ID this wood? Hard Maple? Ash? XYZ?

[Doug Hobkirk]

Probably an impossible task, but here goes...

I bought parts for child rockers from the estate of the owner of a closed furniture company, so I cannot ask the seller questions. I assume the wood is likely relatively inexpensive, but I realize "assume" is a bad word.

The clues I can offer are that the wood is heavy (about 52#/cu.ft., the wood for 1 rocker weighs 16#), it is very hard, and the furniture company was in Gardner, Massachusetts. The pictures show 3 sample woods as reference samples - raw redwood, raw oak, and a piece of finished oak flooring. The pictures show include 1 taken with flash, 2 under mostly "daylight" fluorescent lighting, some end grain, and a sample rocker that's been painted.

As always, THANKS!

[Jason Beam]

I'd bet on birch, myself. Pretty hard, matches the grain patterns you show, probably has the color for what the pics show. My first thought was Poplar, but poplar almost always has color variance in a board, birch is really one or the other color (heartwood or sapwood). My untrained eye guesses birch :)

[Russ Sears]

I'm guessing it's hard maple. Can you get any more shots showing the sides of the pieces in the first picture?

[Lee Schierer]

The wood in the first photo is maple. The second photo of arms and bases appears to be something else possibly ash. The end grain photos of the spindles is hard to tell a side shot of the spindles would be helpful.

Based on the second set of photos, the parts are all maple. Probably soft maple. Definitely not ash.

[Chris Padilla]

From an economics point of view, I'd say birch because it paints up nicely and is not as pricey as maple. Because of paintability, I'd say it is not ash or oak which are more open-grained woods but clearly, that small chunk in the first two pics is either oak or ash.

Lyptus is a new wood that is cheap and plentiful but I've little experience seeing it.

[Jeff Duncan]

Yup could be Ash, Maple or Birch, certainly has a grain pattern similar to all three but the proof is in the pores and 'true' color. I'd have to see it firsthand to offer a better guess as sometimes you just can't tell from a picture.
I had a bunch of wood from a Gardner factory also a while back, I think most of it was Ash, but that was used for upholstered furniture.
good luck,
JeffD

[Doug Hobkirk]

Here are some more pictures -
I didn't consider the possibility that there were multiple species of woods - the "official picture" shows the chair w/o paint, which caused me to think the woods must be the same (excluding the high-ply plywood seat). But I now realize the arms (picture 1) are made out of different wood that the cross-bars (picture 2). Picture 3 shows the edge of side panels on the seat base. Picture 4 is the "official picture".

[Chris Padilla]

I still vote for birch.

[Jason Beam]

Ditto - it SCREAMS birch to me.

[Chris Padilla]

Ditto - it SCREAMS birch to me.

Are you sure that isn't the wife?! ;)

[Ron Kellison]

Vote #1 is maple Vote #2 is birch Bottom line: Both are great woods to work with, stain/dye easily and take finish well. What would you do differently between these two? Regards, Ron

[Jason Beam]

Are you sure that isn't the wife?! ;)

You know ... if i could hear her all the way at work, i'd be in BIG trouble!

[Peter Quinn]

Hard to say, but I'd rule ash out. Could be Birch or maple, or some of both. They can be hard to tell apart even when mixed in the same bundle of wood. Good stuff either way.

[Mac Cambra]

My two cents, maple. All the birch I have seen seems less evenly colored.

[Jeff Duncan]

All the pics are coming out very heavily skewed towards yellow when I open them. I agree though they don't look like Ash in the second set of pics. Could be White Birch or Hard Maple. But without seeing the true color????
JeffD

[Jude Tuliszewski]

I vote maple as well.

[Russ Sears]

Would you describe the wood as leaning toward pinkish or whitish? If pinkish, I'd say birch; if whitish, maple. It's hard to tell from pictures but it looks like maple to me.

[William OConnell]

Maple maye birch but more than likely maple