Wood Identification Fun

[Fitzroy]

So I bought a piece of timber today from Facebook marketplace. Advertised as oak. Rough sawn and out of the shed of a recently passed in father in law, likely been there decades, old, dirty and brown. But for £50 for 2cuft of timber it was worth a punt. It was not super heavy and thought at worst I could have just ended up with some old pine.

Got it home and couldn’t resist a few shavings to see what I had. Well golly gosh, what a fragrance and what a colour, certainly not oak nor pine! But it’s a work day and I had to sit and stew until I finished. But that smell was like nothing I’d used before.

Finally I could go and play more. I planed off a bit more and trimmed the end off on the mitre saw so I could see the end grain. By this time I thought I may have something exotic so it was full on dust mask and extraction as some of the exotic wood dusts can be nasty.

At this point this is what I had.

Highly aromatic, slightly spicy, smell when planed or sanded. Dark brown in colour and fine grained with very small end pores. Off to the internet.

Spoiler, I think I know what it is but you may want to pause here and play along!

 

[dickm]

Second pic looks a bit like Padauk?

 

[Fitzroy]

So off I went to the internet with searching for brown spicy smelling wood. I found this excellent site, which I think I’ve seen before. The Wood Database

The have odour characteristics and lots of other things you can filter on, and great photos of the wood and endgrain. A key thing I forgot about was density. It’s a nice big chunk I have, at 8’x1’x3”. So I got the scales out the bathroom and weighed it up, 36kg on the nose. That translates to 620kg/m3 or 37lb/ft3. Quite a low density wood as it stands, which with such a tight grain structure I was surprised.

I was trying to get a better look at the endgrain and I was examining the end I cut off. Talk about unobservant! I found this.

Not so clear on the photo but with some manipulation!

So with lots more data it was back to the wood database. I also planed a larger area.

Fitz.

 

[Fitzroy]

From the wood database there were two or three options that fit the data and the only way to tell them apart seems to be the end grain detail.

I tried to photo the end grain with little success, I planed a thin shaving with a sharp plane and that helped a little then I remembered by boys microscope. Now we were getting serious.

Unfortunately the microscope idea was a bust. I then cut a piece and sanded the end grain up to 1200grit. Success I managed to get some good pictures of it just on the iphone.

Putting all the evidence together I came up with Imbuia Imbuia | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood).

Now I need to decide what to use it for, but for now it’s in the corner as I get back to the workbench project.

Fitz.

 

[Ttrees]

Be interesting to see if it sinks or not

 

[TRITON]

Intriguing

Actually my first thought was imbuya. Im sure I've come across that somewhere and ive a photographic memory, so sometimes the answer just pops in from that. Though doubt then rears its head and i'm never sure
Its the mottled appearance that struck a chord.

So what are you going to do with it then ?.

 

[Inspector]

My buddy made a water bed from it in the early 80s. He selected the boards with the most figure, lots of curl in it. Later he sold me a couple boards to make a fitted gun case for a custom made flintlock another gent made. I still remember the spicy smell when freshly cut or sanded. It was a lighter colour, getting towards a yellow brown inside the board, darkening to the chestnut brown later. He still has 8 to 12 big boards stashed away in his shop.

Pete

 

[tonywatkins]

Be interesting to see if it sinks or not

It won't if the density is 620kg/m3. Not many woods sink (needs to have density >1000 kg/m3). I have some massaranduba which has a density of 1,080 kg/m3 so that does.

 

[kinverkid]

Is it Brazilian Walnut? Amongst the spicy smell do you get a wiff similar to chocolate?

 

[Fitzroy]

Intriguing

Actually my first thought was imbuya. Im sure I've come across that somewhere and ive a photographic memory, so sometimes the answer just pops in from that. Though doubt then rears its head and i'm never sure
Its the mottled appearance that struck a chord.

So what are you going to do with it then ?.

No idea, it’s thick enough to rib in half and open up, I was thinking table top but that would only be 2’ wide, perhaps a contrasting light coloured board down the middle.

 

[Fitzroy]

Is it Brazilian Walnut? Amongst the spicy smell do you get a wiff similar to chocolate?

Yup that’s what imbuia is also called.

 

[kinverkid]

Yup that’s what imbuia is also called.

This is what coming here is all about. It's one school day after another. I've never heard of imbuia but it's much more exotic sounding than Walnut.

 

[dickm]

It won't if the density is 620kg/m3. Not many woods sink (needs to have density >1000 kg/m3). I have some massaranduba which has a density of 1,080 kg/m3 so that does.

There was an Exochorda, which is usually only a bush, in the Cruickshank Botanic Garden in Aberdeen which actually reached about 10" diameter at the base before it had to come down. I got some short bits in with the firewood, and was amazed at its density. About 1400kg/m3. Takes a lovely finish, and before planing looks quite like the surface in the lower heading pic, but cracks horribly and is just like trying to turn iron.

 

[hodsdonr]

Imbuia has a pleasant very distinctive smell, that once smelt will be remembered and is a sure identification bet. The photo of the "larger area planed" is typical Imbuia. It was very widely used here in South Africa for good quality furniture post WW2 . Grew up with a Imbuia dining room suite, still going strong today. Trade in Imbuia was suspended by CITES a while back, so it isn't /wasn't commercially available . dont know what the current situation is. Lovely to turn and work with.

 

[stuart little]

I immediately said 'walnut'.