# Help ! What type of wood is this ?



## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

I bought this old block of wood for $10 bucks at a antique shop,I don't know what it is. Could it be teak?

I cut a thin strip off using a new ban saw blade. The saw dust seems to stay on the band saw blade. Seems like the wood is on the waxy side. Anyone have a clue?

Thanks ,
Tony


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## LeeBarker (Aug 6, 2010)

I think you got yourself some teak there. Does it change color from freshly sawn, after a day or so?


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Lee

I just jointed he edge last night and so far it still looks the same. The shavings look a little darker than the slab.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

I thought it was bubinga at first (you know how that stuff varies). Teak is a really good thought. Can you plane a bit of endgrain? Might help the guys below.

Edit: crap, I forgot to mention: whatever it is, it's very beautiful.


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## anobium (Dec 25, 2011)

No idea but i like the looks.


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## TCCcabinetmaker (Dec 14, 2011)

Teak is moderately heavy. It is dense and often hard to work with non-industrial tools.

Cypress can vary in color and come darker, it has a semi-waxy feel, smells of carrots when cut (to me anyways), is easy to work, and can be dented with a fingernail


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

^I used a lot of cypress when I lived in louisiana. TCC's right, it's quite soft. This would be an unsual piece of cypress from where I'm from. I've got a teak outdoor picnic set that really greys quickly in the weather. You could put it outside and find out, lol! Please don't do that


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

I guess I would have to go with Cypress also from the sounds of what you all say. 
I could dent it with my fingernail and to me it smells like old cheese or a musky carrot root. 
I was going to use it to make a band saw box with my new Grizzly 14" GO555P that I got for Christmas from my wonderful wife! I hope this type wood is ok to to use to make a Band Saw Box with, it's my first time making these boxes. I'll do some practicing on some old scrap wood first.
Thanks for all your help everyone! 
Tony


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

I guess it could be something other than Cypress but I'm incline to move in that direction. Just for the heck of it I weighted it. 4.5 lbs and it's 18 1/2 " L x 2 1/4" H x 6" W. It looks old and it has a very strong musky smell like blue cheese.


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## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Pitch pine?


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

I looked at some Pitch Pine and the grain in this wood is very tight. I need to find a piece of Cypress and see if it's a close match. 
Thanks for all your help guy's!

Happy New Year! 
Tony


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

That's Cypress….hmmmm….


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Bertha
What's your thoughts? I'm still in the twilight zone on this one. hmmmm….


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## jeth (Aug 18, 2010)

I would agree with some kind of pitch/old growth pine, especially from the end grain shot. Down here we get a lot of similar pine, tight, straight grain, a lot of pitch that will make dust stick to blades and cutters. It can be quite dense, hard and heavy… but… the smell would be a giveaway I think, pine and blue cheese are quite different smells!


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## jusfine (May 22, 2010)

Looks like teak to me, you should be able to tell by the weight. Teak will be quite heavy.

Check this link for possibilities.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Just to add to the confusion, I have some old growth Doug Fir that looks very much like that. Never thought it smelled like cheese or carrots though but it does smell good when cut.Most of my bandsaw boxes are cut from this.with no problem except it does gunk up the blade.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Here's where I go for wood ID

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/


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## TCCcabinetmaker (Dec 14, 2011)

Ok,

Definately cypress, from the pictures you just posted. Old growth cypress, this board is old.

Cypress was commonly mixed with Heart pine (what some people are calling pitch pine) because they were logged in the same areas. They were comonly used in framing, finish work, loaded as ballast in barges/boats going up and down the mississippi when they were empted and often dumped in the water afterwords, which is where sinker pine ( also heart pine) comes from.

If this were in fact heart pine it would smell more like pine sol, or a pine cleaner made from pine oils.

P.s I'm working on a cabinet job that is heart pine, some of the wood salvaged to use for this job is actually cypress and I'm intentionally mixiing it in in spots in order to make the cypress plywood I'm using for panels match a little better


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

I agree with TCC. Look at the growth rings. The pattern is very typical of cypress where the width of the growth rings are random. Some years wider, some years very narrow with no consistency. Definitely looks like old heart cypress. Used to be called "Tidewater Red" in the trade. Now, it is all gone.


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## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Great link Jim


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## pierce85 (May 21, 2011)

Here's a pic from the site that Jim linked to. They call it "sinker cypress."


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Well, I read all the post and I would have to agree that it's Cypress after reading TCCcabinetmaker and some of the other posts here.
It looks and feels like it's Cypress and the saw dust clings on to the blade and everything else too. I guess that could be the natural cypressene preserve that causing that. I read that cypressene not sticky but it's an oil or natural preservative in the wood. Did you know Noah Ark was made of Cypress! 
I would say mystery solved! Thanks for all your help everyone! 
Jim..
Thanks for that link! I got lost in there! LOL!!! Even if my mystery isn't solved it was great that you posted that link!


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

pierce85

That name fits the bill .. My Cypress board does smell and you don't have to put your nose to it to get a whiff !


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

"Sinker" cypress comes from logs that were lost in the rivers, got waterlogged, and sank. Not all old heart cypress is "sinker" cypress unless it was in a river or a lake before sawing.


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

WDHL15
It has a musty oder to iit so that could be the case here. 
Would putting it in water to see if it sinks be a good way to tell? Or maybe it will float because it's been dried out.


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## TCCcabinetmaker (Dec 14, 2011)

They just call it sinker because they dug it up from the bottom of a lake or a river, or even a swamp. Alot of cypress will be sinker anyways, because it grows in swamps and along rivers.


