Wood I.D.

[David Peterson]

A neighbor brought me a piece of wood this past weekend. He knew I liked to tinker and thought I could make use of it. The piece had been in his basement for decades, he told me, and by now was so dark with age that it was impossible to tell what it was. And then I picked it up. A full 8/4 thick, 12" wide and over 3' long, this little slab has to weigh close to 30 lbs! I grabbed a hand plane to reveal what was inside.

Rosewood? If so, is there any way to determine a specific type? I'm no good at identifying exotics. There are a few locator holes drilled in the side, presumably to mate with an adjacent piece; probably part of a massive countertop at some point. Judging from this remnant that thing must have weighed a ton!

Now, what to make with it???:)
191311

[Jim Koepke]

Most of the old rosewood I have used tends to have a sweet smell when it is cut.

I think the shavings would have been darker.

The shavings do not seem to match the wood.

Does the wood seem oily?

I wonder if it could be lignum vitae.

jtk

[David Peterson]

Now that you mention it, Jim, it doesn't seem that oily. I've turned a few misc. rosewood pieces and this doesn't have the same feel, or smell, about it. I would have never imagined someone building a lignum counter, if that's what this was. And those shavings are fresh off the piece. The wood at the left of the pic is in its natural state - I threw on some alcohol at the corner to take a look.

[rick bear]

I would guess rosewood given the red color/eight. I know Cocobolo weighs about 60lbs/cubic foot, but it has a very distinct smell. Does it change color after exposed to the air?

- Rick

[Jeff Wittrock]

If you show me a piece of red oak and a piece of walnut, I could probably identify them correctly... most of the time...
I say that ahead of time so you know about how much weight to give my guess.

goncalo alves?

[george wilson]

If those white shavings are from that board,I don't think it's rosewood. But,how did wiping a little wetness on it get it so dark in comparison to the shavings?????

[David Peterson]

Jeff, I admit that I had to check your spelling on that one - or even see if those were words. I could at least have imagined lignum, as Jim mentioned, but I'd never heard of "goncalo alves" before. Thanks for the reference!
And Rick, you can see the dry color to the left in the pick.

[jerome granato]

That looks to me like an old yellow pine floor joist. Old growth pine with tightly spaced growth rings. The dark area is from years of oxidation.
And the wavy cut is from a reciprocating saw. Probably left over from an old renovation to the house.

[David Peterson]

That could make sense of the light shavings. I didn't think pine would be so heavy, though.

[Joseph Klosek]

My vote is with Jerome.

Looks like old framing/floor joist.

Yellow pine or as folks like to call it now "heart pine".

You could probably sell it as "Heart Pine" and get enough cash to buy a piece of Rosewood.

J.P.

[David Peterson]

Well, I guess the only thing exotic here was my imagination. It's pine! That used to be one of about 3 woods that I thought I could identify on sight.
Guess I'm down to 2 now. Thanks for the inputs.

[Chuck Walker]

I think the guess of yellow pine is a good one. Yellow pine can be heavy and dense especially old growth. If I had the wood, I think I would try to wet the end grain and try to get a clean sliced area with a single edge razor blade pr a very sharp thin knife blade. If you examine the grain with a 10x or 20x magnifying lens you can verify if it is a softwood (no pore vessels but may have some resin canals). If it has pores, then you are off on another search for a hardwood. I use Bruce Hoadley's book "Identifying Wood", Taunton Press, as a reference and sometimes other books as well as the Internet. If growth rings are not distinct, then the wood could be from a tropical tree and the difficulty increases dramatically. Largely due to lack of ready reference specimens. Remember, there are roughly 100,000 species of wood in the world.