LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Wood Identification

2K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  reelman65 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Greetings everyone. been lurking for quite a while. this is my first post.
Long story, short. I purchased a guy's lumber collection. Hopefully I didn't make a mistake. 7 pickup loads and a trailer load. most is exotic. I can only identify about 30%.

How does one identify lumber? I looked quite a bit on the www. There doesn't seem to be a dichotomous key for wood. hobbithouse seems the best so far, but still difficult to take a piece of lumber and get a definitive answer.

I bought a couple of books, but they are really for identification, they are more like encyclopedias,

any thoughts?

thanks for the great resource. I could look at the project section for hours.

b
 
#3 ·
Hobbit house definitely helps. That has been the best resource for me. One thing that has also helped me is working with a different wood for pretty much every project. Once you work with a wood for a few weeks, you kind of get the feel for it, and can pretty much identify it from then on. That works great for domestics, but can be harder with exotics.
 
#7 ·
As nobody has pointed this out yet…."No pictures, didn't happen" LOL!

I hope you find a good way to determine the types of wood you have. Did you try local cabinet makers, woodworkers guild or grade school shop teacher?
 
#8 ·
Thanks everyone for the kind and encouraging words. I appreciate it. I will definitely post some picks of the haul and mystery woods. I don't think this qualifies as a "Wood Gloat" because I paid quite a bit for it. (my whole emergency fund, with wifey's approval of course). But I hope it was a good deal for me and the seller.

thanks!
Bruce
 
#11 ·
OK great. here is the first mystery,.....
the gentleman I bought it from said it was "Calvea" from Costa Rica. It is clamshell molding. I couldn't find Calvea anywhere. It looked meranti to me. On a return trip, I mentioned that to him. he said it wasn't meranti and it was definitely from costa rica and the local name was Calvea but he couldn't remember the latin name.
here are some pics:
Brown Wood Rectangle Paint Wood stain


Brown Table Wood Rectangle Desk


Brown Wood Tints and shades Rectangle Landscape
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top