Any speculations about what wood this table stand is made from? http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeu2jvc/UnknownWood.html (not the foot bracket). The wood is close-grained and soft. The picture at the top shows it just after sanding.
The stand was made in north Florida in the ’30s, but the wood could have been imported from anywhere (it was recovered from a packing crate).
Edited 9/13/2007 12:31 pm ET by Disputantum
Edited 9/13/2007 12:32 pm ET by Disputantum
Replies
Bermuda cedar?
Thanks, but no. This doesn't have any odor that I can detect.
If it has large pores, I'll vote for mahogany or a substitute.
Dick
Sorry, it doesn't. The color is like mahogany, but the grain isn't.
Looks like apple from here. But guessing is usually fruitless.
If you are willing to take a shaving, send me a paper-thin slice of end grain and I'll key it out for you. I don't have keys to cover all overseas species, but I can usually pin it down to genus or type.
“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think...that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ --John Ruskin.
"If you are willing to take a shaving, send me a paper-thin slice of end grain and I'll key it out for you."
Bob,
Exactly how do you do that? Do you use a microscope and look at the cell structure or do you have a book on wood species that you can match up the sample piece to the pictures in the book?
mike
Exactly. I'm a forest biologist who saved some of his college textbooks.
Forestry and botanical institutions publish botanical keys of primarily cell structure. Cookbook logic that is the basis for any taxonomy key either animal or plant. "Step 2: Latewood pourous or solid? If porous go to Step 3; if solid go to Step 4."
As there are over 100,000 species of wood worldwide only high-speed labs like the FPL have all the keys. Some of these are $400.00 textbooks. But for example a larch is a larch...I can key down to species both Western and Tamarack from North America, but if it's a European or Asian larch, I can only confirm that it's a larch and not a pine, spruce or fir. But if your sample came from a Folkboat built in Scandanavia, it's a 99% probability that it's a European Larch.
Bruce Hoadley has a less expensive book on wood ID published by Taunton that's reported to be decent.
Edited 9/14/2007 10:17 am by BobSmalser
that is one aspect of woodworking I would like to learn... I can walk through the woods and look at trees but if someone pointed out a particular tree and asked what it was I'd have no clue (except for maples and oaks). It would be neat to be able to take a piece of wood and put it under a microscope and look at the cell structure to determine what spieces it is or to walk into the woods and say "oh because of the broad leaf charcteristcs and the fine green color, this is a sugar maple". I must learn!
mike
It's part of my living, but there are clubs devoted to exactly that:
http://www.woodcollectors.org/index.htm“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think...that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ --John Ruskin.
hey, thanks for the link. I'll check it out
LV is selling off the Hoadley book "Identifying Wood" right now for $15.95 US.
Thanks, Bob. I'll see if I can get one tomorrow.On reference books, have you heard of Hough's American Woods? I found a complete set in the USMA library special collection.
Looks like apple from here. But guessing is usually fruitless. Good one! I had a good belly laugh on that one!
Received your sample, and the wood is definitely a true mahogany.
Whether Cuban, Honduras or Khaya (African) I can't determine because I don't have end-grain keys for those. I've mailed back some face and end-grain samples so you can compare, although I don't have any of Cuban. Cuban Mahogany is native to South Florida, and Cuban-Honduras hybrid trees have also been planed there and elsewhere in the past 50 years.
Your piece would likely have to be quite old for the wood to be Cuban, a favorite of 18th-Century cabinetmakers, as it has been logged out for more than a century and is protected today.
Surface appearance is somewhat deceiving to the eye because your wood is exceptionally tight-grained. The tree it came from grew in heavy shade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swietenia
Edited 9/21/2007 3:42 pm by BobSmalser
Wow, I'm amazed. Thanks very much.
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