Wood identification - American Chestnut?

[Mike Henderson]

I was asked to repair an antique kitchen table recently. I could not really tell what wood the table was made from. It looked a bit like oak but for a variety of reasons, I question whether it was oak or whether it was American chestnut.

Can anyone tell me how to identify American chestnut from the wood?

I'm including a couple of pictures of some wood I removed from the table. One is a small piece that still has the original outside (dark, probably from the tanin in the wood). I used the rest of the wood to make the striking surface of a mallet, so that picture shows the inside of the wood, with a new finish on it.

Any help identifying this wood will be appreciated.

Mike

[Cody Colston]

I once built a small table from some wormy Chestnut that a relative had gotten. IIRC it was a bit finer grained than what I see in the pics. That looks like White Oak to me.

[Jim Tobias]

Mike,
I have to agree with Cody. It looks more like oak than chestnut. I have a good bit of wormy chestnut and it tends to finish a little darker than your mallet looks. This serving tray that I made a couple of years ago shows the darkish streaks.

Jim

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks, Cody and Jim. I guess it is oak.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Mike

[Russ Sears]

Without question that is oak. The telltale sign is the rays in the end grain that run perpendicular to the growth rings. That's the structure that produces the wonderful flecks when oak is quartersawn.

[Sam Yerardi]

Mike,

It looks like chestnut and I too thought of oak but the third picture starts looking a lot like beech when you look at the quarter-sawn side of the piece.

I just updated this posting again after looking at the third picture again. Since I can't ever recall seeing the stripes in quartersawn beech I'm leaning towards oak.

[Stephen Edwards]

I was asked to repair an antique kitchen table recently. I could not really tell what wood the table was made from. It looked a bit like oak but for a variety of reasons, I question whether it was oak or whether it was American chestnut.

Can anyone tell me how to identify American chestnut from the wood?

I'm including a couple of pictures of some wood I removed from the table. One is a small piece that still has the original outside (dark, probably from the tanin in the wood). I used the rest of the wood to make the striking surface of a mallet, so that picture shows the inside of the wood, with a new finish on it.

Any help identifying this wood will be appreciated.

Mike

Better late than never...while searching threads today for "chestnut oak", I came across your post. I think that's your species of lumber in this table. You can read about it here:

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/quercus/prinus.htm

I was sawing this tree for firewood. It died standing as a result of construction. I looked it up in my tree ID book because I'd never noticed that particular species of oak before. It was growing in a location exactly as described in the above link.

It has the same sort of rays as white oak, but is a bit deeper in color. I've saved a few short pieces to saw on the BS for small projects. We'll find out how it looks as boards. It's really nice grain.

Sincerely,