Not sure what this is.

[Michael Weber]

This board was in with other species that I bought at an auction, mostly maple and lyptus. Have always thought it might be mahogany but not sure. It's not terribly heavy and has a bit of an open grain though not as much as oak. Hopefully the pictures will allow an ID. Thanksimage.jpgimage.jpg

[Bill Orbine]

Looks like the "better" mahogany such as Honduran mahogany. Often tagged as Genuine Mahogany. Got an end grain picture?

[John Lanciani]

My guess is Meranti; http://www.wood-database.com/light-red-meranti/

[Michael Weber]

End grain. IMG_0428.jpg
I looked at Meranti endgrain and it appears to have more prominent pores.

[John K Jordan]

End grain....I looked at Meranti endgrain and it appears to have more prominent pores.

If you are looking a photos of end grain make sure they are the same scale. A lot of on-line photos are at 10x. Instead of examining the sawn end of a board consider shaving a small piece with a single-edge razor blade. Section 7 in this article shows how: http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...ication-guide/

I have a large beam of lauan/meranti that looks a lot like your photo. However, trying to get a positive ID from a photo of a board is almost impossible. Without proper examination one guess is as good as another.

This might be useful. http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...s-the-lowdown/

JKJ

[Wayne Lomman]

Not meranti at least. The end grain is nothing like meranti. Not like any Honduras or Brazilian mahogany I have used either. It reminds me of another south-east Asian species but I can't remember its name... Cheers

[Philipp Jaindl]

Reminds me of Okoume, the endgrain is similar, though im not certain

[Michael Weber]

Thanks everyone. after viewing the end grain with a 10x loupe it seems the grain most closely matches Honduran mahogany. It is very similar to this picture from the reference John mentions (Thanks) with the very evenly spaced and distinct rays.02D14657-0D34-44D4-BDA8-789CBD2F3A3C-24722-000012FD72905502.jpeg
From the direction of the rays is rift to quarter sawn.

[John K Jordan]

Thanks everyone. after viewing the end grain with a 10x loupe it seems the grain most closely matches Honduran mahogany. It is very similar to this picture from the reference John mentions (Thanks) with the very evenly spaced and distinct rays.02D14657-0D34-44D4-BDA8-789CBD2F3A3C-24722-000012FD72905502.jpeg
From the direction of the rays is rift to quarter sawn.

That's some good wood then!

For those interested, Honduran Mahogany goes under several names according to the Wood Database:

Scientific Name: Swietenia macrophylla
Common Name(s): Honduran Mahogany, Honduras Mahogany, American Mahogany, Genuine Mahogany, Big-Leaf Mahogany, Brazilian Mahogany

Also called "Genuine mahogany"

Note that HobbithouseInc says "Cuban Manogany (Swietenia mahagani) cannot be distinguished from Honduran mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) outside of a well equipped wood science lab" so that might be another possibility.

[Mel Fulks]

John ,that comment based on Hobbit House is interesting and surprising, I have a lot of admiration for his site. I've always considered them easily distinguishable, at least as wood not yet in a project. Seeing the difference in a finished piece can be a little challenging ,but s mahogani is about 20 percent heavier.

[John K Jordan]

John ,that comment based on Hobbit House is interesting and surprising, I have a lot of admiration for his site. I've always considered them easily distinguishable, at least as wood not yet in a project. Seeing the difference in a finished piece can be a little challenging ,but s mahogani is about 20 percent heavier.

I wondered about that. I almost mentioned the weight thing until I went to the shop and weighed some pieces of Honduran mahogany. Some pieces were considerably heavier than others. I wonder if the two Swietenia stocks you've compared were typical, could have come from different growing conditions,etc. Eric Meier (Wood Database) says this about the Swietenia mahoganies:

How NOT to tell them apart: By color or weight. Swietenia species of mahogany, depending on the growing conditions and age of the tree, can vary widely in color and density. It’s all over the map. Some can be darker red and with dark streaks, others can be much paler and lighter in weight. Just viewing the facegrain of a wood sample and using your gut instinct to differentiate the two is unreliable.
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...s-the-lowdown/

I looked up the density numbers for the two mahoganies. These are the average dried weights from the Wood Database.
Swietenia macrophylla: 37 lbs/ft3 (590 kg/m3)
Swietenia mahogani: 37 lbs/ft3 (600 kg/m3)

In fact, most of the parameters for the two mahoganies are very similar, strength, Janka hardness, specific gravity, T/R ratio, etc.


As for identifying wood from photos of boards on an internet forum, I just shake my head at the huge range of guesses. This is entertainment, not science. I have seen some woods in person I was SURE of the type based on many experiences, then with the microscope or UV light or some other exam I found I was wrong! (this happened to me again just a couple of weeks ago with boards fresh off my sawmill.) Even with careful examination it is easy for me to be wrong.

I am almost sure to be wrong from just looking at a photo of a board. (I have well over 120 species in my stash and a bunch of turning squares labeled "??" - I don't have a clue and probably never will! - I'll just turn them. The only way I know to be sure is to cut the tree myself and save some of the leaves (if they are distinctive!) The only people I know that are always absolutely sure about a wood species from a glance or a photo are those with either limited experience or those somehow always right about everything in life...

This article may be entertaining: http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...dentification/

But the funny thing about all this is the exact wood species hardly ever matters! Good wood still makes great things even if we don't have the exact name. Unless it's obviously ring porous but we call it something that is diffuse porous not one person out of many will be able to spot and point out the difference. But since wood is so variable and there are so many species (over 60,000) even that guy might be wrong, expert or not!

BTW, I bought Eric's book too. It's nice to have when I'm not near my computer.

BTW2, I love this cartoon:
cartoon_wood.jpg

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

John ,thanks for all the detail! The only Swietenia mahogani I've seen was either in old furniture (some of which I was repairing) or
pieces of wood that had been saved from old heavily damaged furniture. Long time ago I worked for a company that sold antiques and made repros. Some of the mahogani we used was from the frame of a Victorian piano that was veneered with rosewood! We used the veneer ,too. The wood was about the color of a tarnished penny and extremely heavy and to the eye much less porous than macrophyla. Don't know where I originally got that 20 percent heavier figure. I remember that people used to working with the other type always remarked about the weight of mahogani.