Is this log mahogany?

[Mark Gibney]

I apologize for the screen filling image below - the "insert image" function won't work for me today.

I found a log on the streets here (Los Angeles) maybe 6 or 7 years ago and last week I opened it up.

I was expecting pine - rough bark - but this looks like mahogany to me. Anyone else think so, or is it something else?
There was no odor during milling, and there are only tiny checks of 2" max even though the ends were not sealed - is this a characteristic of mahogany drying?

thanks, Mark

Edit - the image didn't even make it to posting. Moderators, if you want to delete this posting, please do so.




http://www.sawmillcreek.org/webkit-fake-url://d3b3c113-fe2a-4ce0-be22-24296094af25/image.tiff

[Jamie Buxton]

Not likely that it is mahogany. The natural range ends a thousand miles away from LA.

[Bradley Gray]

There are mahogany trees in south Florida so it is possible. Plus, it's LA.

[John K Jordan]

...I found a log on the streets here (Los Angeles) maybe 6 or 7 years ago and last week I opened it up.
I was expecting pine - rough bark - but this looks like mahogany to me. Anyone else think so, or is it something else?
There was no odor during milling, and there are only tiny checks of 2" max even though the ends were not sealed - is this a characteristic of mahogany drying?
...Edit - the image didn't even make it to posting. Moderators, if you want to delete this posting, please do so.




Mark,

A photo of a log or board may not help much except generate guesses. If you want to know, there are two excellent things you can do.

1) Send a small sample of the wood to the US Forest Products laboratory. They will write back with the species. The bottom of this page tells how at the bottom under "Still Stumped?": http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-identification-guide/ That article is well worth reading but if you want to skip it just go directly to this page: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/centers/woodanatomy/wood_idfactsheet.php

2) Examine the end grain of a small piece with an inexpensive magnifying lens. It's easy - the Wood Database article above tells how. A piece 1/2" square or so is usually sufficient. The article in the link below shows some end grain photos and descriptions.

There is a lot of confusion about "mahogany". This excellent article explains the problem:
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/mahogany-mixups-the-lowdown/

Or you can just do like most woodworkers in this situation: pronounce it mahogany and almost no one will know if it is not. Those who do will get a silent chuckle. Someone at our woodturning club passed around a bowl with "cherry" inscribed on the bottom - ha, even without a magnifier it was obviously a ring porous wood.

If you photo did not post it may have been too large, not in pixels, but in file size. Try resizing to make it smaller. Then, if you can, save it as a JPG with more compression to make the file size small. For posting I make most photos 100kb or less. Also, you can edit or delete your own post.

JKJ

[Lee Schierer]

If you photo did not post it may have been too large, not in pixels, but in file size. Try resizing to make it smaller. Then, if you can, save it as a JPG with more compression to make the file size small. For posting I make most photos 100kb or less. Also, you can edit or delete your own post.

JKJ

File size is the biggest issue with posting photos. You can only edit or delete your post for 24 hours from the time of the initial post.

[Mark Gibney]

It worked! - thanks Lee, I took a screen grab of a corner of the original photo. I've wetted part of the surface with alcohol to show the grain.
John, good links, I'll check them out in depth. Looks to me like the grain reverses, but I haven't worked much with mahogany and I lack muscle memory about this.
Jamie - people plant all sorts of trees around Los Angeles. I think about 1/3 of the urban forest is eucalyptus, for instance.

358183

[Jamie Buxton]

Jamie - people plant all sorts of trees around Los Angeles. I think about 1/3 of the urban forest is eucalyptus, for instance.

True, but plants have specific natural habitats. Los Angeles is dry. Mahogany's natural habitat is humid -- the Amazon basin, Central America, Caribbean islands. Eucalyptus comes from dry Australia, and is quite comfortable in California.

[Mel Fulks]

Does look like mahogany. Many years ago I saw a reference to "bilsted" being used as a mahogany stand in. Couldn't find much info.

[John C Cox]

From here - it looks like chinaberry. Its within the sphere of "looks kinda like and works kinda like mahogany"..

Another possibility is one of the dark acacias like blackwood or koa. Those are pretty common around California.

[scott spencer]

It worked! - thanks Lee, I took a screen grab of a corner of the original photo. I've wetted part of the surface with alcohol to show the grain.
John, good links, I'll check them out in depth. Looks to me like the grain reverses, but I haven't worked much with mahogany and I lack muscle memory about this.
Jamie - people plant all sorts of trees around Los Angeles. I think about 1/3 of the urban forest is eucalyptus, for instance.

358183

Doesn't look mahogany to me. Looks like elm.

[Mike Henderson]

Jamie - people plant all sorts of trees around Los Angeles. I think about 1/3 of the urban forest is eucalyptus, for instance.

I live in the LA area. I never heard of a mahogany tree in this area - not from woodworkers, stories in the press, anywhere.

I doubt if they would survive here. I have heard of Cuban mahogany trees in south Florida.

