What type of chestnut is this?

[julianf]

Where did you get this mystery slab?

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im sure the seller would give some information if i asked, however, a lot of this process, for me, is learning, rather than just getting the name of the part in the photos.

people here helped me, similarly, with an oak part that i recently purchased as "elm" but had my doubts - i know know, due to the support of those here, how to differentiate between them

 

[julianf]

The pictures above show extensive fungal invasion and the wet patches are the beginnings of fungal rot.
I work with chestnut almost every day, a beautiful wood with lots of character.
The pictured slab sawn,
although structurally useless, is perfectly good for small non load bearing furniture once treated.
This piece may appear to dry out, but without treatment it will rot.
I would use it, it will produce spectacular results when polished.

Thank you. Thats just the sort of information i need.

I will avoid any areas with discoloration when im arranging the tool paths on the job, and only use the flawless timber.

I get a lot of waste when cutting the required non-tessilating shapes anyway, so its really not an issue for me to make sure that the waste is the poor quality timber, and the part used is the good. I just need to know whats going on, and your post has helped me there.

What treatement should i use, if any, on the rest of the wood? The part will always be used indoors, never wet, and i was planning on finishing with polyx from osmo. Should i apply some sort of treatment prior to the hard wax (again, i will discard any discoloured wood - im not trying to save that)

 

[pidgeonpost]

Hate to say it but what you've bought looks like firewood to me. But have a bash at it, you never know!
That photo above is representative - it's fairly featureless but could be obtained (in the old days) in wide clear boards which can make it useful. Creamy colour to pale pink. Easy to work.
It was used - I've found it in old chapel furniture and once as a windsor chair bottom.
Sweet chestnut is very different - more like oak.

I used to help with milling at a timber cooperative some years ago and milled quite a lot of horse chestnut. I must admit it was pretty awful stuff. No makers showed any interest in the stuff and a lot of it went for firewood.

 

[IanB]

It looks like sweet chestnut to me. This is a piece of sweet chestnut from a project I did last year.

 

[pgrbff]

It looks like sweet chestnut to me. This is a piece of sweet chestnut from a project I did last year.

Very typical of sweet chestnut.