A friend gave me a small slab of wood that I've never seen before. I think this combination is beautiful, but I don't know what the yellow wood is. Please tell me what you think it might be. Thanks.
If it is osage orange, it will darken considerably over time.
Osage is very heavy. Did you notice that it was heavier than the walnut? Whereas, olive is fairly light.
Olive also has dark streaks. And, it's prone to chip out. Did you get any when you cut the box joints?
Thanks guys. Yes the wood is very heavy and dense. I'm disappointed that the Osage Orange will darken, I really like the bright yellow color. I didn't have any luck running it through my planer with fairly new blades. It had grain that changed direction and I kept getting chip out. The only way I was able to dimension the wood was to do it on my table saw or band saw and then sand out any marks from the process. Also thanks for identifying the wood for me.
Many, many, MANY years ago, in high school, (1959) I turned a lamp base from osage. It set in my parent's dark living room for the six years I was in the military. In that time, it had darkened to a rich milk chocolate brown.
I've since made tool handles and shop fixtures with it. They took about a year to turn the same color.
Persimmon IMO, which is a true ebony. Trees are primarily sap wood, with chocolate colored heart wood showing up in streaks. Sapwood is pale yellow white. Beautiful box, love the grain in that walnut!