Intro & what kind of wood is this?

[Rhys Goodwin]

Hi everyone, I'm Rhys, fist time poster, long time lurker. I live in Auckland, New Zealand and have a small wood and engineering workshop at home. I recently came across this wood and I'm not sure what it is. It feels pretty hard and dense (although other pieces are much lighter). It's easy to work with the plane.

327361 327362

Cheers,
Rhys

[Frederick Skelly]

Rhys, no clue about the type of wood but I just wanted to say "welcome". Glad to have you join us!
Fred

[daryl moses]

Hello Rhys, looks like Red Oak to me.
Welcome to the creek!! BTW, i'm a Kiwi myself.

[Lee Schierer]

Hi everyone, I'm Rhys, fist time poster, long time lurker. I live in Auckland, New Zealand and have a small wood and engineering workshop at home. I recently came across this wood and I'm not sure what it is. It feels pretty hard and dense (although other pieces are much lighter). It's easy to work with the plane.

327361 327362

Cheers,
Rhys

Welcome Ryan. It would help to know where you are located and how you came to get this wood. At first glance it sort of looks like Red Oak, but I am sure that it is not Red Oak.

[peter gagliardi]

Looks an awful lot like Spanish Cedar. Don't know if it's indigenous to your island?

[Dave Cullen]

Looks like luan (lauan) sometimes called Philippine Mahogany to me.

[Jason Beam]

It's not an oak - it's a hardwood for sure - and it looks closest to the mahoganies i've seen - which species I can't be sure, but i can say that grain is definitely similar.

[Prashun Patel]

Welcome!!!!

I also vote for some type of 'mahogany'. Lauan would be my best guess too. "Hard and dense" is throwing me off, though. The Honduran mahogany I've used is fairly light. The African mahogany I've used was denser, but seems to usually have more ribboning than what you show.

My other guess is lyptus. But I think that's only in South America.

It doesn't look like any North American red oak I've used.

[Joe Kieve]

Agree with others, could be luan. Also might be "monkey pod"...check here http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/monkeypod/

[Dave Richards]

Hi Rhys, and welcome!

I have no idea about the wood you've got there but I just had a short look at your blog. I'm thinking you'd be fun to hang around with. :) I sense a wee bit of the over-engineer in you. Cool!

[Erik Loza]

My first reaction was "Saal" aka "Salwood, a species which I believe is commonly used for reclaimed work and comes from Asia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorea_robusta

Erik

[Rhys Goodwin]

Hi guys, thanks for the warm welcome!

I got wood from a second hand dealer who said it had come off the wharf and it had been used for something in shipping (in hind sight I didn't listen carefully enough). It came as beams, in various sizes from 70x70mm up to ~75x150mm. I should have taken a photo before I put the rest of it in my stash under the house. Maybe I'll get a piece out later. It had a USA mark on one piece and they were kind of all black oil soaked.

The boards in the photos were ripped on my new Inca bandsaw. And that's probably what I'll end up doing with most of it, more surface area than just using it has beams, therefore more bang for my buck! In New Zealand I'm just grateful to have something that's not Rimu or Pine! And I only paid ~$1USD/Linear meter. I think I'll go back and see if he's got any more.

[Rhys Goodwin]

Here is a picture of a piece how I received it:
327415


It's very nice to work. Very robust.
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[William Nimmo]

If it has a strong smell I would also say spanish cedar . It looks and works like mahogany but softer and very fragrant .

[Wayne Jolly]

This looks exactly like some lumber I bought from a Big B many years ago. Unfortunately it was just called "mahogany", so probably Phillipine.

Wayne

[Mike Henderson]

Either Spanish cedar or Philippine mahogany (which is not really mahogany).

Mike

[Wade Lippman]

Philippine Mahogany covers about 30 different woods with very different properties. I bought a big lot of it a few years back; some could pass for mahogany, and some was more like balso wood.
It does look like meranti, but you aren't likely to get any Meranti marked US.
But it doesn't look much like any US wood, so maybe.

[Jim Ringo]

I'd guess a 'mahogany' too... either meranti/lauan or Khaya