Another "what wood is this" post

[Mike Ontko]

A coworker brought the following rough cut slab into work yesterday to see if it could be identified. It looks like birdseye maple but the color seems too dark to me (the only birdseye I've seen has been S2S). It's been air drying for 10+ years. There are apparently several slabs like this one, all originally from somewhere in upstate Michigan.

If the photos are clear enough to determine (sorry, all I had was my cell phone), what would you say it could be?

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[Prashun Patel]

Can you plane down a section? It's hard to tell from the rough surfaces.

I will make a guess that it's birds eye maple.

[Sean Troy]

Looks like Big Leaf Maple with some Eye.

[Andrew Gibson]

Looks like birds eye maple to me. The color also looks correct for a piece that has been sitting around for a while.

[Dick Strauss]

Maple can be white to almost cherry red...I would guess BEM as well. They have quite a bit of BEM in that area for some reason.

[Mike Ontko]

Can you plane down a section? It's hard to tell from the rough surfaces.

I can ask the owner if it'd be okay to expose a section for better determination.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Mike, if you need a definitive determination you could send a small sample to the Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory for analysis. Free of charge.

[Mike Ontko]

...if you need a definitive determination you could send a small sample to the Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory for analysis. Free of charge.

That's a great suggestion! Though I don't know how critical it would be for the owner of the wood to have absolute identification. But if the other pieces are as attractive as this one, it might be worth the time and postage.

It turns out that the owner has been trucking this wood (4 planks all like the one pictured--about 10-12 BF in all) around for 20 years, so there's definitely some sentimental value with a connection to that geographic region. Given that the ends are untreated and the checking only goes up about 2-1/2 inches from one end, I'd say that this could make for an interesting project. The owner was thinking of a live edge table, but I've suggested that as decorative as the wood is (or may be, I haven't seen all of it), that it could be used as a table top, drawer fronts, door panels, or some other accent elements of a larger piece.

[Jon Endres]

That's birdseye maple. The yellow-gold color is typical of maple that has had years of exposure to light (not necessarily direct sun though). I built my entire staircase in my house, two floors worth, out of both curly and birdseye maple. I like the curly stuff much better.