Identification Help Please

[Dick Wilson]

Well, this one has me stumped. A friend gave me a couple pieces of wood at our turning club meeting yesterday. He said he got it down south and the person he got it from said it was Holly. I have never turned Holly but this sure doesn't look like any Holly I have ever seen. I think of Holly as being a very light wood. The bark and the grain doesn't look like anything in Michigan. It is mottled, cream, brown, gray streaks, and spaulting. Thanks for your help.


Additional Information. I just talked to Rich. He said in came from the Port Arthur, TX area. He has had the 4' logs for several years, which would explain why is has so much spaulting and gray streaks. After telling him what I found when I turned it he thinks it might be what they call "Live Oak". I Googled and found out that it is the state tree of Georgia and grows all along the gulf coast into eastern Texas. Anybody from the south chime in :-))))

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[John Keeton]

Well, it is not holly! The wood looks like beech, and the bark does to some degree.

[Matt Newton]

Looks like a type of birch to me.

[Dick Wilson]

OK, fellow Texas turners, I found out that my friend got the wood in Texas.........??????

[Leo Van Der Loo]

At first glance it looked like Aspen for the bark, but I think it is an Oak looking at the wood, should be easy to see if it is an Oak when you turn it some more and the rays show better than in this picture.

[Jack Gaskins]

+1 for Oak.

[Ron Stadler]

My guess would be birch.

[William Burroughs]

red oak for sure

[David E Keller]

The wood looks like oak to me... I can't identify trees by their bark, so I'm not any help there.

[Jack Mincey]

It could be oak or birch, but from the bad check in the first picture and what looks to be another one on the back side in the first picture I would split it in half and try for smaller blanks that are check free. I don't like to put work into any turning project with a check already present in the wood to start with. It will only get worse as it dries out.
Happy Turning,
Jack

[Dick Wilson]

Additional information in original post.

[Mike Ramsey]

Looks like China berry to me, got a few of them on my property here in TX.

[Dennis Ford]

+1 on Red Oak

[Donny Lawson]

Looks like beech.

[Dick Wilson]

Mike, China Berry, hmmmm. does it have dense fibers like white oak?

[Mike Ramsey]

Dick, I only looked at the bark in your pic, never turned white oak, just Post Oak, Red Oak, & Live oak, China Berry is not like those. Red oak does have the smoother bark in it's
younger stage before it matures when the bark becomes very different than you pic.