Author Topic: Need help with wood ID  (Read 7004 times)

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Offline IrishJay

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Need help with wood ID
« on: November 02, 2019, 01:22:26 pm »
Any thoughts on these 2 pieces? My first thought was locust, but I'm not too sure.



"The best camouflage pattern is called, 'Sit down and be quiet!' Your grandpa hunted deer in a red plaid coat, think about that for a second." - Fred Bear

Offline bassman

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2019, 02:50:29 pm »
some will say Elm ,but it is Walnut.

Offline IrishJay

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2019, 03:05:42 pm »
Both of those are decent bow wood right?
"The best camouflage pattern is called, 'Sit down and be quiet!' Your grandpa hunted deer in a red plaid coat, think about that for a second." - Fred Bear

Offline IrishJay

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2019, 04:00:42 pm »
This is fresh cut end-grain from the piece on the left in the above photos. Very little difference in coloration from sap wood to heart wood.  Based on color and the ring pourous nature of the grain, as well as the smell produced when cutting I'm leaning toward White Ash. Thoughts?

"The best camouflage pattern is called, 'Sit down and be quiet!' Your grandpa hunted deer in a red plaid coat, think about that for a second." - Fred Bear

Offline IrishJay

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2019, 04:13:29 pm »
Also I'm pretty sure Bass nailed the right hand piece as walnut. The slab doesn't contain any heartwood, which is a dead give away with walnut, but when cut it that distinct sweet/nutty/fruity smell of walnut.
"The best camouflage pattern is called, 'Sit down and be quiet!' Your grandpa hunted deer in a red plaid coat, think about that for a second." - Fred Bear

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2019, 05:26:47 pm »
Sassafras

Walnut wil be a bit green looking when you first cut it but will turn dark in short order, I have slabbed off a lot of walnut for gunstocks, that isn't walnut.

Walnut,notice the sapwood.



Still has the fresh cut look, the blank is very dark now after drying for a couple of years.



The same blank dry.







« Last Edit: November 02, 2019, 05:47:28 pm by Eric Krewson »

Offline Pat B

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2019, 05:52:57 pm »
Was that a fresh cut live tree? Doesn't look like it.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Dances with squirrels

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2019, 06:03:19 pm »
I agree with Eric, it looks like sassafras to me as well. The outer bark looks exactly like sassafras. The reddish inner bark too. The end cut as well, see how the early wood fuzzed up like that? Yep, sassafras does that more than most. How does it smell when cut or sanded into dust. Sassafras will give off that spicy smell.... unless it's dry or old wood that has begun to decay, then it can be hard to pick up the smell.

One thing that makes me suspect though.... freshly cut or split sassafras will show a clear difference between the sapwood and heartwood... with the sapwood being white, and less than an inch thick.... a lot like osage, mulberry, locust, in that regard.

How old is this wood? It looks kind of grey-ish and washed out for sassafras. But maybe that's just how it looks in the picture. Was it recently cut from a live tree? Or has it been dead for a while? If so, standing? Or down on the ground?

I peeled the bark off of a bunch of small sassafras logs today that will be used in the smoker.

I also have a few big sassafras staves with the bark still on. If it'll help, I could dig one out and post a picture of it here.
Straight wood may make a better bow, but crooked wood makes a better bowyer

Offline Hamish

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2019, 06:41:52 pm »
Its not walnut, which is diffuse porous. End grain shot shows it to be ring porous.  My first guess was ash, as the grain really looks like ash. I don't know what sassafras looks like but I hear it looks like ash timber so it could well be sassafras as suggested earlier.

Offline bassman

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2019, 06:43:48 pm »
pics.

Offline bassman

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2019, 06:48:49 pm »
Which one of these 3 woods most resemble his wood judging by the bark, and what are these 3 woods ?

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2019, 07:22:15 pm »
The storm downed walnut had been on the ground about a year, walnut is very rot resistant. 5 or 10 years from now the heartwood will be sound.

Offline IrishJay

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2019, 07:59:39 pm »
Both of these pieces came out of the slab pile at an amish logging/mill site. Based on the locaations of the piles they came out of and knowing the order they cut the property in I'd say the one on the left was cut 2 months ago, the other about 3.
"The best camouflage pattern is called, 'Sit down and be quiet!' Your grandpa hunted deer in a red plaid coat, think about that for a second." - Fred Bear

Offline IrishJay

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2019, 08:53:50 pm »
I'm pretty sure the piece on the left, and inthe previous end grain pic is ash.

Heres an end grain of the other (also shown my bandaged up thumb from when I cut myself with my draw knife requiring 4 stitches earlier today.

If it is sassafras is it usable bow wood?

"The best camouflage pattern is called, 'Sit down and be quiet!' Your grandpa hunted deer in a red plaid coat, think about that for a second." - Fred Bear

Offline burchett.donald

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Re: Need help with wood ID
« Reply #14 on: November 02, 2019, 09:12:00 pm »
 Definitely not Black Walnut......
Genesis 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;