Mike

[Don Orr]

Very possibly an Acacia of some sort. Especially with your location. Doubtful on Mahogany.

[Davis Young]

For LA, it could be acacia or locust. Plenty of those trees around.

[John K Jordan]

...I've wetted part of the surface with alcohol to show the grain.
John, good links, I'll check them out in depth. Looks to me like the grain reverses, but I haven't worked much with mahogany and I lack muscle memory about this.
Jamie - people plant all sorts of trees around Los Angeles. I think about 1/3 of the urban forest is eucalyptus, for instance.


Doesn't look like any of the varieties of mahogany I have in my shop. If the photo is close the the actual wood yours is much lighter - all the mahogany I have is darker, even without wetting. A close look at the end grain is key.

I understand eucalyptus was planted in CA as a financial venture that didn't work out.

JKJ

[Yonak Hawkins]

Looks like elm.

I agree. It looks like elm to me, too.

[Frederick Skelly]

Looks nice enough that, whatever it is, I'd put it to work! :D

[John K Jordan]

I agree. It looks like elm to me, too.

Mark,

If it is elm you are in luck - you can easily eliminate a bunch of guesses. Elm has very distinctive bands of latewood pores (summer growth). These bands are so distinctive you can almost always see them on sanded and finished end grain even without a magnifier. This is American Elm.
358240

Note that a few other species also have wavy bands and can look similar, such as hackberry.
Hackberry usually has a wide sapwood, often a little mottled (courtesy of the wood database, bowl is hackberry and walnut):
358242 358241

If your wood doesn't have these wavy bands, you can positively eliminate elm as a candidate.

Ash is also often confused with elm but the end grain will show the difference.

BTW, if you haven't guessed, wood ID is a little hobby of mine. I enjoy the puzzles. Guesses from pictures of a face of a board are also amusing since wood has such an amazing variety of appearance in different trees and often even within the same tree. If anyone doubts that, just look at some of the photos at http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/, for example, here are some of his pages on Elm. (If you look at the last link on Misc. Elms prepare to be amazed!)
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/elm,%20american.htm
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/elm,%20red.htm
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/elm,%20english.htm
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/elm,%20misc.htm
Near the end of nearly every page are some example woodturnings which really show of the wood (and the variations).

JKJ

[Bill Dufour]

Could be red Eucalyptus if the bark is reddish. or some kind of Acacia. Does the wood float in water or sink. Neighbors acacia wood sinks even after years of drying.
Bill D.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I use a lot of mahogany. There are a few things that don't quite fit mahogany here:

Grain has too defined of an annular ring
Tiny knots like in your image, although do occur, are not common in groups like that
Color variation not consistent with mahogany
Mahogany smells sweet when cut- unmistakeable aroma that you would have noticed


There are so many woods being called mahogany these days, but my comments relate to Honduran, and Cuban true mahoganies. Your image may be under/over exposed and not show true colors, but I am basing my comments on this image. True mahogany will darken rather quickly in UV. It is a pinkish or orangish brown when cut and darkens to a deep reddish-brown. It silvers when weathered. The ends would have been silver-grey much like teak if they were left exposed to the weather.

[Mark Gibney]

I got the results back from the Forest Products Lab at the USDA on the species of wood that I enquired about on this thread, and they say it's LAURACEAE. Great service, I'm delighted to know what the wood is, eventho it'll make zero difference to what I do with it.

Reading about this on the WoodDataBase it could be a piece of Bay Laurel.

I got two really nice "slabs" from the log that I'll use to make a couple of benches.

[Andrew Gibson]

Thanks for sharing the results!
We have Cuban Mahogany Here in Florida as far north as Sarasota and rumor of a few trees in St Pete. There is quite a bit of it over in Miami and West Palm.

[Mikail Khan]

Mahogany sawdust mixed with water will be red. Does not look like it.

[Alan Lightstone]

Never heard of one in St. Pete. I'd love to see it if the rumor is true.

[Wade Lippman]

I got the results back from the Forest Products Lab at the USDA on the species of wood that I enquired about on this thread, and they say it's LAURACEAE. Great service, I'm delighted to know what the wood is, eventho it'll make zero difference to what I do with it.


Cool; I didn't know that service existed.

[John K Jordan]

Cool; I didn't know that service existed.

If you want to check into the FPL wood ID service, in my first reply to this post I included a link to where you can read about it and find the exact instructions. Any US citizen can send in up to five samples a year.

From my experience with them, depending on the wood they may be able to identify the genus or even the species. But even knowing the family sure eliminates a lot of guessing.

[Bill Dufour]

California laurel is common city shrub/tree. Bay Leaf used in cooking is laurel leaf from Mediterranean trees. The woods smells like the leaf. the smoke from firewood smells the same, kind of peppery.
Bil l

[Danny Hamsley]

Sassafras is in the family Lauraceace. However, looks more like elm to me too. Sassafras does not have the wavy bands of elm. Does the latewood viewed on a clean cut on the end grain show the wavy bands?