Wood Identification

It may help if you could scrape off a section, or plane it, then take a pic. That way we can see what it would look like freshly sawn.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

It’s very interesting – going to make a lot of pens lol – but no idea what it is! Sorry

-- Canadian Wood Chuck (Bruce)

How about petrified sweet potato LOL

-- BUILT TO LAST WOODWORKS, West Blocton, Alabama

Interesting wood hard to identify

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Yes, no doubt about it, definitely the rare and highly prized Dan Quale “potatoe” wood.

-- DocK, WV

”How about petrified sweet potato LOL”

LOL…beat me to it..I was thinking the same thing as I looked at the pics.

-- Don S.E. OK

It sure DOES look like a potato. I’d like to see a scraped off section as well….

-- Ben Kahmann Dayton, OH

ok. I’ll see what I can do about more pix.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Rick is making a little bowl out of the wood. Here are some photos

From unknown wood

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Debbie can’t tell you what wood it is but looking at the little bowl when you oil it its going to ping all over the place it’s going to look stunning can’t wait now LOL….........

Andy

-- cut it saw it scrap it

Looks like the root of a hardwood, what grows locally?

-- You know.... I think that old wood needs to be furniture.

Judging from your first pix, my most serious academic colleagues and I have painstakingly examined auntie’s stunning gift and our official conclusion: Giagantis Canine Bonea.

we have everything here re: types of trees :)
Perhaps I’ll never know.

Canine Bonea…. Potato Wood.. yah.. that’s it :)

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

“Elephant Leg Ivory”

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Was your cousin ever in the Navy? I think he may be the guy that stole my wooden leg. ARRRRGGGGHH!

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

MsDebbie, I had a piece much smaller that looked a lot like that. I can’t tell you what kind exactly, but I think it’s one of those old, gnarly, vine type things that grows at water’s edge on a stream or lake…?

-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.

looks like we are narrowing it down! :)

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Hey Karson, I was thinking the same thing, lol

-- Ben Kahmann Dayton, OH

... reminds me of the pieces of driftwood my wife picks up from time to time. Or, as someone mentioned.. a root piece. She wants me to do something with them… so I put them in the garden and in a few years nature has converted them to composted mulch. Can’t even guess whether this piece is softwood are hardwood… maybe the real experts need to sniff and touch.

-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...

Looks like maple to me Deb. Probably wrong though. m

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

the wood has a yellowish tinge to it.
and those splits up it.. not sure if that is a characteristic of the wood or just happened to this log.

it’s very heavy.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

The turnings appear to be ash.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

is ash yellowish?

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Hi Ms. Debbie;

Ash was my guess too, and yes it’s yellowish.

The grain pattern looks like it, as shown in this picture of a conference table I did. It’s Ash veneer and Wenge.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

sounds like it is ash, then.

thanks everyone.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I think Lee is right, this looks like an Ash burl.

You can find a sample that looks similar here.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

How about mimosa?

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

oh the possibilities! I may never know.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

My first guess is that it is an Old Kentucky Ham.
If it is edible, then it is probably ash.

-- Randy, Rustic Artisan, a family tradition. (No PM's - auto-deleted.) - "I am a seeker, not a follower."

It sure looks like a worm eaten wooden leg to me. Grandma’s mummified leg (kinda’ eeeeirie!).

I do like the wild grain coming out in the turned piece.

-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

I have to disagree. :) Not ash, but elm. You can see elm’s characteristic interlocking grain, and it doesn’t have the large open grain of ash. Rock hard, right? Ash isn’t as hard when green, and ash is a little stringy and more difficult to turn without fuzzing or grabbing a “string”.

Hutch

-- I hope the volume of shavings one creates is directly related to the probablility of one's success, cuz if so I've got it made!!

yes. Rock hard.
Rick didn’t say anything about “strings” .

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

My first thought ran along the lines of what Hutch posted. I think it’s probably elm too. Ash tends to be more creamy beige than yellow.

-- Chuck Bender, period furniture maker, www.acanthus.com

I was thinking along the same lines as Karson….......................Elephant leg….........LOL

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

lol perhaps it is an ash-elm-elephant leg.

narrowing it down to two options is good. ....

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I have an chesnut burl that looks something like this. I will try to find it in my woodpile and take a pic to compare.

-- Junior -Quality is never an accident-it is the reward for the effort involved.

It would be possible it is ashy elmephant burl, But not mamosa

-- projects dont pay,pieces are profitable,production is painfull

Sorry MsDebbie, couldn’t find the burl, I may have used it. I did find some 3” mahogany planks i had been looking for, so it was not fruitless sweating. guess i should better organize my woodsheds.

the yellow does quite resemble yellow cedar. does it smell like weed when you work it?

-- Junior -Quality is never an accident-it is the reward for the effort involved.

thanks for your help, everyone.
JJ – I’m glad I could help the process of finding those planks you were looking for!!
No real aroma while turning it. Not that I noticed, anyway.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

My first post on Lumberjocks, and my comments may not be of any real help because I am from accross the pond in the UK, but that bit of wood looks a lot like Elm. The tracery patern left on the timber from the larve of the beatle that bores through the cambium layer between the bark and the sap wood is very distinctive and very frequent over here. Also the turned sapwood on the bowl looks very familure and reminisant of Elm.

I am not sure what varieties of Elm you have but thats what it looks like to me.

Ben

thanks Ben.

Rick thinks Elm sounds more appropriate than ash, not that we really know (obviously)

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I took the wood to the wood place in Cambridge today.

it’s “Grey Elm”.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

A closeup of the growth rings on the end grain may reveal the distinct chevron patterns of elm.

Ben, I couldn’t figure where that scallop shell pattern came from…your suggestion might expain it.

MsDebbieP, My first thought was also something that came out of the water. Did your aunt hint at where your cousin may have found it?

Hard? Native? Checks bad? What about hornbeam? It would be as tough and as stong as nails.

-- Wonderful new things are coming! - God

That’s what the wood guys saw—the wiggly lines of the rings.

As for the origin of the wood… we don’t know. All we know is that my cousin said “it was special wood”. Now we’re thinking that it came from a specific tree that had some memory attached to it for him, rather than it being a rare tree or something.

Thanks everyone for your help.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

A second look at the first, and particurally the second, picture reveals some paralell ridges running in a slightly spiral pattern. This strongly suggest muscle wood, a.k.a. hornbeam. I have one on deck to be milled soon…

and have several more to harvest soon…



...so keep a watch here: http://lumberjocks.com/topics/1319#reply-97949 for a comparison.

But I can’t tell for sure. Something about it also suggest ash or maple. Can you get a closeup shot of freshly-sawn end grain?

-- Wonderful new things are coming! - God

It’s most definitely 100% elm. The lines in the first and third pic that look like spiders engraved in the wood are from the elm beetle. They lay the eggs in a line in the bark. When they hatch, they eat their way along between the bark and wood, all heading out in different directions from the central point, leaving the tracks. It’s a fungus carried by these beatles that killed off most of the elm trees (Dutch Elm disease). That is all too familiar looking wood from all the Elm trees that died around my parents home in Kentucky. As the bark came off in large sheets, the wood looked just like that.

-- Dale Manning, Carthage, NY

elm it is. I took it to a mill.
Grey Elm.

thanks for everyone’s help!

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)