Help ID wood please - Cottonwood ?

[Eben Fourie]

Any idea what this wood is please ? Appologies for the image quality, only had my mobile phone handy. Shop assistant mentioned "cottonwood"

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn127/ebfourie/20091024003.jpg

[Frank Drew]

Eben, it's really hard to be definitive from just a photo posted online, but that wood appears to have much more going on than any cottonwood I ever used; maybe I needed a new sawyer because all I ever saw was pretty bland.

Just from your picture, the first wood that came to mind was figured butternut, but, as I said, it's hard to tell from just a photo.

[Lee Bidwell]

I've worked a good bit of cottonwood (it's commone here in the south), and it is pretty bland. It almost resembles poplar, but more grey than green. It doesn't have a heavy grain pattern. Also, it really stinks when cut. The pic you show appears to be a rotary cut veneer rather than flat sawn lumber, which makes it a little harder to identify. Could it be birch?

Lee

[Josiah Bartlett]

I've cut some black cottonwood in Washington State that had some tigering and similar grain pattern to that. The tree was growing on an unstable hillside and had bent itself to keep growing straight. Its fairly rarely used as lumber, really dimensionally unstable, turns to fuzz when you try to work it, and smells bad. Its great for making soft paper out of, though. There are several species of cottonwood. It could be, if you believe what the person said.

[Mike Cruz]

+1 on the quilted birch.