I’d like help in identifying this wood.
This material is used throughout my house – door and window trim and sills, all baseboards, some built-in shelves, bathroom and kitchen cabinet faceframes and doors (although someone redid the kitchen about 20 odd years ago, the original cabinets were then mounted in the garage for shop-use, where they remain today). The house was built approx 1967~1968 time frame. Pictures are of a piece of door trim and piece of window sill.
All of the trim and so forth had been stained a very dark brown. I did not include any pictures of the wood in “as installed” condition since I think the general look would be that I posted a picture of a big piece of dark chocolate. The grain is almost indistinguishable, and we’re not a fan of the look. We were thinking about taking it all out and replacing with something that was more appealing in wood; the house would not look right with the modern “bright white” trim seen in a lot of current homes.
In taking apart one room, I noted the backs of the pieces & baseboard were all labeled with location and numbered in order of installation, so clearly back in the day someone made the pieces and then stained them off-site, so maybe there is something to consider keeping here.
Thus my goals are to ID what I have, and arrive at a good approach to refinish the wood in an appearance that would be suitable for the type without appearing so dark (and almost opaque stain) in appearance.
any WAGs entertained as well. thanks.
Civdiv99
Replies
What we have here is
Mahogony.
I've done several remodels from that era and found some really nice mahogony buried under layers of paint.
My vote,...
is for Luaun, sometimes called Philippine Mahogany or meranti. The coarse grain gives it away. Some people use finishes that bring out the reddish colors that you usually find with that species in that genus. If you paint it, you may want to fill the pores.
When we install trim, we usually spray it in batches outside, or in a room or area that functions as an ad hoc spray booth. Having the pieces numbered and labeled like that wouldn't be unusual for remodeling or building a spec house. Good luck.
My Vote too..
I think your timber is meranti, colour can vary from pale brown to dark red but the grain gives it away.
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