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 Post subject: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:04 am 
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Cocobolo
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These three woods are very old and came from the basements of a house made in 1906. They were very dirty and aged looking. These pictures are after being planed and it's amazing how it brought them back to life. I am obviously using them to build with. I figure they will be very stable. Can anyone roughly identify what type of wood they are?

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:07 am 
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I never find anything good! Not sure what it is but it looks nice.

The first pic looks like cedar, but if it were, you would have smelled it and known. Does it have an aroma?
Third one looks like oak. Second sample...not sure.
Good luck building with it. It should definitely be stable after all this time and the guitar will have a cool story to go with it. That's always a cool thing.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:38 am 
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If I had to guess, I would say

1) douglas fir
2) canarywood
3) red oak

If you've never worked with it before, Red Oak will suck up liquid on the end grain like there's no tommorow. You need to seal it very well.


Last edited by John Coloccia on Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:42 am 
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Mahogany
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pine
red gum
oak

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:26 pm 
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Cocobolo
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I have been thinking:

some type of Cedar
Poplar
White Oak


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 Post subject: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:05 pm 
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At least we all agree that it's wood!

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:48 pm 
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White oak would have much longer rays, IMHO.


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:50 pm 
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Redwood
Poplar
Red Oak

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:25 pm 
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I have some spruce from a 1927 house that has aged to a dark honey color throughout the depth, one could swear its chocolate cedar if it wouldn't lack the coppery tinge of cedar, and the smell. It also has typical spruce density. First thing I do with any wood I get is to measure the density. From there one can get better guesses.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:10 pm 
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Is the house this came out of there in Maine? That first sample has to be Doug Fir. I guess it surprises me that they would have been going that far afield for house lumber in 1906. Do you know any older local carpenters? They'd know what has been used in your area. Well aged Doug Fir heartwood is much harder than Redwood, and most Pine and Cedar. A finger nail test should tell you. I can't be very confident of the second sample. I haven't worked with Canary Wood, but that wood really be going out of the area. Poplar sounds reasonable to me. The last one is certainly Oak. There seems to be a consensus there. I'll cast my vote on the Red Oak side.


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:11 pm 
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Cocobolo
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Eric Reid wrote:
Is the house this came out of there in Maine? That first sample has to be Doug Fir. I guess it surprises me that they would have been going that far afield for house lumber in 1906. Do you know any older local carpenters? They'd know what has been used in your area. Well aged Doug Fir heartwood is much harder than Redwood, and most Pine and Cedar. A finger nail test should tell you. I can't be very confident of the second sample. I haven't worked with Canary Wood, but that wood really be going out of the area. Poplar sounds reasonable to me. The last one is certainly Oak. There seems to be a consensus there. I'll cast my vote on the Red Oak side.


Yes, the house is in Bangor Maine. Yes I think Oak is definitely right. I think Poplar may be the best guess so far for the second one. I have worked with Canary alot and it is definitely not Canary. If the first example is Doug Fir, and it's aged like it is, do people think it would make a decent neck wood? Is it ever used for that purpose? It is clearly quartersawn, so that's a plus.


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:45 pm 
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I have worked with a ton of poplar and in my opinon, that second example is not popar. It has a little gray streaking among the grail as would poplar, but it just some way too dark/orange/brown. Obvously wood that is this old is going to build up some grime and patina, but there is such a glossy sheen coming off of it from the camera flash and it leads me to believe that there isnt a whole lot of build up on the surface of the wood. The darker lines of the normal grain (im not talking about the gray streaks) seem to be too wide. They are also not sharp and uniform enough. What I mean by this is the darker grain on wood #2 kind of blends into the rest of the wood along the edge of the grain and it is not very uniform. The defined grain on poplar is very sharp edged and uniform. BUT...dont be fooled into thinking I know EXACTLY what Im talking about because its a little hard to tell based on the pictures. It could very well be a piece of polar! -Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 5:52 pm 
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Do you think the second one could be Sweetgum? That would have been my second guess, and maybe my first if I had bothered to check you were in Maine and assumed that the lumber was local.


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 6:17 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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That second one looks a lot like beech to me, from these pictures.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 6:51 pm 
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Looks like Douglas Fir, Cherry, and Red Oak to me


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:18 pm 
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Cocobolo
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I think that Doug Fir and Oak are winners. Here is another picture of the last one. Possibilities include sweetgum, red gum, poplar, beech, cherry...

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:20 pm 
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Don Williams wrote:
Redwood
Poplar
Red Oak


That would be my guess.
Freshly planed fir isn't that red.


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:32 pm 
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lex_luthier wrote:
Looks like Douglas Fir, Cherry, and Red Oak to me


My guess also.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:21 pm 
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Cocobolo
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Don Williams wrote:
Redwood
Poplar
Red Oak


I second this. I have about 10 pieces of Redwood paneling that look exactly like this. Some perfectly quartered and I've got them stashed for some uke tops. The last is almost surely Red Oak, and the middle one I would guess poplar based on grain structure. Love recycling wood! Good score! [:Y:]


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:17 am 
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I'm gonna give it another try. I think I will name those woods, Horatio, Mortimer, and Steve.
You have all wasted your time. He didn't want an ID of the woods, the topic title clearly says "Name these woods"!!
There you go buddy! I named them for you. Have a good time making a guitar out of Horatio, Mortimer, and Steve!!
laughing6-hehe





Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:50 pm 
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Very funny Tony.

I don't think that's cherry, but it could be poplar. I'd cast my vote on poplar.

But it could also be Steve.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:12 pm 
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Cocobolo
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I'm guessing douglas fir, poplar, and red oak.

Most douglas fir I've seen lately has much broader grain lines than that, but I pulled some out of a wall from an old house a few years ago, and it looked just like that.


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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:26 pm 
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Tony_in_NYC wrote:
At least we all agree that it's wood!


Attachment:
wood.jpg


lol, i never get tired of that one... :D


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:56 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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First looks like what is referred to in the region as "Red Fir" Could be Douglas, or possibly Hemlock. My best guess would be Douglas. It was very popular for framing houses in the north east. I remember using it to frame higher end homes back when I started being a carpenter.

Second appears to be some sort of pine, Maybe red spruce. Pine is prone to that gray mottling, most likely comes from mineral deposits.


Third is Red Oak

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 Post subject: Re: Name these woods.
PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2012 5:26 pm 
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Cocobolo
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Here are two more I'm trying to identify.

The first one was found in the same house in Maine.

The second was given to me by a friend who said that it was from Africa. I planed into it and this is what I got. It does not look this red in person. It is more of a chocolate brown. It is very heavy.

Image

Image


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