Wood Identification Help Needed - Walnut, Mahogany...?

The board on the right of pics looks to be the walnut board. Wetting a small area with water may help tell them apart as well. The walnut should be a little more of a deeper brown, while the mohagany board may have a slighy redder tone. Both boards are very nice, good score.

Cut and sniff?

-- Optimists are usually disappointed. Pessimists are either right or pleasantly surprised. I tend to be a disappointed pessimist.

I’ve never worked with either wood before so I don’t know what the difference in smell would be either.

The right is walnut left mahogany, nice boards. what you gonna build?

okwoodshop, if that’s the case, both guys were wrong.

Seems to me that both are walnut. So far that seems validated since the assumption of two post to this point say the “mahogany” board is walnut.

Not sure what to build with these yet. I’m open to suggestions there as well.

I believe that the fourth pic is mahogany. It shows the striped effect of the spiral grain that is characteristic of mahogany. The stripes are caused by the angle of the vessel elements (water conducting cells) changing each year so that they reflect the light differently and show the striped effect. I am not sure which board is featured in the fourth pic, but I believe that at least one of the boards must be mahogany.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

The 4th picture is the narrower, lighter one in all the pictures, the one that is supposed to be walnut.

Okay, after looking closer I may have to change my mind. As my monitor came over on the mayflower the color is no longer accurate. I still believe the board on the right is walnut but the one on the left may be also but with more sap wood showing.here are a couple pics of walnut and mahogany.The board on the right is mahogany

The left is walnut (possibly steamed) and the one on the right is definitely mahogany, probably african mahogany (khaya).

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

Ripthorn – are you referring to the OP’s (D11RDozer) boards or the photo that okwoodshop posted in the thread? Because those are different boards and the difference is quite obvious in okwoodshop’s example.

Personally I’m feeling like both boards are walnut…a little cut and sniff from someone who has worked with walnut would confirm.

-- Optimists are usually disappointed. Pessimists are either right or pleasantly surprised. I tend to be a disappointed pessimist.

In the photo posted by okwoodshop, the left is walnut, the right could be mahogany, but it would be a lesser cut, maybe towards the top of the tree.

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

The left is definitely walnut and the one on the right looks like some ribbon mahogany if it is pretty dense it may be something else

After looking at the pics again, I also think that they are both walnut.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

I also think they are both walnut. Do the shavings from the small bit you planed smell the same? Despite not having worked with it before, walnut has a distinctly different smell from mahogany.

I couldn’t really detect any smell from either. Maybe my sniffer is broken. I did plane a bit more into the larger board and I’m really thinking it’s walnut.

I guess in some sense it doesn’t matter so long as whatever I build has a consistent look to the grain and color. Maybe two single board projects.