Wood identification, help please
- Thread starter Carveking
- Start date
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NickWelford
So many tools, so little to show
Looks like firewood to me..... 
gregmcateer
Established Member
I just split some hawthorn that looked a bit like that, (though the bark was on mine, so could be miles off)
Woodmonkey
Established Member
Yes that looks like lilac, very nice for turning polishes up a treat
My suggestion would be yew; the lilac I've seen doesn't have such clearly defined heartwood, and the surface colour doesn't look quite right either.
mrpercysnodgrass
Established Member
+1 for Yew.
I'm pretty stupid on most things but to my eyes it doesn't look hard enough to be Yew. Cutting that out with a chisel would leave at least some surfaces like glass which I don't see in the picture and there's possibly evidence of worm attack. I don't know what it is but I don't think it's a very hard wood, not even a hardwood that's massively rotted.
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Yew.
I cannot tell you much more about it as its not in my posession! A friend passed this picture on to me and wanted to know what type of wood it is and wether he could make make something out of it. Im starting to think that its yew and not lilac now...
Richard T
Established Member
That appears to be a snapped - off bough, that was dead and partially rotten when it snapped.
Looking at (at least from my perception of that photo) the size of the grain looks much too wide; faster growing than either Lilac or Yew.
Yew has a very definite difference between heart and sap wood. The orange/pink does not bleed into the white sapwood like this appears to. Lilac has very subtle purple lines amongst its very tight grain in its heartiest heartwood.
Mostly the way that it has broken leads me to suspect that it is something soft and light. An unusual Conifer, Cedar or Thuja perhaps.
Yew - with its sapwood:
Lilac - with its tight grain:
Note the wedge marks = it took a lot of persuading to get that bit apart.
Looking at (at least from my perception of that photo) the size of the grain looks much too wide; faster growing than either Lilac or Yew.
Yew has a very definite difference between heart and sap wood. The orange/pink does not bleed into the white sapwood like this appears to. Lilac has very subtle purple lines amongst its very tight grain in its heartiest heartwood.
Mostly the way that it has broken leads me to suspect that it is something soft and light. An unusual Conifer, Cedar or Thuja perhaps.
Yew - with its sapwood:
Lilac - with its tight grain:
Note the wedge marks = it took a lot of persuading to get that bit apart.
mrpercysnodgrass
Established Member
Looking again at it, it might be willow so you could make a cricket bat out of it!
