Here are some pictures of a board I milled out of a small log about 6-8 months ago. Once again, I appeal to this group for assistance in identifying the wood. What I know is that I found it on a beach here in the northwest, although it is by no means a native species. It is however not tropical. It is totally odourless and resinless.
On the flat sawn face grain between the grain lines are some interesting ‘herringbone’ patterns. The end grain has fairly distinct early and latewood, with an unusual kind of wavy pattern between. The quatersawn face grain is unremarkable, some small rays.
My camera decided to drastically alter the true colour of the wood. The face photo shows the best colour, the wood is really a very dull light tan/brown/khaki, with next to no yellow in it and absolutely no red or orange or pink at all in it!
I also weighed the wood, it is about 35lbs per cubic foot. Although I just brought it inside a few days ago, it was outside all winter so probably still pretty moist.
I welcome all suggestions or ideas!
Dan
Replies
Dan,
It would help if your photos were clearer - no blur, actual colour and something to show scale. (Sorry to be the know-all).
I've seen that grain pattern in elm and (more rarely) in birch, both of which also have SP of around 35lbs/cu ft and tend to be yellow rather than red or chocolate. Elm can sometimes be khaki as it seems to have a greenish element mixed with the yellow. Neither wood smells of much a while after its been cut.
If it is elm, it will be American white elm, presumably, rather than the European stuff.
Larch also has the wavy thing sometimes but that's a lot redder.
Only slightly educated guesses, these.
Lataxe
I am with Lataxe on the elm choice.
Thanks guys, I agree that elm seems fiarly plausible. I looked at the "A Scientific Name Index to American Woods by Romeyn B. Hough" on line at NCSU, number 33 American Elm is a good match on the wavy intra-grain stuff, but the colour is not close, and the earlywood/latewood transition on the end grain is not quite right either. Close enough? I don't know.
I took a couple more pics this morning, outside. The end grain shot turned out spot on, but the face grain photo still has a reddish tinge to it that is just not there in the wood. Maybe it's time for a new camera. Or a new camera operator . . .
Dan
Dan,
I rooted out a piece of elm that's part of a small batch I put away to make a posh jewellry box. The wavy grain, early/late wood transition and the little voids in the rings of the end grain are all identical to your pics. Even the colour is a pretty good match. :-)
Although I haven't got it, that Bruce R Hoadley book is said to have a foolproof method for wood identification, via an examination of the end grain with a 10X eyeglass, for combinations of various microscopic features that are unique to this or that species.
Incidentally, I would love to witter on for pages and pages about digital photography and the adventures you can have with Photoshop, but I would get told off by the Syops and you would get bored.
Lataxe
Dan, could you post the link to the Hough information? I thought I had it bookmarked, but can't find it now.
A couple of friendly tips/requests: Resizing your pics will get you more responses (dial-up folks more likely to look at the pics). The font-size in your posts is really tiny. Size 2 works a bit better, at least for these old eyes.
Are you in Vancouver Washington? Keep your eyes out for a Washington Knots party!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hi Forestgirl,
The link I use for the Hough stuff is http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/forestry/hough/index.html. I live in Vancouver BC.
Thanks,
Dan
"I live in Vancouver BC." You'd still be welcome to attend, though it's obviously a longer drive! thanks for the link!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
"I live in Vancouver BC." !!
Gee, I thought you were in the USA.. Like in WAY up in the USA! Well, that PIC of you and the BIG old tree should have been a HINT...LOL... Geee.. I traveled ALOT to Canada over the years (well, Toronto... LOL)
I think FG lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington and is only quoting from an e-mail she received.
Well thanks to everyone who is keeping this thread alive! In fact I live in Vancouver BC.
I considered hackberry as was suggested, and it is still a possibility, but it has two strikes against it. First it is not a very strong wood, and second it is not grown here. There is no reference to it all in the book Trees of Vancouver', whereas several types of elm are referenced as growing here. Not conclusive I know.
I also know it is not sycamore, as I ran some sycamore through my alaska mill at about the same time as this wood and they were totally different.
I am still going with elm.
As for the machining properties, it is still not dry so I have not done much with it. As eager as I am to work with it, I think it'll have to continue to season, at least until the end of the summer.
The simplest way to get colors dead on is to include a truly gray surface in the shot, a photographic gray card. With most image editing programs, you can then click on that gray card's image to set the white balance, and as long as the light hitting the card is the same as that hitting the wood, your resulting colors will be dead on.
You can also sometimes do this in the camera. Look at your camera's manual, in the section on white balance. Carrying a white or gray piece of paper is never a bad idea, either way.My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
could it be sycamore? or american beech?
Your grain looks like sycamoren in a few pictures, but Ive worked with beech that also had the same color and grain (but not quite as wild grain, as some of your pic.).
No matter Its a good looking wood, do you have it cut into boards and dryed?
I would like to know how dose it machine,as well as how hard the wood is?
have a good night.
C.A.G.
Elm is the first thing I thought of too, but the color looks different than the red elm I'm working with now. A unique quality in elm is that secondary "ghost" grain seen between the primary lines, but hackberry and likely a few others have similar grainlines too.
Well no surprise because Hackberry is an elm species.
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