All Replies on Unknown Wood type

Could be cottonwood with that smell, but there are probably 60 types of oak trees.

-- keeping myself entertained

did you check out this site?

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

-- Joe, Ga

My first guess would be ash.

Thanks so far. I work with Cottonwood, Black Locust and Honey Locust, so I was able to compare them. I have a great wood collection and Hobbit house is one of my favorite haunts… but no luck there. I am thinking this is not a domestic tree. if I only had one or two boards, I might think it was just an odd board… but I have a quite a bit of this stuff and it is all the same. I have been pondering these boards for almost a year now, every now and then I get the bug to find out what it is.

-- ~ Eric P Jorgenson: Jorgenson Design

Looks like oak and if the furniture came from Asia, it very well could be. There are somrthing like 600 species of oak and most (if not all) of them grow in the northern hemisphere which would include much of Asia.

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

I think that it is American Chestnut. Chestnut is in the same family as oak except that it does not have the large visible medullary rays so distinctive of oak (the fleck in quartersawn oak). Chestnut is ring porous like oak and ash and has a coarse texture. The color is right, too. I see all of that in the pics.

If the table is old, then it might have been made when chestnut was available before the Blight decimated it. I took apart an old table with a veneered top. The substrate was pure, unadulterated, American Chestnut.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

I vote for red oak. I have sawed some oak flooring with a strong vomit odor and have seen those bark inclusions in oak flooring as well.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

With the end grain, color, face grain, and STINK, I vote for Ailanthus (Ailanthus altissima) otherwise known as tree of heaven. It originated in China and was introduced here in the early 18th century. Grows like a weed but is not very popular. It is similar to ash, works well, but is unstable and reallky stinks. This came from www.woodfinder.com/woods/ailanthus/php. I had some a neighbor gave me from a blow-down. Started cutting it up to dry it, and had to quit. Hauled it and all the sawdust I could rake up to an old rock quarry nearby and burned it. Even so, the back yard smelled for a week.

Steve

-- Steve in KY. 44 years so far with my lovely bride. Think I'll keep her.

French oak looks and stinks like that. Chestnut too…

-- Thomas - There is no such thing as a problem, there only are solutions.

That looks like it may be red elm to me. It has a grain like an oak, and is similar in color. I have some in the shop.

http://www.thebestwood.com/Red_Elm_lgr_2.html

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17) †

OK there is a lot of furniture from the 70’s and early 80’s sold in America under the name of “Ramin” wood. Now when you see a sample of Ramin today , it shows a light tan to light yellow wood when first cut, but with a little age it turns a golden tan. True Ramin resembles cross between American ash and chestnut. The confusing thing is that many S.E. Asian woods were passed off as Ramin. Although not a distinctly pretty wood it is stable and dries well. It was used by Broyhill furniture as moldings trim, and case work for many years because it was cheap, plentiful, and took a stain reasonably well. It was of course over-harvested in Indonesia to the point of threatening the species. I understand it became illegal to import the raw lumber in the late 90’s. Items made in S.E. Asia of Ramin are still allowed to be imported. Mini blinds can still be found at lowes that are made of Ramin and I am told that Walmart imports a shit load of crappy furniture items from China made of Ramin . I do not propose that this is the definitive answer for the question as to what you have , just a good possibility. good luck, and I know you will create something to be proud of from the mystery material.

your north florida friend don s.

-- some men see things that are and wonder why, I dream of things that never were and ask why not .... rfk

the only other thing i can think of is Kentucky Coffee wood. I have a few pieces of American Chestnut i could post to see if there are any simliarities.

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

It is definitely not oak. The medullary rays are not visible to the naked eye, and in oak, they would jump out at you. It is not elm as in elm, the latewood pores are in wavy bands. In these samples, the latewood pores are not arranged in wavy bands.

If it is chestnut, there will be evidence of occlusion of the pores with crystalline structures called tyloses. These are what plug up the pores in white oak making white oak suitable for wine and whiskey barrels (the wood will not “weep” moisture). The tyloses look like little grains of quartz or glass, that is, they are shiny. You will probably need a magnifying glass or hand lens to see them. If they are absent, it is not chestnut.

It might then be another ring porous hardwood like kentucky coffee tree, catalpa, or sassafras and they have a similar color. I do not know anything about ramin or the tropical woods, but it does not appear to be ramin from the pattern of the grain. It could be ailanthus, but that is not a common furniture wood at all.

Of all these possibilities, the only species that was a common commercial furniture wood is chestnut. Look for the tyloses!

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

okay.. I walked past these boards again today.. and I have ruled out Chestnut the spacing of growth rings are way too far aport (1/2” – 5/8” wide) and no tyloses. Could it be an unusual red Oak species?

Not Ailanthus.. I have boards with pith centers and they are closed.. Ailanthus has a open pored pith and I have cut apart several pieces of Ailanthus, but no irregular growth ring patterns.. and no pictures of such on line or in my books, though the weight and the growth ring spacing matches. and I have now ruled out Kentucky Coffee Tree.. though I was surprised how close it could be with cell structure and all.. except for the weight and growth ring spacing… coffee trees rings are too close together.

The distinct parenchyma rays make me think Oak still… but I am having problem finding good information about asian species of Oak.. anyone got a good resource?

-- ~ Eric P Jorgenson: Jorgenson Design

It sure looks like chestnut. Chestnut is in the oak family, so it is a first cousin.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

It not a lazy oak. it looks nothing like me.

Good morning

gonna agree with WDH- I only managed to get a small piece but it looks just like the end of the american chestnut piece I have outside; which looks like oak without the rays.

-- --Rev. Russ in NY-- A posse ad esse

If they are asian, it could be Tamo ash, which is known throughout japan as frequently having wavy figuring. My first reaction was perhaps it was Japanese white oak, but then again, I’ve never really worked it.

-- Brian T. - Exact science is not an exact science

On second though, I reverse myself. After looking at the pictures, I see the rays. They are not prominent enough to be a domestic oak, but they are too prominent for chestnut. I figure now that the wood is non-native.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

southern post oak

-- keeping myself entertained

Looks like elm to me. Stinks like elm, too.

-- What are those few hours of mine compared to those decades Mother Nature has put in it!

The latewood pores in elm are arranged in wavy bands. That is not the case in the pictured samples.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

In most of the photos you posted, it looks identical to some red oak I have at my shop. This oak I have I received from a local company where I get their reject stuff and off cuts. I have found several pieces with shipping stickers on it saying it come from Indonesia.
The photo that confuses me though is the third one. It looks different than the rest, and nothing like the red oak I’m describing to you.

-- http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/

If light weight and soft enough to carve easily could be Butternut (Juglans cinerea) also called white walnut. Plainsawn face shows multiple cathedral peaks on one grain line. If all else fails the USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin will help identify it. If butternut—carve it. See Fred Cogelow – search.

-- Steve, 'Sconie Great White North

Kind of reminds me of canarywood. End grain is the same, brown tan color, and stinks to high heaven.

-- Paul, Tennessee, http://www.tsunamiguitars.com