What Wood is This?

[civilwartalk]

I bought this slab of wood before I really knew what I was doing. It was 3" thick, and about 5" by 30" long. A good chunk, all dry and planed square, it had a few rough corners, but I was going to turn it…

I was thinking maybe Maple? I didn't know.

I've cut it up, I put 3 blanks and 2 finished pieces from the chunk in the photo, with reference blanks below just so you know what color hue it is compared to other wood….

It has too much salmon pigment to be maple, or so it seems…

So now I'm leaning closer to Cherry, but the center of the tree wasn't in this piece, does cherry get this big?

 

[KenB259]

Looks like cherry to me.

 

[wolf creek knives]

I agree... Cherry.

 

[RKB]

I vote Cherry

 

[Bats]

It's a little lighter than the cherry I'm used to, but I'm leaning in that direction too. Then again, I just recently got some beautiful curly maple pen blanks from wood128 and they've got a yellowy/orangey color that could almost pass for cherry too, so I suppose anything's possible.

As for the tree, I don't know how big it grows, but I've gotten 12/4 boards from a local supplier before, that started out at least 9" wide before being cut down to 3"x3"xWhatever to turn xmas ornaments.

 

[wood128]

Cherry !!!!

 

[jttheclockman]

I agree with others Cherry

 

[EricRN]

I agree with others Cherry

Me too. A little too pink for maple.

 

[Chippa]

if it has a nice aroma when cutting its cherry, if it burns from looking at it too hard its maple.

 

[TheCraftyCarver]

I vote Cherry as well.
I used to work in a Harp manufacturing shop and we would regularly get very large planks of cherry (4"+ thick, 8" wide and more than 8 feet tall) so I would say that size you got is totally feasible.