# What is this orange-colored wood? Can't be Walnut!



## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

An old farmer sold me a log's worth of wood he'd rough sawn and dried for a couple of years. 
He said it was black walnut, and looking at the blackened, weathered outside obviously I had no idea but I sure didn't doubt him. Then he recalled he's planed a few boards of this already, they were in the barn - "Let me grab those and throw 'em in your truck".

The planed peices were obviously from a different log - they had a crotch at the top - but I assumed same tree.
I carved a spatula out of one of the planed pieces, and it's definitely walnut - a very deep, dark brown.

Then I started planing the rough boards and… no way it's the same. It's orange-ish. The wood is very pretty, but I have no idea what it is! End grain and face pictures are here - can you help me identify it?


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## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

Sycamore?


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

Looks like cherry to me, the right side of the board has 1/4 sawn figure.


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## diverlloyd (Apr 25, 2013)

Butternut.


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## HerbC (Jul 28, 2010)

+1 for cherry…


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

> Sycamore?
> 
> - firefighterontheside


I also thought Sycamore ..


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## diverlloyd (Apr 25, 2013)

Close up of the end grain would help out. If the farmer cut it down he could have mistaken it for black walnut if it was a butternut tree. The leaves look similar and the butternut looks like a walnut mins the walnut is more on the round side and butternut is more of a oval shape.


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## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

Sycamore or butternut. If it's on the softer side, I'd lean towards butternut. If it works kinda like poplar instead, sycamore would be my guess.


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

Here's the best I can get of the end grain. Now that I look closely, there is a very distinctive ray pattern. Maybe that will help differentiate between sycamore, butternut, and cherry.


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## TungOil (Jan 16, 2017)

Looks like the butternut I've used in the past. It is sometimes confused with walnut since the color is similar (but to my eye they are very different woods). Is it soft?


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## RonAylor1760 (Aug 17, 2016)

I'll agree … looks like butternut I've used in the past, as well …


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

It is cherry. Cherry has a small nice quartersawn ray fleck.


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## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

Cherry.


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

Well considering I got a pickup truck full of red oak and a cherry-or-butternut mystery wood for $70, I'm not upset.

I will go with cherry unless shown otherwise, because from what I can Google, cherry has visible rays in the end grain, while butternut's are barely visible.

Thanks everyone for your help!


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## diverlloyd (Apr 25, 2013)

Sycamore also has visible rays, sweet cherry,black cherry and sycamore end grains look the same while the sweet gum looks very different from them more of a walnut ( since they are related).

Try wood data base http://www.wood-database.com

I just went through the same thing with a load of wood I bought from a guy getting out of wood working. Turns out most of mine is butternut going by the 10x grain pictures. I think it's a easy mistake for someone to make since the similarities between butternut and black walnut.


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

My guess is Sycamore.


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

No, not sycamore. Sycamore has some of the most dramatic medullary rays of any North American hardwood.


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## TomOhio (Jun 19, 2017)

I'm almost sure that is not butternut. The endgrain is more porous in that species. The face says sycamore. Small knots in sycamore tend to look like cat's eyes… two rounded half moons with a football-shaped center. But the endgrain isn't quite right. It could be hard maple or a maple hybrid with sycamore. If sycamore, it would likely come from near water. Any idea where the tree was that this came from?


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

Unfortunately I don't know where exactly the tree came from, other than Southeast Texas. Tonight I'll try to get a couple pictures of the more interesting patches of face grain - there is some that has a certain chatoyance.
The wood is not super hard, I'd say softer than oak but harder than SYP because that's about all I have experience with!


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

Oh yea of little faith…... the wood is cherry.


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## ColonelTravis (Mar 19, 2013)

I can't imagine a cherry tree in SE Texas lasting more than a few years, if at all, but maybe I'm wrong. They have a certain variety at the arboretums in Dallas and FW that I've seen. But those are Japanese cherry and they don't live very long, like 15-20 years. Can you get that size lumber from them? I don't know the answer.

One thing you can do - cover up part of a board, another part uncovered and leave it out in the full sun all day. At this time of year is enough to darken a cherry board to where it's noticeable.


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## Tony_S (Dec 16, 2009)

> Oh yea of little faith…... the wood is cherry.
> 
> - WDHLT15


Looks like cherry to me.


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## Woodmaster1 (Apr 26, 2011)

Looks like walnut, I had some that looked like it. That board just doesn't have the dark rich color. If you look at the picture with plane the color in the middle is a walnut tint.


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

I was unable to find the "Chatoyance" I thought I'd noticed before, so ignore that! 
I have set up an experiment with covered and uncovered pieces in direct sunlight, so after a sunny day or two I may know. 
I also observed that the sapwood is browner, slightly darker than the heartwood, while the heart is more pinkish.


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## pmayer (Jan 3, 2010)

Looks like cherry to me. Make one cut and the smell should give it away if it is cherry or walnut.


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

I'm having a hard time seeing this as cherry. I've never seen cherry with the "chatoyance" John is talking about.
In the picture by his fingers.









Could be wrong though, wouldn't be the first time.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

Let's just call it ebony and move on.


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Sycamore geves that laceysnake scale gran when quartersawn


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

+1



> Looks like cherry to me. Make one cut and the smell should give it away if it is cherry or walnut.
> 
> - pmayer


I also have a particulary pale cherry log sawed up. The guy thought it was pecan. it was so dusty (and mixed with other lumber) that I didn't doubt it.

I've seen nice "chatoyance" in cherry - particularly near knots.


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

I tried the light-exposure experiment, and the darkening in one day was pretty dramatic.
Pictures:
















So does this prove that it's cherry, or do butternut and sycamore exhibit this same darkening behavior?


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## Woodmaster1 (Apr 26, 2011)

With the latest picture it is cherry. Looks just like it. The pictures shows all the board and you get a better look at the grain. It is definitely not walnut.


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## ArtMann (Mar 1, 2016)

I use a lot of cherry. There was no doubt in my mind what it was after the first look.


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

To answer the question, no, sycamore will not darken that much after just a day.


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## ColonelTravis (Mar 19, 2013)

I think you have your answer!


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

Oh yea of little faith…........


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## ArtMann (Mar 1, 2016)

> I m having a hard time seeing this as cherry. I ve never seen cherry with the "chatoyance" John is talking about.
> In the picture by his fingers.
> 
> 
> ...


That is quarter sawn. That is normal apearance to me. I have 15 or 20 feet of it in my shop right now. It makes really pretty boxes.


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