Wood ID Help

[David Delo]

Picked up this blank yesterday that said "exotic hardwood." Thought it might be Bubinga but it has a more brownish hue than a reddish or hue that I'm use to seeing. Blank size is 9" x 11.75" x 2.125" so that would put it in the 55 lbs per cubic foot range. Looking at Bell Forest chart of average dry weights puts it in the Bubinga range and every other wood in that range doesn't look anything like what I have. Anyone have opinion on ID?
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[John K Jordan]

Picked up this blank yesterday that said "exotic hardwood." Thought it might be Bubinga but it has a more brownish hue than a reddish or hue that I'm use to seeing. Blank size is 9" x 11.75" x 2.125" so that would put it in the 55 lbs per cubic foot range. Looking at Bell Forest chart of average dry weights puts it in the Bubinga range and every other wood in that range doesn't look anything like what I have. Anyone have opinion on ID?

Yikes, exotics are often far worse than domestics to id. For one thing, you don't have a clue whether it came from Florida, Peru, or Africa. And there are many 100s of species, some quite obscure! If it was sold by someone who couldn't spell "exotic" they might not be much help either!

I picked up a number of exotics from World Timbers the other day and some of them I've never seen before or even heard of. And there is so much variability in wood appearance and color that even some species I was familiar with looked quite a bit different. (I got the vendor to write the names on each one! - these guys know their wood.)

The weight can be a strong clue but there is so much variability even within the same species AND it depends on the moisture content that it doesn't always help much, except to eliminate some possibilities. Oven drying a piece can help. Even then, no chart lists all the species!

The smell is often a big clue, but only if you are familiar with some specific smells!

I use a UV light to help with some species. For example, red heart is fluoresces brilliantly. However, for this you need the right UV light source AND a list of what species fluoresce.

You can try looking closely at the end grain as described here: http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-identification-guide/ , however this may be useful only to eliminate some possibilities.

It is notoriously difficult to get a useful ID from photos of a board. The color of one of your photos looks a bit like a mahogany or sapele but the grain patterns in another don't. Perhaps planing a couple of faces would help.

What I do in the case of unknown exotics is write "???" on them and just use them! I have a bin full of unknown smaller blanks from a Woodcraft sale and some big pieces like yours from another turner's stash that I've been unable to identify in the last 10 years - and one even has an extremely distinctive sweet smell when cut! - so far I just haven't found anyone who recognizes it.

JKJ

[Prashun Patel]

The grain might suggest zebrawood, but the color in the 2nd and 3rd pictures throws me. If it smells like a barn once you start turning it, that might further suggest zebrawood.

[Pat Scott]

The grain and color looks like African Mahogany. I just got done using some in a cutting board.

[Bob Bouis]

It really looks like bubinga. It's not always red, especially unfinished.

[David Delo]

Thanks for the replies JKJ, Bob, Prashun & Pat,

At first glance I thought it was some version of Mahogany because of the brownish color but the piece was pretty heavy and I always thought mahogany was somewhat light. 6% MC told me the weight wasn't water so cut a slice off the slab and turned it to see if that showed me anything. Reddish chips with no brownish color to it at all. Had a different piece of bubinga to compare it with and coloring is very close, so I'm going to go with Bubinga as a final answer. I know pics aren't that great of a way to determine much of anything but the 2 different pieces are very close to identical. Stuck a piece of zebrawood in there also for comparison. Thanks again u guys.
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[robert baccus]

I've noticed some examples of young age plantation exotic wood showing up in the stores--sure look different than what we are used to. I even purchased an outdoor dining table and chairs set knowing it was plantation teak and it was beautiful but light in color and weight. Rotted in 13 years here in danp E. Texas. Also a piece of plantation grown padauk was a disappointment on the lathe. More confusion.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Strange woods can crop up all over. Had a 1.5 x 1.5 turning blank about 8 inches long given by an acquaintance with a sense for the really odd. It is poison ivy vine. he made a few things with poison ivy wood just to get people's reactions.

[John K Jordan]

Strange woods can crop up all over. Had a 1.5 x 1.5 turning blank about 8 inches long given by an acquaintance with a sense for the really odd. It is poison ivy vine. he made a few things with poison ivy wood just to get people's reactions.

I've been told poison ivy vine is best used to make mother-in-law spoons!

When we bought this farm I cut zillions of poison ivy and wild grape vines from trees. I had some larger than 4" in diameter. Big poison ivy will grow up a dead tree and send out horizontal branches covered with green and make the tree look alive.

JKJ

[Prashun Patel]

... he made a few things with poison ivy wood just to get people's reactions...

Got a good chuckle out of this one.

[Bill Boehme]

Picked up this blank yesterday that said "exotic hardwood."

Actually, the tag says,"Exocit Hard Wood". I'll have to conclude that Exocit must be an exotic wood that is very rare. Probably found near Exocit Beach in Greece.

[John K Jordan]

Actually, the tag says,"Exocit Hard Wood". I'll have to conclude that Exocit must be an exotic wood that is very rare. Probably found near Exocit Beach in Greece.

That's funny! I would love to find out there is in fact such a wood, but would show my earlier comment about the seller to be inexcusably rude: "If it was sold by someone who couldn't spell "exotic" they might not be much help..." I had to trick google with double quote marks to even search for "exocit" wood.

But being mildly dyslectic myslef I shuold really try to be moer undrestadning.

JKJ

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Scary, I read your last sentence just fine, and afterward realized the spelling was off.