# What is this Wood



## wseand (Jan 27, 2010)

This was left at my new house what is it. Yellowish color to it. Any ideas on best way to preserve it and what it is. It looks like it has a bit of stress fractures in it already.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

The bark reminds me of elm


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

I agree that elm is a good guess and my opinion is based more on the look of the wood than the bark.

Note - there is a great looking elm turned bowl in projects today and it could have come from this wood.


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## wseand (Jan 27, 2010)

Thanks Gents, I was thinking Elm too after looking at the bowl.


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## saw4fun (Apr 4, 2009)

The color is a little different than the elms I typically work with but the big growth rings and bark and contrast between sapwood and heartwood definitely looks like elm.


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## Nomad62 (Apr 20, 2010)

It looks like locust to me. I hope it isn't for your sake. If it tends to dull your chain quickly, and even throws a spark every now and then, it's locust. I haven't seen an elm tree, so that I don't know.


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## TulsaWoodSmith (Mar 17, 2009)

Yeah, I tend to think elm too. One sure way to tell is to burn some. If it smells like someone peed on the fire--ELM.

Michael


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## Raftermonkey (Jun 5, 2010)

It kinda looks like pistachio but the bark doesn't really suggest it. I give up, what is it?


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## JJohnston (May 22, 2009)

The bark reminds me of the fruitless mulberry trees my parents have in their backyard in Albuquerque (wikimedia picture).


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## Raftermonkey (Jun 5, 2010)

I don't know about preserving it. The best suggestion I've got is to seal the ends. I don't know if you would have to cut it back past the checking and then seal it or not. Can someone else shed some light on this?


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## botietruck (Oct 31, 2009)

Not sure about the wood, but that broom has seen better days! LOLi


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## JWood (May 9, 2009)

Mulberry was my first thought. When fresh cut it is bright yellow. When exposed to light, it will darken rapidly.


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## TroutGuy (Mar 28, 2008)

Looks like cottonwood to me…


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## wseand (Jan 27, 2010)

It was pretty tough to cut through and it did dull the saw pretty fast. I cut into usable pieces and painted the ends after putting some TWP on it. This has worked for other wood. It had a lot of stress fractures so not a lot was useful. Thanks all for the help.


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