Wood Identification Assistance

[Brian Kent]

Donald - sure looks like the Cherry we get up here! You should be able to smell the Cherry when you cut it - very sweet smell and an absolute pleasure to turn!

How about if you hold it up to the microphone so we can smell it?

[Nathan Hawkes]

Well, as everyone else has already suggested, its definitely a fruitwood. Cherry smells like cherry, and apple smells like apple. I personally haven't smelled peach wood, so I can't comment. The color looks more like apple to me, but could be apple, pear, cherry, peach, etc. From all the pics I've seen, Apricot is pretty distinctively bright orange/amber, so I'd say not apricot...

[Steve Mawson]

Bleach works pretty good to prevent mold. Not sure if it would make any changes in color but most would be turned away. I know a company that makes wood barns from green wood and they buy the bleach by 55 gal. barrel. This has solved their mold problem.

[Jim Underwood]

Nuh uh...

Cherry don't smell like cherry neither.... It's a very acrid, bitter smell.

Peach on the other hand does smell much better. It smells more like peaches than cherry smells like cherries. Don't get me wrong, I love turning cherry, but peach is much higher on the list of good smelling wood. You ever get a chance to turn peach, jump on it. It's a great looking, great turning wood.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Nuh uh...

Cherry don't smell like cherry neither.... It's a very acrid, bitter smell.

Peach on the other hand does smell much better. It smells more like peaches than cherry smells like cherries. Don't get me wrong, I love turning cherry, but peach is much higher on the list of good smelling wood. You ever get a chance to turn peach, jump on it. It's a great looking, great turning wood.

Ahhh.. Honestly I hadn't turned any fruiting cherry. I was going on what some friends had said. Black cherry--wild cherry with fruit that turns black when ripe, smells wonderful, sweet, fragrant; makes you want to take a bite out of it while its on the lathe. (dont)

[Brian Novotny]

Looks just like acacia to me. When cut is the heartwood yellowish and quickly turns red???????

[Michael Mills]

If you need to identify more than just this one tree, by the LEAVES, you may be interested in http://www.arborday.org/trees/whattree/
They offer a (book/pamplet/field guide) for either the east or west USA for 5 bucks.
Mike

[Brian Novotny]

I don't think the standard person can identify a wood just by the leaves as slight variations of a species can have VARY different looking leaves....like acacia......it can have oval leaves and long oblong leaves.....I'm not convinced with what wood I have until I've matched up bark, leaves, and heartwood color, and if it is flowering that helps alot. I do it with google alone. But you really need to start off with a book or two so that you have a launch pad.

I'm curious as to what tells a person that a wood is definitely a "fruit" tree? ....without the acual fruit? Just curious as this is something I just picked up last week at the library.

[Al Stramiello]

It is absolutely, positively, without a doubt . . . a Yoshino cherry tree. I think! (I've only been wrong once in my life . . . and then I later found out that I was wrong about being wrong.)

We have over 300,000 of them all around Macon . . . home of the Cherry Blossom Festival. Unfortunately, Yoshino cherry trees are of no help when it comes to making cherry pies. They're an ornamental tree. But, come the third week of March . . . Macon is covered with cherry blossoms.

[Jon Lanier]

Wild or Dark Cherry. The leaves give it away.