# Can anyone tell me the identification of this wood?



## Brttgry (Feb 12, 2017)

I just bought this piece of wood from a guy who bought an old, run down saw mill. There was quite a bit of lumber left in it, but this was one of the 2 exotic wood pieces I found and I'm not sure what it is. Someone told me they thought it might be Teak but he was just guessing. It's about 8in wide, 8in thick, and 5 feet long. The board is rough sawn but I sanded a spot with 60 grit and then rubbed some water on it to take a more clear picture of the grain. The last picture was what it looks like dry and rough sawn. I can tell that it is a very heavy and dense wood. Can anyone tell what it is?


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

The streaks remind me of African mahogany.


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## KYSean (Jul 21, 2008)

Looks like Bubinga.


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## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

mahogany.


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

Ribbon Sapele maybe?


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

+1 on African mahogany. If it exhibits chatoyance - a shift in vibrancy as you move it under light - it's most likely AM.

Edit: I should have said "in the mahogany family." African, sapele, Cuban, Honduran all exhibit that characteristic.


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## dhazelton (Feb 11, 2012)

Mahogany.


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## Brttgry (Feb 12, 2017)

Thanks for your input everyone! What threw me off was the extreamly high weight and density. I've got some genuine mahogany but this is much, much heavier than that. I've never worked with any African Mohogany though. I'll post better pictures of the grain after I figure out how to plane/cut it. It's much too large and heavy for my bench top12.5in planer.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Can't get a pic right now, but it reminds me of some Bokote I have. Same grain, colors and real heavy and hard. Brett, most people are highly allergic to Bokote, ship it to me and i'll let you know if I break out.;-)


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## Brttgry (Feb 12, 2017)

Thanks papadan! I looked up pictures of Bokote online and so far that looks like the closest match. I read that it gets darker as it ages, which would make sense in this case because it was sitting in an abandoned saw mill for years. I would be interested to see a picture of yours if you ever get the chance.


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## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

Shave an endgrain spot with a plane or knife or razor knife. A good clean look at the pore arrangement will do womders for identification.


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## WhoMe (Jul 9, 2009)

I work with exotics almost daily. Mexican Bocote I see is usually much darker than that. A very dark brown to an almost black wood with thinner creme to yellowish growth rings. It is very dense with very little pore structure that can be seen and is an oilier wood. If your board has any open pore structure, I doubt it is Bocote. 
But from the shots i see, I'm leaning towards the Sapele/African mahogany identification. Both are heavier and more dense than some of the other mahoganies and have much more pronounced grain contrast.


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## PineSucks (Aug 3, 2015)

> Thanks for your input everyone! What threw me off was the extreamly high weight and density. I ve got some genuine mahogany but this is much, much heavier than that. I ve never worked with any African Mohogany though. I ll post better pictures of the grain after I figure out how to plane/cut it. It s much too large and heavy for my bench top12.5in planer.
> 
> - Brett Gray


Jatoba / Brazilian Cherry is my guess. Endgrain pic would help


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## Brttgry (Feb 12, 2017)

Another detail I forgot to mention is that I noticed a fairly pernounced oder when I was sanding that I've never smelled before on previous woods I've worked with. I'll try to get a good end grain picture when I get home today.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

It's gonna be Ipe or Cumaru. I promise. 

Board is cut for decking. It looks exactly like that and is VERY dense and heavy. The interlocking grain is consistent with it as well.

You can easily tell if it's Mahogany versus Ipe by cutting a small bit and putting it in water. The first will float, the second will sink. It it sinks there is no way it is Mahogany.

Cumaru has a distinctive smell when cut. I don't have a word for it. It isn't unpleasant. Maybe vanilla?


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## Brttgry (Feb 12, 2017)

Here is the end grain picture


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

No idea, but it's sure purdy.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

Cumaru


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

Oh yeah. That's Cumaru. I did a whole deck of it. I'd know it in my sleep.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

My best guess would be Jarrah.
I would have guessed Cumaru as well, until I saw the end grain picture. Not even close to Cumaru…..the pic above has a pretty crazy and distinct pore arrangement…just like Jarrah.
http://www.wood-database.com/jarrah/
Another mention. Scroll down to the "pore arrangement" there's another picture of Jarrah end grain and description.

Pics from the Hobbit as well.
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/jarrah.htm


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

From my Cumaru stash at home.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

Dumass me…forgot to post one of the links from the wood database.
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/hardwood-anatomy/









LiveEdge
The end grain in your picture above doesn't match any of the Cumaru end grain shots I can find.

The only 'close' match I can see to yours is Peruvian shihuahuaco / Dipteryx micrantha 
Apparently a Cumaru substitute and vice versa.(happens all the time with a lot of imports/exotics)
True Cumaru is Dipteryx odorata.
Same Genus, different Species.
I'm stickin' with Jarrah.
Splitting hairs in some sense, yes…but none the less, neither micrantha or odorata are as close a match to the op's picture(on my monitor anyways) as Jarrah.
At the end of the day, it's just an educated guess…..I'm no botanist by any stretch…just weird.


