ID this wood please???

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sandking

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I am making a pen for someone, but don't know what kind of wood this is. I picked it up at the place I get my wood from in the scrap bin. Forgot to ask when I was there.

The flash changes the color so I added some pics without. It turned very easy and sanded quickly. Lots of very fine dust on this wood, not very dense at all.

I thought it might be walnut, but the walnut I have looks different.

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beamer

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the pores and your description of the britleness of it makes me think some kind of mahogany ... the color could be about right for mahogany, though it's tough to tell, obviously. I'd be surprised if it was a walnut, but there's always a chance. The shape and size of the pores is usually different on walnut, though.
 
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rapost

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Did it smell like walnut when you cut it and/or turned it?? Walnut has a most distinctive (I think pleasant) smell unlike other woods which are just "stinky" to quote my daughter! [:D]
 
ilikewood

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The big pores give it away as a mahogany or monkey pod. Is it heavy or light? If it is heavy, it is probably a mahogany....if it is light, it may be monkey pod.
 
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kf4knf

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IMO I seems to have course gain for it to be Walnut. It looks a little light to be Rosewood...

Of course, you looking at a post from a guy that had trouble telling kitty logs from dirt clumps in the sand box as a kid. [:p]
 
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ctEaglesc

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Sorry Lou not Wenge, too dark for most of the mahogany I have seen,I know it isn't Purple heart, yellow heart, bood wood,Paduk or maple maple.
If it is Zebra wood you got screwed.
I am going to guess walnut.[:D]
 
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sandking

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I will have to call the lumber place tomorrow to see if they even carry Wenge. It doesn't seem like a nice piece of wood though. I really don't think it's walnut though.
 
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clthayer

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Methinks it could be walnut, wood from different geographical reagions grows differently. I see a difference in the brightness of white hard (sugar) maple every day when we are sawing it at the mill.

Christian
 
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beamer

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I'm still saying mahogany - if you take out the darkness (which could easily be caused by camera/monitor/gremlins), the grain and brittleness as well as those pores all scream mahogany.

Wenge would be possible, but I have never seen wenge with pores so pronounced, plus i've never heard of it described as working the way the O.P. described. I'm pretty sure it's not wenge, but I could totally see how someone might think it is.

Walnut is also possible, but the pore size and shape is off from any walnut i've ever worked. Walnut pores are usually shorter and shallower, like little specks. These pores are deeper and longer, almost like strokes of a coarse bristle brush.

Yeah, the more I look at it, the more I think that if that color is anywhere near accurate, it'd have to be a relatively uncommon brand of mahogany. If the wood's actually lighter, maybe with more red in it, I'd say for sure it'd be mahogany, though. Some species of mahogany are a very rich chocolate brown, though, too. Phillipine, perhaps?
 
ilikewood

ilikewood

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It still may be Monkey Pod too. The pore size is enormous like Monkey Pod and this wood ranges in colors from near black to white.

I should say this is a GLOAT too! I have had this slab of Monkey Pod wood in my shop for almost 20 years. It is a single slab 24" x 48" x 2". You don't see these any more.
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underdog

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The pix of Wenge further up the thread makes me weed that option out, because there's some terrific striping going on there... I don't see that in the samples Sandking gave us.

From the coloring it looks like Walnut to me. But if it's soft, brittle, and dusty it sounds more like Mahogany. I've never had any experience with Monkeypod so couldn't say there.. But I've had miles of Walnut and and a bit of Mahogany go through my hands. Nothing like moulding long runs of flooring to really get the feel of certain woods...and splinters, and cuts, and bruises......[^]

Here's a picture of some Mahogany and Walnut I have lying around in my shop. One thing I'm aware of is that the lumber industry is not very conscientious about what they call wood they sell you. It might be sold as "Mahogany", but actually be some other wood. If you look at the lighter colored Mahogany here you'll see the samples vary. I'd just about bet this is two different species of wood. The "Mahogany" on the left has huge ray flecks in the side grain, and long cell openings. And in my experience, it's very brittle, light, soft, and dusty. The "Mahogany" on the right doesn't exhibit those prominent ray flecks, and has shorter cell openings closer to the Walnut samples. I feels a little heavier and acts a little different. I guess I should put a knife to it and see...
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ToolRest

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It's real difficult to tell from the pics. I think your best bet would be to go back to where you bought it and ask. Or even checking to see if they have an online catalog to narrow it down to what they normally stock.

A nice clean slice through the endgrain is often a great help in identifying woods. You may want to take a look at Bruce Hoadleys book Identifying Wood.

My guess is Jatoba:)
 
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