I was in Home Depot today to pick up some 1×8″x8′ clear pine when I spied this piece in the 2 or better pile. The face of the board was striking yellow, light maroon, gold, dark brown and knot free. The pattern is similar to cedar decking but it was to heavy to be cedar. For $6.40 I throw it into the pile, paid and left. When I got home I cut it on the T/S and got a sweet. sugary smell that just overwhelm your senses. I thought Sugar Pine at first but ruled that out with the odd colors. Anyone have an idea of what this might be?
Dave in Pa.
Replies
Spruce...?
Steve - in Northern California
Hummmm. I never thought of that. In a Home Depot???? Thanks
Dave in Pa.
Happens around here all the time. Ask for a clear fir 2 x 4 and you get engineered spruce.
Steve - in Northern California
Edited 5/31/2002 11:41:48 AM ET by Steve Schefer
Yep, when I was picking up framing pieces for pegboard, etc., I bought a piece that looked like a paint horse. Just for fun:)forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Dave, without being able to see the wood this is pretty much a guessing game, but here are some thoughts on how to solve the mystery. Look to see if there is a grade stamp on the board. This will tell you something about where it came from. For instance, if the grade stamp has WWPA on it, it is a western species and a good guess might be either incense cedar or yellow-cedar (AKA; Alaska-cedar.) These are both very fragrant woods and much denser than ordinary western redcedar. Incense is slightly heavier than white pine and yellow-cedar is only slightly less dense than cherry. Also, the color highlights you suggest sometimes occur in these species.
If the board doesn't have a grade stamp, the possibilities get a little mind boggling, but you might still be able to ID it. Another "clue-to-pursue" is the end grain anatomy using a 10X hand lens to determine whether it is a softwood (gymnosperm) or a hardwood (angiosperm) species. If it's a hardwood, it will have a more complex anatomy, including pores. The Big Boxes stock anything they can get, provided it's cheap enough, so you might have an imported species that someone put in the wrong bin. In this case, a couple of exotic hardwood candidates that might match your description would be peroba...or possibly banak. Banak is a member of the nutmeg family and has a very pleasant scent, but peroba is exceptionally fragrant too, and the multiple color highlights are typical of this wood.
If the above doesn't help and you are curious enough to send me a sample, I'd be happy to try to ID it for you.
Joe: The only stamp That I can see on it states"Stimsom Lumber Company 2&btr. COM. PPLP" then the size. When you look at the end grain you can see the growth rings but there are "circular rays" running in the oppsite direction of the growth rings. I compared it to both pine and cedar with a 10x eyepiece and its close to cedar but a lot heavier. It is a softwood. The sweet sugary smell and the colors throws me for a loop. Would Alaskan Cedar have this type of coloring due to the mineral content of the soil like poplar? Also why no knots in an 8 foot board?
Dave in Pa.
Dave, it's Ponderosa Pine-Lodgepole Pine. PPLP
Here's where to find all the info on grade/species stamps for western woods: http://www.wwpa.org/Steve - in Northern California
Dave,
I work at Home Depot, and we get all sorts of strange wood in quite a bit. Last month, we recieved a bundle (50 sheets) of Birch interior-grade plywood. On the backs of at least 10 of the sheets, low and behold, were rift-sawn and quarter-sawn Cherry. Sometimes the mills will run out of a particular veneer or wood and will substitute it for another wood of equal or greater value. Maybe thats what happened in your case. We sell Poplar there too. I'm sure you would know the difference, but what you described sounded similar to it. Thanks for shopping there anyway.
Joe
"Hide not your talents, they were for use made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?"
- Benjamin Franklin
I went back today to see if I could possibly find some more of this but there were none. I looked all over and didn't see anything like it.
Dave, the PPLP in the stamp indicates it is either ponderosa or lodgepole pine, but there is a good chance it is actually Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi.) This is a close relative of ponderosa native to California that the mills lump in with ponderosa. It's also called apple pine, because it has a sweet, fruity scent and it's heartwood is sometimes streaked with coral pink highlights. It also has a slightly more oily or waxy feel than poderosa. The only other explanation would be that it is a piece of incense cedar that got mixed in at the mill (and that would be an unlikely event.)
As for Alaska-cedar, its color is typically a creamy yellow, sometimes with soft reddish or rusty streaks. It is a rather heavy wood compared to our other native "cedars." Its average specific gravity is 0.44, which is 10% heavier than yellow poplar at 0.40 and about 15% heavier than poderosa at 0.38. Take another look at the end grain. None of our native "cedars" (which are actually cypresses, by the way) have resin canals. If it's Jeffrey pine, you'll see some resin canals. They look a little like the pores in a hardwood, but far less plentiful. With a 10X lens the field of view might only reveal a half dozen or so of them, at the most.
I talked to a person at Stimson lumber and he explained the same thing Jon did about the PPLP and the Jeffrey Pine. He also stated that there must have been a problem with the kiln drying time because he suspects that the moisture content maybe around 16% or higher. This would cause the various colors that are in the piece and to let it sit in a for a few weeks to finish the drying process. Thats is going to be real hard because the project it was used in is hanging on wall of my shop. Thank you one and all for all the help.
"Thats is going to be real hard because the project it was used in is hanging on wall of my shop. Funny!!! forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
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