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## Brttgry (Feb 12, 2017)

Thanks for your help everyone! I've got the native trees down, but I'm still trying to learn the exotics. I was hoping it was a more valuable wood but I still only paid $10 for it, along with a few very large walnut, cherry, maple, and one 16bf genuine mohogany board that I got all for $10each. It was a gold mine!


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## Unknowncraftsman (Jun 23, 2013)

I'm going to throw my guess in to add more confusion.
It looks like Apitong.
Here's a pic of Apitng end grain I found on the Internet.
My second guess is tiger wood.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

> Dumass me…forgot to post one of the links from the wood database.
> http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/hardwood-anatomy/
> 
> 
> ...


I don't mind the disagreement, but I'll present a few pieces of evidence to disagree back with you.

1) From what I can find, Dipteryx micrantha has a specific gravity of between 0.82 and 0.92. Odorata has a sp. gravity between 0.86 and 1.09. The wood in my shop sinks easily in water.
2) I purchased 2000 linear feet of it. Although, that is no guarantee I'm getting what I asked for, I would speculate the buyers (Crosscut hardwood) in this case would be doing their best to make sure they are getting what they, themselves, purchased since it was a large shipment.
3) I can't find whether micrantha has a smell when cut, but odorata is listed as a vanilla smell and I would quite agree with that assessment.

In the end, we both know that wood can be sold as one thing and be another. I think the sinking in water is moderately strong evidence that this is true Dipteryx odorata._

Your pore pattern with the Jarrah is actually pretty good. I can appreciate the zig-zag as well. I suggest the original poster tries the water test because only a few woods have a sp. gravity above 1.00. Jarrah should float. Cumaru should sink. Ipe should also sink.

I took the endgrain picture with my phone. If I have time tonight I'll pull out my SLR and macro and get you a good picture of the endgrain since we both seem to like the detective aspect of identification.


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## Brttgry (Feb 12, 2017)

I just did the water test on 3 small pieces that I cut off and they did float.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

> I just did the water test on 3 small pieces that I cut off and they did float.
> 
> - Brett Gray


Awesome. That probably makes cumaru and ipe less likely. Tony's suggestion of Jarrah might be a good one.


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## MrFid (Mar 9, 2013)

Not a scientist but here's from the Cumaru entry of wooddatabase.com:

Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .86, 1.09

So to me that looks like sometimes it'll float, sometimes it'll sink. If I'm reading it right, floating or sinking is not necessarily a bellwether for cumaru.

To me it looks like cumaru, which I've laid my deck with. And there is a notable smell to cumaru, especially when cut. Never worked with Jarrah yet.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

Any chance the OP can take his chunk he put in the water, measure the dimensions carefully and weigh it? We could come up with a decent density then. Wood Database says jarrah's range is .66-.84 and cumaru's is 0.86-1.09. Since there is so little overlap you could possibly distinguish the two by its weight.


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## LiveEdge (Dec 18, 2013)

So Tony, I get to eat my words a little. I went back and tried to float/sink my wood and after sitting in the garage for 3-4 years it floats. I came up with a weight of 52 lb/ft^3 and a sp gravity of .832 kg/m^3. Now I'm not sure what I have. Maybe it's still true cumaru and it's as dry as it's going to get. Maybe it's your species. Here is a nicer picture of the pores.










ADDENDUM: I don't mean to hijack this thread, and I'm not sure this is helping the OP, but the plot thickens with my own wood. I grabbed two more pieces out of the garage and they both sank. Their weight came to 60 lb/ft^3 an d a sp. gravity of .969 (which should float, but it doesn't and is likely math and measuring error in my instruments). Here's a picture of these pores. Do I have mixed species in my batch? I wonder.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

Sorry….been pretty busy the last couple of days.
Just a quick response for now to the photo's above. It looks to me like you do in fact have a mixed batch.
Top pic looks like micrantha….
Bottom pic looks like odorata
Maybe a bit more later.

I was also going to bring up your comment mid thread, about your dealer being sure that they're getting what they're asking for.
Thats really not the case, even with the largest, most trustworthy distributors. In instances like this, they probably wouldn't even know, or care….simply because 99.9% of the time, it wouldn't be an issue.
I've had a few instances over the last many years where material arrived(notably Sapele) and as soon as I looked at it….had a wtf moment?! Completly innocent on the wholesaler's part…

BTW, yesterday I 'googled' "Dipteryx micrantha cumaru" which isn't actually cumaru….
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Dipteryx+micrantha&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=AIilWNv1Hcm7jwS8_YDQCg#q=Dipteryx+micrantha+cumaru
There doesn't seem to be a shortage of pages calling micrantha 'cumaru'. lol!
Gotta run…I'll be back.

Great photo's by the way!


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## dbray45 (Oct 19, 2010)

It is easy to settle what it is - send it ALL my way and I will identify it. We can call it "awesome" LOL!


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## WAPY (Jul 4, 2017)

in my opinion it should be awaiian koa, very fine wood used in luthery to make ukulele (awaiian guitar) or parquets and even furniture of high quality.

It's an acacia that grows in the awaiian territory and was used by local people to build canoes; somehow brittle with those stripes of fibers dark and reddish and a very evident end grain. its an hardwood but it floats …. and very very expensive !


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