Timber identification again please

[Sgian Dubh]

I'm with Adam on this - it's beeck. Never seen those brown flecks on UK Acer species, but maybe Hard Maple does show them.

Here's an example. What you can see below is radially sawn Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore) and the flecking is the medullary rays intersecting the face of the wood. They are pale looking here, but that's just due to the way the light is refracted- if the light was from the other direction the chances are the flecks would appear dark.

If you look at a tangentially sawn piece of wood for evidence of the medulla you need to look on the narrow edge to see them, so obviously if you're looking at a radially sawn board examine the wide face. It's harder to see the medulla if you look at rift or ******* cut boards because the rays are a little bit off from parallel with that face, and they generally intersect it at an angle, e.g., 5- 20º, but they're there if you look carefully. Radially sawn (aka quarter sawn), ******* cut and rift sawn boards are easily recognised because the pattern of the growth rings (spring/ summer growth) show as a series of parallel lines on the wide face of the board, as in this example. Slainte.

 

[longinthetooth]

If you look at a tangentially sawn piece of wood for evidence of the medulla you need to look on the narrow edge to see them ...

Not so, Richard - if you look at the tangential face you see the severed ends of the rays - small but distinct, a 'micro-fleck', and this is part of the lovely character of sycamore.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Not so, Richard - if you look at the tangential face you see the severed ends of the rays - small but distinct, a 'micro-fleck', and this is part of the lovely character of sycamore.

True, but you sometimes need a magnifying lens to pick out the medulla on the tangential face or edge, especially if your eyesight isn't so good. In comparison picking out the medulla on the tangential face or edge of many of the oaks for example is pretty straightforward because of their comparatively large size. I was really trying to help dickm and kalimna (and perhaps others-- I don't know) learn to recognise the medulla easily by looking for them on the radial face or edge of sycamore and the maples, all depending on the cut of the board.

It seemed to me possible from their postings about the physical characteristics of beech and various maples (including sycamore [Acer pseudoplatanus]) that maybe their opportunities to study the physical characteristics of these wood species had so far been limited. Slainte.