what wood is this - found in my Ash pile

[Bob Cooper]

found this board in my Ash pile and i have no idea what it is. I'm showing the unknown wood and some Ash for contrast.
IMG_9023.jpgIMG_9021.jpgIMG_9024.jpgIMG_9025.jpg

[Mark Gibney]

Alder? What's your own best guess?

Edit - my laptop originally showed just photo #2. I now agree that it's likely sycamore.

[Jared Sankovich]

Looks like sycamore on the quarter saw edge

Quartered sycamore

[Prashun Patel]

That looks exactly like sycamore to me. How hard is it? Sycamore is about as hard as poplar - at least to my fingers and blades.

[Jim Morgan]

That looks exactly like sycamore to me. How hard is it? Sycamore is about as hard as poplar - at least to my fingers and blades.

+1

Attractive figure, good stability when quartersawn; poor stability when flatsawn.

[Mel Fulks]

Sasafrass If it smells like root beer when you sand it .

[Yonak Hawkins]

I think I see ash and poplar.

[Prashun Patel]

I don't normally come out so confident on this stuff, but I would put money on that being sycamore.

[Bob Cooper]

Thanks. It’s an interesting looking wood and I’ve never worked with sycamore even though I have some on my property. Definitely not any poplar or alder I’ve ever used.

[Mark Bolton]

It looks like ash to me lol

** Edit... saw the ash thinking that was your suspect board. Looks like sycamore to me

[Jim Becker]

The edge says sycamore to me, too...

[Justin Ludwig]

That looks exactly like sycamore to me. How hard is it? Sycamore is about as hard as poplar - at least to my fingers and blades.

Sycamore is way harder than poplar. I haven’t looked at their respective Janka scales, I’m just going by experience. Sycamore is a beautiful wood. I was lucky enough to build some cabinets for a client that had a standing dead sycamore in the yard of their cabin.

[John Lanciani]

Sycamore is way harder than poplar. I haven’t looked at their respective Janka scales, I’m just going by experience. Sycamore is a beautiful wood. I was lucky enough to build some cabinets for a client that had a standing dead sycamore in the yard of their cabin.

Correct. Poplar is 540, Sycamore is 770 Janka.

[Danny Hamsley]

Yes, in the edge pic, top is ash, bottom is sycamore. In the last pic, the right three boards are ash, the left three boards are yellow poplar.

[Prashun Patel]

Janka beats my fingers any day. But I still maintain they both work (meaning with chisels and planes) about the same. Would you call 500 - 770 a big difference? They both dent pretty easily. I use both pretty regularly - as I'm sure you do - and I don't notice any practical, functional differences in dent resistance or weight.

Sycamore is usually pinker than poplar which tends be yellow. I understand that's a generalization.