Can anyone identify this species?

[Robert Skidmore]

Can anyone help me identify this wood species? It is a deep dark chocolate brown, very dense (hard), heavy and has a lot of curly grain. It is not walnut and I'm sure it is not domestic.
Thanks


453701

453700

[Robert Skidmore]

I'm wanting to say it looks like Katalox from Central/South America, but not sure.

[Andrew Seemann]

I'm not good with tropical woods, but maybe Peruvian Walnut with a nice curl? Or maybe a particularly dark piece of Ipe. How did you come by it?

[Stewart Lang]

Peruvian Walnut isn't very heavy, so I'd rule that out. I can't see the pictures so I'm just going off of what you say. How is the grain? Is it open/closed? Wenge is heavier and the color you describe. Could possibly be thermally modified Ash, which would be heavier, dark brown and could have naturally a lot of curly grain. Where'd you get it from? What does it smell like when it's cut?

[Julie Moriarty]

Can anyone help me identify this wood species? It is a deep dark chocolate brown, very dense (hard), heavy and has a lot of curly grain. It is not walnut and I'm sure it is not domestic.
Thanks

My first guess would be wenge. Can you take a close-up picture of the end grain and post it?

End grain pictures from the Wood Database:
https://www.wood-database.com/wp-content/uploads/wenge-endgrain.jpg
10x magnification
https://www.wood-database.com/wp-content/uploads/wenge-endgrain-zoom.jpg

[Steve Demuth]

End grain pictures would help nailing it down, but I'd lay long odds it's Katalox, sometimes called Mexican Royal Ebony. If so, it's great stuff. Hard, heavy, machinable. I love it for wooden drawer pulls and the like, and as the rim edge on segmented vessels, particularly where walnut is a major constituent of the vessel.

[Brice Rogers]

My guess would be Ipe ?

[John K Jordan]

There is such a huge variance on wood appearance that when posting a photo of a board you will typically get a variety of answers of what it looks like. ALL of them will be wrong except for one, if you are lucky. As mentioned, the first step is to examine the end grain. This article tells you how to proceed. Read section 7. https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-identification-guide/
The other advice to measure the density can help narrow down the possibilities.

There are also chemical and fluorescent tests tests useful for some species.

Also, you can send off a sample for free analysis. See the Still Stumped section.

To get an idea of the wide variation in a single species, this is a good web site to review. Just pick an candidate speces:
http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

JKJ

[Ernie Loposser]

looks like a brazilian species famous for decking...heavy and very hard

[Robert Skidmore]

Thanks everyone. I compared the end grain to an online resource and it does appear to be Katalox as I thought. Beautiful brown wood.