Another wood ID.

[John Brown]

Anyone hazard a guess? I'm thinking Douglas Fir, but I'm an *****.

 

[thetyreman]

planing the wood should help, is it soft? is it hard? what does it smell like, douglas fir has an amazing smell, it smells different to redwood pine, fir also usually has more of a pinker tint to it and has more dramatic dark/light growth rings than the pic shown, do you have any endgrain photos?, that'll help.

 

[Alexam]

Sapele maybe or Douglas Fir?

 

[John Brown]

Certainly not Sapele, could be Redwood Pine, I suppose. I don't know enough to tell, really.
Tried to take end grain pictures, they didn't really show up well.
I bought a bookcase on eBay for the grand sum of £1.70, because I wanted sme cheap timber to bulild some ktchen shelves. The vertical sides are firewood, because:
a) They have housings cut out that don't suit my project.
b) The guy left the disassembled planks out in the damp for a week, and finally actually outside in the rain for a couple of hours.

So although both sides and one shelf are badly cupped. I still end up with about 7m of 25mm by 290mm PAR timber for £1.70.

Whatever it is, it's remarkably straight grained and knot free.

 

[skelph]

I'm no expert but it reminds me of some Parana Pine we had in the workshop about 25 years ago to build some bookcases for a client, it was nice stuff to work with, pricier than redwood but less waste. Don't know about now but in those days it was possible to get Parana Pine without the red/brown streaks.
skelph

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, I've some parana very similar to that. I believe it's listed now.

 

[John Brown]

I'll plane a bit at the weekend and have a sniff.
I'm pretty certain it's not Parana Pine, though.
I'm still wavering between Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir. Not that it really matters. Just curiosity...

 

[John Brown]

Here are some more pictures.
I'd say it has a faintly aromatic smell. Not overpowering, but I wouldn't call it resinous either. Quite hard to plane, but maybe I need to do some sharpening.

 

[Beau]

Looks identical to wood I bought sold as "Parana Pine" but only ever used it the once so they may have sold me something else.

 

[skelph]

Here are some more pictures.
I'd say it has a faintly aromatic smell. Not overpowering, but I wouldn't call it resinous either. Quite hard to plane, but maybe I need to do some sharpening.

Based on those pictures I would say that it is definitely Parana Pine. That lot is a real bargain for only £1.70 - if I remember correctly we were paying the timber merchants that much per lineal foot all those years ago.
skelph

 

[skelph]

Just remembered that you said the sides were firewood because of the shelf housings. Please don't put them on the fire, use them for small projects like boxes or small picture frames etc. Parana Pine is too good (and too scarce!) to waste.
Have fun with it.
skelph

 

[John Brown]

Well the wood-database does say "low natural lustre" which, if I'm interpreting that phrase correctly, seems to fit.
One of the reasons I'm doubtful, however, is that this is not some heirloom piece; it's been put together by somebody let loose with a router(they've gone through the side in one place), and I don't think it's very old. I'm not sure why anyone would spend money on Parana Pine(and I guess it's like other timber - way more expensive for wide boards) for a badly made bookcase.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Forty or fifty years ago parana wasn't uncommon in joinery and wasn't much more expensive than clear pine. It was quite often used in staircases.

 

[Racers]

I have a parana pine table top 2300 x 900 x 35mm behind my bench waiting for a suitable project.

Pete