Need Help Identifying a Wood Species

[Mark McGurl]

Hope you can help.
Trying to find a veneer for a chest of drawers please see below.

The chest of drawers were built by the Globe Bosse World Furniture Co. out of Evansville Indiana and probably built with local wood. It's built with flat head screws and nails with some glue. I'd estimate somewhere between 1910 and 1940...? I've attached some pictures.

hope you can help470511470512

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I sure can't tell from those images, or even know what I am looking at. Seems like it must be a veneer? Can you post an image of the whole piece of furniture?

[Mel Fulks]

I think maple or birch and they were widely used then.

[Mark McGurl]

Hi Maurice I will post a couple of pictures of the Piece of furniture.
Thanks
Mark

[Jim Becker]

Mark, I'm going to say that it's extremely difficult to provide even an opinion based on the piece as shown. It appears that it's been subject to the start of "refinishing" and sanding was used, but I could be wrong about that. That really makes it more difficult to judge from photos. If you wipe some naptha on an area to bring out some color, that might be helpful. The striping may indicate something like mahogany or sapele, but again, it's really difficult to tell. The nature of the piece would support that, however.

[Andrew Seemann]

I'm going to guess that the curved drawer fronts are a softer maple or possibly cherry. I'm also going to guess that the entire thing wasn't made of the same wood, but was different kinds and stained to match, based on the fact that the top appears to be poplar? and the sides maybe something else. I've run into that before with that vintage furniture. Heck, even the mid-century desk next to me has at least 3 species of wood stained to more or less match.

Assuming it is going to be stained again, it probably doesn't matter if you get the exact species, something that satins close should work. I'd maybe get a couple small pieces of cherry, maple, birch, whatever looks close and try some stains on them and see what you can get to match. It is even possible that a different species could match better than the original.

[Mark McGurl]

Hi Andrew. You are so correct. It's made of several Spices of Wood. The Drawer fronts are something over oak. I think the top is Hickory or some thing similar, but not positive. I will have to play with the stain to get it to look all the same.
Thanks.
M

[Andrew Seemann]

My guess on the drawer fronts is they used an oak for the substrate is because it is fairly stable and relatively cheap (or they just had a lot on hand) and birch/maple/cherry for the veneer because they bend well and match the rest of the piece well enough.

[Brian Runau]

Hope you can help.
Trying to find a veneer for a chest of drawers please see below.

The chest of drawers were built by the Globe Bosse World Furniture Co. out of Evansville Indiana and probably built with local wood. It's built with flat head screws and nails with some glue. I'd estimate somewhere between 1910 and 1940...? I've attached some pictures.

hope you can help470511470512


Could this be chestnut veneer? Brian

[Tom Bender]

Some Walnut fades in light. This could be the case with the fronts.

[Stan Calow]

Some Walnut fades in light. This could be the case with the fronts.

That's my guess too - old walnut. I have an old hope chest of that vintage, also from Indiana, that has a lot of curved veneer peeling off. Closest match I could get was walnut veneer tape, using garnet shellac as a finish. I was unsuccessful because the veneer was so crumbly.

[Rob Luter]

Walnut would be a good guess based on the amount of it in Indiana at the time this was built, but I've never seen it fade to that degree. Black walnut grows like weeds around here. I've seen old timber frame barns made from it. They used what was available. I'd sure like to salvage and resaw a few of those old timbers.

[Jim Becker]

The striped figuring in the photos doesn't help me see this as walnut. But I certainly could be wrong!