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Noah Alkinburgh
11-26-2003, 9:36 AM
My boss brought me a piece of wood that had belonged to his grandfather and asked me to make some pens from it. He thought it was cherry, but I am quite sure it is not. It reminded me of Luan when in square form, but now in a pen it looks like an oak grain. It cut and worked like a dream. Any help in identifying the wood species would be much appreciated. I am attatching a small picutre and the rest of the pic can be viewed in high res at <a href="http://www.alkinburgh.com/gallery/jimspen">my website.</a>

Thanks for the help!

Noah
Lee Schierer
11-26-2003, 9:38 AM
It looks like mahogany to me. Hard to tell from the small sample.
Mark Hulette
11-26-2003, 10:46 AM
What about catalpa? Turns nicely with a tendency to open grain. Just a guess.
Noah Alkinburgh
11-26-2003, 11:05 AM
What about catalpa? Turns nicely with a tendency to open grain. Just a guess.

Funny you should ask...I turned a catalpa pen last night too. The grain is different. This is much more red as well; the catalpa was much lighter in color. Also, if you look at the high res pics there is a "ray" streak in them that I haven't seen in catalpa yet.

Noah
Jim Becker
11-26-2003, 11:25 AM
Did it start out looking anything like that small piece of Honduras mahogany I gave you on Sunday? Your pictures appear "browner" than that...
Noah Alkinburgh
11-26-2003, 11:31 AM
Did it start out looking anything like that small piece of Honduras mahogany I gave you on Sunday? Your pictures appear "browner" than that...

Jim,

As I mentioned on Sunday, the grain does look similar, but the piece you gave me has a warmer brownish red tone...while before cut this had a more rust colored tone. This looks much lighter now that it has been cut, but the red tones are quite apparent in the grain. Unfortunately the pics don't capture color 100%....I don't have photo software at work so I couldn't do any color correction.

Noah
Bob Lasley
11-26-2003, 11:46 AM
Noah,

I agree with Lee, looks like mahogany. As there are many different variteties, Honduras, Cuban, Phillipine, African, etc., it could be any of them, but the grain definately looks like some type of mahogany. JMHO

Bob
Sparky Paessler
11-26-2003, 1:31 PM
Hey Noah

How about a picture of the Catalpa pen. I love to see how it turned out.

Sparky Paessler
Noah Alkinburgh
11-26-2003, 1:45 PM
Hey Noah

How about a picture of the Catalpa pen. I love to see how it turned out.

Sparky Paessler

Well....I would like to do that, however it had a mishap during assembly. :( I have some more glued up and ready to go so keep an eye out. I will be posting one or two of them soon.

Noah
Ace Karner
11-26-2003, 6:23 PM
Terry Hatfield had some wood at his BBQ a lot like that, we couldn't figure out what it was but then Terry finally got it. It was Tree, :D
Anthony Yakonick
11-26-2003, 9:36 PM
It looks like mahogany to me. Hard to tell from the small sample.
Bingo!!! I've got a ton of that stuff, it was stored in a friends basement since we were 8 or 10 and I'm 48 now. The wood I have is in 1" squares that were 15'-20' long, want some?