What wood is this

What wood is this · 10-11-2009, 09:24 PM

My company recently bought out a lumber yard that went out of business 2 years ago.We got alot of cypress,Pine,walnut and popular.On a side note yall would have cried like I did over the THOUSANDS of board feet of nice lumber (cypress and pine) that was left out to rot.But to get back to my question we got about 2 thousand board feet of this mystery lumber.Its all rough with a some boards red and some brown.Its not soft like pine or cypress but not hard like maple or birch.But it does have a VERY strong smell like something between sassafras and ceder. Any help on telling us what it is would be appreciated(This is the wood in question planed)

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nelsone · 10-11-2009, 09:30 PM

Hard to tell, but it looks like ash to me.

PChristy · 10-11-2009, 09:44 PM

I was thinking Ask also but I thought Ash didn't have that strong of a smell -

I might even go to White Oak But I am not to smart at this wood name game

DaveO · 10-11-2009, 10:30 PM

Possibly Western Cedar...did it smell like an old fashion pencil sharpener when you planed it???

Phillip, the smell of Ash depends on who's Ash it is. Some folks Ash smells better than others

Dave

PChristy · 10-11-2009, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by DaveO

Possibly Western Cedar...did it smell like an old fashion pencil sharpener when you planed it???

Phillip, the smell of Ash depends on who's Ash it is. Some folks Ash smells better than others

Dave

JohnW · 10-11-2009, 11:00 PM

Looks like Lyptus. But MY lyptus don't stink

Mike Davis · 10-11-2009, 11:46 PM

It could be sasafrass. Never overlook the obvious.

eyekode · 10-11-2009, 11:55 PM

Could it just be southern yellow pine?
I don't think it is ash. Ash is usually pretty dense and is harder than soft maple.

timf67 · 10-12-2009, 07:34 AM

I have a good reference book that shows you how to ID a mystery wood:

http://www.amazon.com/Identifying-Wo.../dp/0942391047

I would be happy to take a few hundred board feet and try to figure it out for you...

CarvedTones · 10-12-2009, 07:35 AM

White cedar? I would expect to see a couple of knots in your picture if it were, but the color and smell are right. What "white cedar" or "juniper" means is debatable depending on where you live, but I mean Atlantic white cedar.

Gregory Paolini · 10-12-2009, 07:53 AM

This might be one of those woods you have to figure out by eliminating all the other possibilities.

I like a lot of the suggestions from before, but from the picture, it looks like the wood has a very fine grain structure - If that's the case, I'd have to rule out Ash or Oak.

It's been atleast 5 or 6 years since I worked with sassafrass, so I don't remember the smell, but again, I'm thinking the grain is still too fine for that

I'm no good at all with any of the softwoods - So I have no idea if it's one of those

I'd bet money that it's soft maple, if it weren't for the aroma you say it has

Keep us posted

MrAudio815 · 10-12-2009, 09:29 AM

Looks like Western Cedar or Atlantic Cedar.

Cedar that's for sure. I used some Western Cedar to make the Cedar chest for a lady last year before I knew there was a difference in Cedars. Ahhhhhh.

If it has the smell like DaveO said it's Western Cedar, as that's what mine smelled like.

walnutjerry · 10-12-2009, 09:30 AM

I could agree on the western red cedar--------------but the color and grain pattern in the pic also reminds me of douglas fir from the west coast.

If it is light weight and soft enough to dent with your thumb nail my guess is the WRC---------DF is usually a little more dense thus heavier. It (DF) will also have alternate hard and soft grain much like southern yellow pine. DF also has its own scent.

All that said-----------I really can not be sure what it is.

Jerry

CarvedTones · 10-12-2009, 10:27 AM

WRC seems consistently inconsistent.

You can often find a board for an intarsia project that has white, yellow, brown and pinkish red in different parts of it. So if the pictures are representative and there isn't a lot of variation, I would not lean that way. I also think it is a very soft wood.

Scwood · 10-12-2009, 02:41 PM

I talked to my boss today and he had spoken with the lumber yards owner and he said he thought he had some ash somewhere.It looks like the grain but the smell is what throws me off.The smell is the same before,during and after planing.All the lumber was pretty much knot free.