Can you identify this wood?


alexlivshin

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Hey guys,

 

I am in the process of setting up my workshop in an existing shed of a house I bought about a year ago. As I was going through all the junk that was in the shed, I found two hardwood boards that looked like they were something interesting. I am having thouble figuring out exactly what wood species it is, however. First I thought it was Walnut, but after planing it down, it does not look like walnut. See if anyone of you can tell what it is.

 

post-15510-0-72032800-1398193397_thumb.j

 

End grain.

post-15510-0-09895400-1398193401_thumb.j

 

This is what it looks like fresh off the planer.

post-15510-0-42505700-1398193616_thumb.j

post-15510-0-19828300-1398193403_thumb.j

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I could be Luan (which is also called Phillipene mahagony) or African mahogany ( Kayaha). Notice the end grain pattern, that board came from a small tree or close to the center of a tree.

My bet is Luan . When Marcos was ruling the Phillipenes you could buy it cheaper than white pine. My entire house is trimmed in Luan. The builder stained and finished all of it. So now I have to use mahogany for any changes or new trim because Luan is not easily found today. Luan varies from blonde to dark reddish brown depending on which side of the island it grew on. The wet side of the island grew fast light colored trees with soft wood. The wood that grew slower in the dryer parts of the land is darker and stronger.

You still see Luan veneers on plywood and hollow core doors especially from Asian sources, but the lumber is rarely available to my knowledge.

Treat it just like mahogany and it will behave in a very similar fashion.

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Lauan is a good guess.  I haven't seen a ton of it but it does look like that.  It's definitely not genuine mahogany...pores are too open.  And it looks too dark to be African mahogany.

 

You may as well just pitch that board though...it's got checks all the way through it.  At least it looks that way.

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How heavy is it?  Is it really hard?  Based on the shape and the eased edges I'm guessing it was meant to be decking.  My first reaction looking at the end grain and the first picture is that it is Ipe decking.  The freshly planed pic looks more like Jatoba.  Either way those would both be really friggin hard and really heavy. 

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Think I may have some of this, or at least very similar, wood in my shop.  Bought it from Colonial Hardwoods in Va. many years ago and while I forget what they called it it was a South American tropical.  The grain doesn't quite match Jatoba but the working characteristics are very similar; dense (more so than any mahogany I've come across), hard, fine grained (sanding the stuff without gloves is slightly painful) and dulls steel quickly.  The quartersawn grain is somewhat flecked like QS Sycamore and occasionally there is some interlocked grain.  

 

https://flic.kr/p/noeMBF

https://flic.kr/p/noh5ey

 

My initial guess was Jatoba but the grain doesn't quite match.

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==>Wonder if this stuff can actually be used for something nice...  :)

Yes it can... Due it's low $/bf, I used a stack of it to build an outdoor dining set as a gift. Looks great with a high-grade marine varnish topcoat. Project went real fast: Domino XL with FT's exterior-grade dominos, West 206, CPES sealer and Epifanes high-solid gloss with just a touch of flattener added to hide scratches. Went through an entire box of 8mm, 1/2 box 10mm and 1/2 box 12mm. One thing about the XL, you can just route dominos all day with that thing. I haven't had to replace a cutter yet and I've probably routed 2000+ dominos... Yea, it's expensive, but it's rapidly becoming my goto m/t setup.... I don't know how much time it saves me, but it must have paid for itself by now...

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  • 1 month later...

I agree w/ renaissanceww ... looks like ipe. Compare it to the ipe pics on my site and see what you think.

 

OOPS ... I thought my site link was in my signature but I see it isn't. Here's the link to the ipe page: http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/ipe.htm

 

(EDIT: site link added to signature now)

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I could be Luan (which is also called Phillipene mahagony) or African mahogany ( Kayaha). Notice the end grain pattern, that board came from a small tree or close to the center of a tree.

My bet is Luan . When Marcos was ruling the Phillipenes you could buy it cheaper than white pine. My entire house is trimmed in Luan. The builder stained and finished all of it. So now I have to use mahogany for any changes or new trim because Luan is not easily found today. Luan varies from blonde to dark reddish brown depending on which side of the island it grew on. The wet side of the island grew fast light colored trees with soft wood. The wood that grew slower in the dryer parts of the land is darker and stronger.

You still see Luan veneers on plywood and hollow core doors especially from Asian sources, but the lumber is rarely available to my knowledge.

Treat it just like mahogany and it will behave in a very similar fashion.

 

 

Interesting that you speak of "luan" as a single type of wood. My database shows 48 species that have luan (or lauan) as all or part of one or more of their common names and  with a total of 1696 different common names among the 48 species. And that's without even trying to cross correlate species that are called Philippine mahogany (although that probably wouldn't add very many to the list, if any).

 

EDIT: I modified this post now that I understand how the quote works here.

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I was just looking at a picture. I have used IPE for a few projects. The weight and smell of the saw dust in person would have convinced me. Yea, it does look like IPE as well.

Hey, I took a shot at it.

 

 

Yeah, I agree. The more I look at it the more sure I am that there's no way this is luan, it's almost certainly ipe.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I could be Luan (which is also called Phillipene mahagony) or African mahogany ( Kayaha). Notice the end grain pattern, that board came from a small tree or close to the center of a tree.

My bet is Luan . When Marcos was ruling the Phillipenes you could buy it cheaper than white pine. My entire house is trimmed in Luan. The builder stained and finished all of it. So now I have to use mahogany for any changes or new trim because Luan is not easily found today. Luan varies from blonde to dark reddish brown depending on which side of the island it grew on. The wet side of the island grew fast light colored trees with soft wood. The wood that grew slower in the dryer parts of the land is darker and stronger.

You still see Luan veneers on plywood and hollow core doors especially from Asian sources, but the lumber is rarely available to my knowledge.

Treat it just like mahogany and it will behave in a very similar fashion.

Steve, you gotta get out more.  You know too much....."wet side of the island"..... :huh: ....you need to be on Jeopardy.

My initial reaction was "mahogany....well...almost".  I'm not versed in Luan and I barely remember Marcos...I remember Melda Marcos loved shoes ...heck Steve, I could come to your shop and maybe sit there like a surgical assistant and hand things to you...."CHISEL!!...." pop.... :o :o :o :o  "HANDLE FIRST!!!"

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