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## Nighthawk (Dec 13, 2011)

I know its not… but it really looks like rimu?... lol


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## AJswoodshop (Mar 2, 2012)

My guess is teak, but not sure. Its really nice wood though. If its heavy, then its teak im guessing.
That a thick board too. Nice find!

AJ


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

You might be right AJ…. It feels a little waxy and it's heavy. I still have it and someday I'll find a use for it.

I have a nice assortment of wood in my shop now. A little Cherry, Oak, Walnut, Douglas Fir, Ash, Pine, Bamboo, Maple, and another reddish mystery wood. 
I love the smell of my workshop!!! 
See you around the site AJ.

Tony C


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

To me it looks like western larch. I'd have to be able to smell it and feel it to be sure. Larch would be lighter in weight than teak. Look for the presence of resin canals w/ a hand lens, if it has them it is a conifer of some sort.


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

This is a close up of the end grain. I don't see the resin canals. I took the picture through the M/glass. It's a bit fuzzy but to me the grain is very tight. No straw like pores.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

The photo is a bit out of focus but I am seeing resin canals all over. I'm sticking w/ larch as my guess. It is a very beautiful piece of old growth, that is for sure there are also resin pockets plainly visible towards the upper end of the piece in the first photo that is characteristic of western larch.


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Here's another view..but I'm going with what you say! It's way beyond me! 
Thanks for all your help!


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

A1Jim, that's a dandy site you recommended.
I'd go for cypress.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

Are those nail holes in the end grain in the picture on comment #9 ?


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

The variable width of the growth rings is a distinctive feature of bald cypress. That is what you have. The distinctive odor is also a distinctive feature of cypress. Awesome wood.


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## Infernal2 (May 20, 2012)

Looks like dead-head sinker cypress to me? I thought about picking up some this afternoon for a project but couldn't fit it in the car (or rather, I could have but SWMBO was in the car).


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Dusty56, yes they are nail holes. The wood is aged and it 6" W X 18" L X 2 1/8" D and it's 4.5 lbs


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

"The variable width of the growth rings is a distinctive feature of" *...... Every tree in the world with an inconsistent climate.*

*woodshaver* , that's an awesome looking piece of wood to think it was used for "framing" at one point in its life : )


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Dusty56,
I bought this hunk of wood at an antiques shop in Deland FL for 10 bucks. I havn't made anything with it yet. I'll most likely resaw it and make someting with it.


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Infernal2….Sorry about that! Maybe next time you will be able to load it in there! LOL!!!


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## RobWoodCutter (Jul 22, 2009)

I thought it looked a little like Old Growth Pine or Cypress.

Top board is OGP. Middle is Cypress. (Bottom is Wenge)


















OGP is about the size of what you have and weights about 4.8 lbs, smells funky when cut, leaves resin on jointer knifes, and has small white dots in both dark and light growth rings:










Cypress is lighter in color and weight, but has small shiny white spots in light growth rings:










Similar to your magnified pic., but the grain doesn't seem to match any of the cypress I have. It does seem to have the face grain look of a plain quartersawn bubinga though, but the end grain does not match bubinga.

So probably cypress??
Rob


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

Dusty,

The variable width is caused by "false" growth rings, where the tree puts down more than one series of earlywood and latewood in the same growing season, making it appear like two or three year's growth when it is actually only one. Most other tree species will not put down successive growth rings in a single year in response to soil moisture variations in the growing season, but cypress is very prone to do so, making this feature distinctive.

Here is some reference info from the Forest Service tree website http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_1/taxodium/distichum.htm

Here is an excerpt.

Growth and Yield- Baldcypress is reputed to be slow growing and very long-lived, but during some growing seasons, perhaps in response to soil-moisture fluctuations, many baldcypress appear to produce more than one ring of stemwood. Counting these false rings in with true annual rings has led to overestimations of ages and consequently to underestimations of growth rates.

A study in three baldcypress plantations of known age revealed that on increment cores under magnification, true latewood appeared as narrow bands of small, thick-walled cells, and the stains that cause false latewood tended to disappear. The larger trees in the study had more apparent rings than smaller trees of the same age, and conventional ring counts averaged about 1.6 times the actual age (44).

Many years before that study, an investigator having no trees of known age to confirm his age counts, but stating that he could distinguish the stains of false latewood from true latewood bands, concluded that trees 400 to 600 years old were common in many virgin stands of baldcypress and that a few trees reached about 1,200 years (44).


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

"The variable width of the growth rings is a distinctive feature of" *...... Every tree in the world with an inconsistent climate.*
I stand by my response to your comment as I have yet to see any perfectly spaced , consistent growth rings in any species of lumber, which is due to the simple fact that no two growing seasons are exactly the same. : )


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## AJswoodshop (Mar 2, 2012)

Ok, I looked at some woods online, It kinda looks like Wenge. I think its either wenge, or teak. My guess is it's teak, it could be wenge, but the grain pattern in wenge, looks a lot different then this board.

If I get anymore information, I'll let you know.

AJ


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## woodshaver (Mar 21, 2009)

Hey AJ, 
I cut into that wood and it's very soft. I think it's Fir. it has a musty Oder like it's been in a damp old basement. I don't think it's cypress. When it cut or plane it the shavings are very light like dead dried up grass clippings light. No crunch at all. I really think it's old fir. It's not a strong wood and a small cut off can be snapped real easy very weak wood. 
Thanks for checking it out. 
FIR sample


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## AJswoodshop (Mar 2, 2012)

Now seeing a up close grain pattern, I'm with you, I think that fir too. Whatever kind of wood it is, it's beautiful wood!

AJ


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