What is it? Wood, tools

[Matt Day]

I went to a school auction last week and came away with some unknowns.


First is some lumber. I got about 100bdft of it (8" wide x 10') for $20, so I don't really care what it is it was so cheap! But I'm curious. For color reference with my smartphone pictures from my basement, the glove is an orange HD one. I'm pretty sure it's pine, but maybe ash? What do y'all think?


Next are a couple what-I-think are glass cutters. One is labelled Stanley 20-8400, but Google doesn't return any hits on it.


Lastly are the two shafts of sorts. One end is tapered and the other threaded. One of the tapers is bent so I'm guessing it was replaced. I'm thinking a machine part of some kind.

[Mel Fulks]

Looks more like cypress to me.

[Peter Quinn]

The wood looks like ash with some bottle age, probably lighten a bit if guy sand of mill it, those are definetly glass cutters, the shafts I have no idea.

[John McClanahan]

Those are spindles for a spindle sander.


John

[Andrew Hughes]

Looks like Cypress to me also,What ever it is that's a nice clean score!

[Ed Labadie]

Those are spindles for a spindle sander.


John

Yes. Not sure what brand, ask over at OWWM as some of those spindles are made from unobtanium.

Ed

[Larry Browning]

The wood looks like ash to me. Can you put a dent in it with your finger nail? If you can, then it is probably not ash.

[Chris Padilla]

I'll vote for ash as well. :)

[Kent Adams]

I'm going to be contrary and say its southern yellow pine.

[Matt Day]

I'll mill up another piece and see if it appears any different.

Regarding the spindles, there was an old Boice Crane floor standing spindle sander there which they probably go to. The sander was of course 3 phase so I didn't bid. I didn't think it was worth it to me to buy a VFD for it too.

[Larry Browning]

I think you need to do the fingernail test. Ash is a very hard wood, they make baseball bats out of it. All the other suggested woods are much softer and should dent easily.

[Allan Speers]

Matt, that lumber could easily be Honey Locust. If so, you got one heckuva' score.

Turn that stuff into outdoor furniture.


http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Distinguishing_Honey_Locust_and_Black_Locust.html

[Kent Adams]

Agree Larry. The fingernail test will eliminate certain guesses, the OP should do that and let us know.

[Kent Adams]

My guess is that this couldn't be honey locust. Surely he would comment on the weight if it was locust.

[Allan Speers]

My guess is that this couldn't be honey locust. Surely he would comment on the weight if it was locust.

True, it would be hard to confuse locust with Pine.

[Buck Williams]

My bet is on it being ash. If you notice a sweet barley malt, malted milk smell when cutting or milling that's a sure give away. I love that smell.

[Bill Orbine]

The wood looks like ash to me. Can you put a dent in it with your finger nail? If you can, then it is probably not ash.

In which case.........if dented with fingernail it's more likely to be cypress. Cypress is light weight like pine. Damn it.........some day we'll have technology to smell the boards (or pictures, if you will) as it's hard to define through pictures only. Or even weigh the pictures. My first reaction was Cypress!
I

[Lee Schierer]

It looks like pine to me, but if it is you should be able to smell pine if you mill it or cut it.

As others have noted the the two small items are glass cutters.

[Alan Lilly]

Southern Yellow Pine or Cypress, but definitely not Ash IMHO.

[Matt Day]

I did the fingernail test and I can make a mark so it's not ash. My bench legs are ash and there's a sure difference in hardness. Color wise they are quite different as well.

sounds like cypress or pine then. I haven't gotten the time to plane any more boards but here are a couple pictures of a couple others in the rough. So boards seem to have less of an orange hue to them.

[Wayne Jolly]

You mentioned that you bought this from a school auction. It seems to me that price would rule. Or at least it SHOULD for a material used for teaching that will mostly be scrapped afterwards. What would the cheapest wood be in the Ohio area? If pine is the cheapest, I'd say it was pine. That, and the ability to mark it with a fingernail. I have never had my hands on any Honey Locust so I can't comment on that. All of the Ash I have seen is much lighter in color than the photos indicate. But it does look a whole lot like some Birch I have on hand.

Wayne

[Rick Potter]

Looks like red oak to me, but I would take it to a hardwood dealer and ask them. Even if it is pine, they will know.

[Larry Browning]

That REALLY does not look like red oak to me. Plus, he can put a dent in it with his fingernail, I think that pretty much rules out any variety of oak. Those rough pics have me leaning toward the cypress or even cedar variety.

[Larry Browning]

but I would take it to a hardwood dealer and ask them. Even if it is pine, they will know.
Where's the fun in that Rick? You probably read the assembly instructions too, don't you?

So, let's recap, Here is my list of what has been guessed so far:
Ash,
Cypress,
Honey Locust,
Pine,
Southern yellow pine,
Birch,
Red Oak,
Some sort of cedar,
What did I miss?

The only thing we know for sure is that those 2 little do-dads are glass cutters.

[Allan Speers]

Where's the fun in that Rick? You probably read the assembly instructions too, don't you? .


LOL ! - When he's lost, he probably stops & asks for directions, too. :D :D



The fingernail test definitely rules out Locust. That stuff is hard & heavy. It does look just like it, though.

[Andrew Hughes]

I'm still putting all my chips on cypress,Here's why if it was Syp wouldn't it smell like pine sol.If it was Ash there would have been some tear back around that big oval grain pattern,Even a Bryd head would have had trouble.
Most of us including me call cypress cedar.But if there's not much if a smell and it looks kida waxy. I'm all in on
Cypress. I just love wood I'd questions.

[Chris Padilla]

Butternut!!! :D

[Rick Potter]

Boy, are you guys gonna be red faced when the wood dealer says it is SOFT red oak.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Nice score Matt!

There's a local sub species of Red Oak here in NE Ohio called Pin Oak.

Actually, Ohio is "Pin Oak Central". There's so much of it, it should be our state tree instead of the Buckeye.
LOL! Brutus would have to change his name from Brutus Buckeye to Percy Pin Oak :D

It's softer than true Red Oak and it usually has a ton of small knots in it - - but not always.
It's mostly used for making pallets and packing crates and/or for firewood.
It's very possible, given it's a school, that somebody milled a downed Pin Oak for them.

What puzzles me is that Pine has a very distinctive smell.
Any time you cut or work it, your nose knows it's Pine.
It sure does look like Pine though...

[Jaromir Svoboda]

Looks like Cypress to me.I build few porch swings from Cypress.

[M Toupin]

Those are spindles for a spindle sander.John

+1

If they're MT1 and 3/4" X 9" I'd venture a guess they came from a Boice Crane OSS. Very common in schools in years past.

Mike

[Matt Day]

You're right Mike, see my post on page 1.