces of teak. Will be interesting to get an answer. You posted your pics first and I'm glad because my shots didn't come out as good as yours.

We're going for 2 more bundles this weekend.

[Rounder]

How many pieces are in the bundle? My buddy and I are deciding if we need to buy one and split it? Or two, one for each of us.

[WoodPirate]

quote:Originally posted by Rounder

How many pieces are in the bundle? My buddy and I are deciding if we need to buy one and split it? Or two, one for each of us.

Hi George,

This is a pic of 1 bundle in the back of Pat's full size Dodge RAM. Approx 7' x 4' x 2'. About 1000lb. They claim over 300 bd ft of lumber.

[final_t]

First one appears to be Hickory. Looks similar to a batch I bought recently (the knot esp.)

Second: might be basswood. Try cutting some, if it smells like fresh hay or a grassy smell, that's it.

#3: odd how it's coming apart like that. Can't see the grain, so can't tell.
#4 I don't think is cherry, since it looks more like redwood.

I would agree that #5 is mahognay.

What you can *try* to do is cut a uniform size chunk of all three (144 cubic inches) and weigh it. Then you could match it up with the specific weight to try and find the species.

Too bad I had to pass on this LL deal due to time & space constraints, looks like half the fun is figuring out what you've got!

[autiger1]

#4 could be Makore (african Cherry)

Tom

[hitekrednek]

I'm with Steve, the pictures that you took came out much better than the ones that I was going to post. Hopefully between all of the members here we might be able to figure out what we've got

[tpratt]

Looking at that picture of the wood on the truck, I can find two points of jealousy:

1. The stock, of course
2. The lack of SNOW--my truck has been icy for months now

[Russianwolf]

number 1 looks like Elm and number 5 looks like Eucalyptus to me.

[scmhogg]

Ken,

Even after reading Bruce Hoadley's book, I still have great difficulty identifying woods.

However, our government offers, a little known, FREE service. You can submit up to 5 samples for identification each year.

www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/WoodID/idfact.html

Steve

[autiger1]

Steve - great post!!! So we all don't send in the same LL samples...if anyone submits..let us know what you have submitted so there is no duplication.

Tom

[final_t]

Stumbled across this resource, which should help:
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

[SwingKing]

Steve, that's a great idea. Since I posted the pictures, I'll send in these five samples in the next day or two. We can continue to post our ideas and then I'll post the results when they come back (in 2-6 weeks).

-- Ken

[John Hunter]

ksmelcer

Thanks for the update!

[GeekMom]

Thank you for updating your post. You had some interesting results.