What Kind of Wood is This?

[Richard]

Wife called me yesterday. She's at an estate sale. Place out in the country, last day, closing in 2-3 hours.... has a pile of wood. She's told it's white oak. She wants to build a greenhouse, thought this might be good to use for shelving, screw backing to maybe mount something on the wall.... really has no idea. What she's REALLY hearing is she can have it all for $100.

She jumps on it, runs home, grabs her cousin next door, take the truck back and load it. I get home from work, look at it and think this doesn't look like oak graining to me BUT it's very rough cut. (I refer to red oak in case the grain on white is different)

This morning, go out, grab a board, still perplexed AND it's not as heavy as I would have expected white oak to be.... so, carry up to house and sand a portion down to see the grain more clearly.

At same time, I'm thinking someone isn't going to the effort of cutting all this wood if it's junky wood..... (though people do strange things sometimes!)

I got to wondering, could this be cherry?

Call me clueless.... anyone know what it is?

First, the haul. Cost her $100 (and there was other stuff she chose to leave behind)

Grabbed a board, brought to house for sanding

After it was sanded using belt and then random orbit to smooth it down.

What say you??

 

[jyoutz]

Wife called me yesterday. She's at an estate sale. Place out in the country, last day, closing in 2-3 hours.... has a pile of wood. She's told it's white oak. She wants to build a greenhouse, thought this might be good to use for shelving, screw backing to maybe mount something on the wall.... really has no idea. What she's REALLY hearing is she can have it all for $100.

She jumps on it, runs home, grabs her cousin next door, take the truck back and load it. I get home from work, look at it and think this doesn't look like oak graining to me BUT it's very rough cut. (I refer to red oak in case the grain on white is different)

This morning, go out, grab a board, still perplexed AND it's not as heavy as I would have expected white oak to be.... so, carry up to house and sand a portion down to see the grain more clearly.

At same time, I'm thinking someone isn't going to the effort of cutting all this wood if it's junky wood..... (though people do strange things sometimes!)

I got to wondering, could this be cherry?

Call me clueless.... anyone know what it is?

First, the haul. Cost her $100 (and there was other stuff she chose to leave behind)




View attachment 918691

Grabbed a board, brought to house for sanding

View attachment 918689

After it was sanded using belt and then random orbit to smooth it down.

View attachment 918690


What say you??

Definitely not white oak. It does look like cherry. If it is, it’s too nice for an outdoor greenhouse.

 

[Richard]

Forgot to mention, some of these boards have TINY holes in them. I have no idea how long this has sat there, my first thought was termites, then recalled maple can have this (but I'm guessing this isn't maple)

Just wanted to note there are tiny holes in some of it. Tiny as in about the size of a pin.

 

[Richard]

It does look like cherry.

Know of any ways to try to rule cherry in (or out?) I think my grandparents had a drop leaf table. I think it was cherry (it's at Dad's house). My memory said it "felt" VERY hard and would have been hard to dent. This is also my understanding of hard maple.

I didn't go wild, but just feeling this, it doesn't feel "hard" like those can/do. Then again, they have a finish on them and this is raw.

It will open an interesting conversation with the wife if it turns out to be cherry.

 

[bigtiller]

Drive a 2" drywall screw into the side with a cordless drill. If the head breaks off about half way in, it's hard wood.

That's how it works for me.

 

[4570Man]

It’s definitely not white oak. It doesn’t look like cherry either. I’m thinking Alder.

 

[ponytug]

It doesn't look like oak or cherry to me, and are quite dense. I can see it is center cut, but the ring spacing doesn't look right for cherry either. Given how thin it is, if that were cherry and you tried to run a #6 or larger drywall screw into it, I would expect it to split. Badly. Maple would be dense as well. The trailer photo makes it look like pine to me. Southern yellow pine? Any odor when you were sanding it?

Can you get a close up of the grain, perhaps even wetting it with alcohol?

All the best,

Peter

 

[CH4Ohio]

Poplar?

 

[dstig1]

This will be up to you on how deep you want to go down this rabbit hole. Definitely not oak and I doubt it is cherry either. Alder could be a good guess, or poplar. If you want to find out for sure, the USDA Forest Products lab at UW Madison will ID it for you (or at least they used to do this...should be easy to check). They will do something like 3 wood IDs per person per year as part of their charter. I'm sure you can find the details on their website. Yep - here it is:

Wood Identification | US Forest Service Research and Development

Wood submissions are ONLY accepted from private US citizens, with an annual limit of three (3) specimens per household.SpecimensSize: 1x3x6 inchesSmaller specimens may limit our ability to provide an identification.Type: Specimens must be wood. We will NOT identify charcoal specimens or...

research.fs.usda.gov

 

[civilian]

To me, cherry would have a redish color to it. Especially left exposed to day light. I would guess maybe ash. Ash has a straight grain to it. But the comment about pin holes makes me believe it could be maple. Some of my air drying maple has dust piles by these holes. Jon

 

[jyoutz]

To me, cherry would have a redish color to it. Especially left exposed to day light. I would guess maybe ash. Ash has a straight grain to it. But the comment about pin holes makes me believe it could be maple. Some of my air drying maple has dust piles by these holes. Jon

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but ash has a bit more pronounced grain pattern. I’m going with cherry or maple. Some cherry is pretty light and not necessarily reddish color, but some does have that tone.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

This is cherry,

SR

 

[jyoutz]

This is cherry,

SR

Definitely. If the wood is hard maple could be a possibility. If softer, it could be alder.

 

[4570Man]

Ash has a course grain structure that’s comparable to oak and it’s also heavy which the op said this isn’t. My bet goes on definitely not ash. That wood is too light in color to make cherry a likely candidate. You could leave it in the sun for a day and see if it rapidly turns more red to help confirm it’s not cherry. Cherry also has a tight smooth grain where this appears to be flakey. I’d say it’s not maple or poplar either because those are also tight smooth grain and not flakey. I guess the sample could be partially rotten that would contribute to it being flakey and make that not a good identifier.

 

[CalG]

Ya gotta show the end grain!

Is it ring porous? or isn't it!

Cuts the guessing by half.

IT"S NOT OAK for sure, unless you left all the sanding dust on it.

eta

Worm holes you say?

Spalted or worm wood doubles the value as long as it's sound. Turps will kill any worms...

 

[4570Man]

I came across these pieces a few years ago and never did identify them for certain due to not having anything else that was the same. They look identical to the OPs pieces. These pieces are very light. A fraction of what oak or hard maple weighs. The grain is very soft. Probably softer than pine but at least comparable. The wood cuts very chippy. Bone dry pine is maybe comparable but not at all like maple or poplar cuts. My guess at the time was basswood or alder which I still think is a good possibility.

 

[CalG]

Just to add a distraction

I've got a stack of sawn hardwood in the understory of my shop. about 1K bf, been there for 20 years. I keep thinking I will "get to it"

Maple, ash, a little oak and popple/ all 5 quarter. random width, 12 foot of more.

A burden of riches

 

[Egon]

I’d go for pine.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

To me, cherry would have a redish color to it. Especially left exposed to day light. I would guess maybe ash. Ash has a straight grain to it. But the comment about pin holes makes me believe it could be maple. Some of my air drying maple has dust piles by these holes. Jon

I have made a few cutting boards with Maple, Cherry, White Oak and Pecan, and they are darn hard and fairly heavy. I don't think this is any of the above, although I don't have a guess as to what it might be; not being familiar with your indigenous wood.

 

[Jstpssng]

Based on picturesof the end I would guess some type of pine. Poplar doesn't have dark rings.