Wood Identification

[JosephThomas]

Awhile back I promised @phinds I would take better photos of a few boards he was trying to help me identify.  I am lazy and forgot for a few weeks though...Anyway, while cleaning up and organizing I decided to take a couple pics of just about every species I have on hand.  I still don't have a better camera, but I did try to do a couple things:

1. Took all the photos in the same spot with the same lighting.
2. Included a coca cola can in each shot so you can do color correction.
3. Included one pic of the face and one of the end-grain. I didn't go to much effort on a few of them to cleanup the end grain though...too lazy for that  
4. I labeled each pair with a number in the description below it.

 

I thought this would make a fun game. Maybe not, but I figured why not.  I put a bunch of the "easier" ones to identify at the beginning so you can sort of calibrate your eyes/brain with those first few boards to help understand what the lighting is like in my shop (hint: it's not great).  Post your "guesses" or expert opinions below.

I put the album on imgur here if they don't show up below:  http://imgur.com/gallery/49YSX

p.s. if you hate these posts I'm sorry. Wait no I'm not. If you read this far, you're interested. Or you enjoy torturing yourself...

Ok here are embedded pics:

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[Eric.]

I'll post the ones for now that I know or I think I know, and try to figure out the rest when I have more time later.  Do you know all the answers or are some of them still mysteries to you?

Some of the exotics get really tough to distinguish.

 

1. purpleheart

2. red oak

3. walnut

4. poplar

5. cherry

6. QSWO

7. zebra

8. teak or afrormosia (African teak)

9. alder?

10. sapele

11. flame birch

12. African mahogany

13.

14. chechen?

15. tigerwood

16. Honduran mahogany

17. padauk

18. maple, figured, probably big leaf

19. more tigerwood

20. tigre caspi or marblewood (need bigger sample)

21. Spanish cedar

22. 

23. wenge

24. anigre

25. 

26. 

27. bocote

28.

[JosephThomas]

Some are unknown to me, but I tried to mix them up so it wasn't obvious which ones. There are a few that I'm 90% sure but would like confirmed too.

 

[JosephThomas]

I didn't realize how awful a couple of the photos are til now, i.e. #13. I'll try to replace some of the bad ones later.

[Eric.]

8. either teak or afromorsia (African teak)

9. alder?

Which ones are you unsure about?

[JosephThomas]

9, 21, 24, and 27 are particularly perplexing for me. 

Any chance you mixed up 12 and 16? Number 16's end grain has a nice fleshy pink/purple color to it when freshly cut before it calmed down and turned light brown again.

[Eric.]

25 minutes ago, JosephThomas said:

Any chance you mixed up 12 and 16? Number 16's end grain has a nice fleshy pink/purple color to it when freshly cut before it calmed down and turned light brown again.

Sure it's possible.  All I have are tiny little pictures to go off of.  But I labeled them the way they look to me, even after going back and looking again.  Hard to go off of pictures.

Pretty sure 27 is bocote.

9 I'm not sure about.  Looks like alder, but it almost looks like a softwood, too.  Maybe western red cedar?  Is this the one that we were debating a couple weeks ago?

[drzaius]

Lets try doing it this way. From now on, when you post a reply, be sure to quote the OP & include all the photos  

[Eric.]

23 minutes ago, drzaius said:

Lets try doing it this way. From now on, when you post a reply, be sure to quote the OP & include all the photos  

Banned.

[JosephThomas]

1 hour ago, Eric. said:

 

9 I'm not sure about.  Looks like alder, but it almost looks like a softwood, too.  Maybe western red cedar?  Is this the one that we were debating a couple weeks ago?

Yes, the one we talked about in chat. It doesn't compare well with the alder I have on hand, and it does have some uniqueness to the smell, although not as strong as aromatic cedar. I was leaning towards WRC though, but it's just a guess.

32 minutes ago, drzaius said:

Lets try doing it this way. From now on, when you post a reply, be sure to quote the OP & include all the photos  

Lol.

[drzaius]

3 hours ago, Eric. said:

Banned.

 

[phinds]

how about attaching numbers to the pics, and separate each set of pics.

EDIT: OOPS. OK, I'm blind.

It's late. I'll make a note to myself to look at these tomorrow.

 

[phinds]

OK, it's "tomorrow"

To make it easy on myself, I've copied Eric's list and added my own comments. Eric, you really know your wood. I don't get on this forum too much but from what I've seen previously, that doesn't surprise me. As you'll see, I'm conservative in my opinions.

1. purpleheart --- yep
2. red oak --- probably but I wouldn't take any bets without a better end grain shot (for example, it could be coffee tree)
3. walnut --- VERY highly likely but I'd still like to see a better end grain shot
4. poplar --- I'll pass
5. cherry --- could be but I'll pass
6. QSWO --- oak for sure and I agree it's probably white (not at all impossible for red to have flakes that big)
7. zebra --- bingo
8. teak or afrormosia (African teak) --- I would not have guessed afrormosa but that's not impossible. Teak seems very unlikely to me, as the early growth is too weak. My own first thought was shedua but I would not take bets on that.
9. alder? --- I'll pass
10. sapele --- well, it looks like SOMETHING in the mahogany family but I'd need a MUCH better end grain to say more.
11. flame birch --- that was my first guess as well
12. African mahogany --- extremely solid guess. I could not rule out Honduran but I'd put my money on African
13. --- I'll pass
14. chechen? --- chechem's a solid guess but I'd need better pics
15. tigerwood --- yep (I use "goncal alves" but same wood)
16. Honduran mahogany -- solid guess but I'd need much better pics
17. padauk --- looks like it for sure but I'd like to see a focused end grain shot
18. maple, figured, probably big leaf --- that's as good a guess as any I could make
19. more tigerwood --- yep
20. tigre caspi or marblewood (need bigger sample) --- agreed, although with that small a sample and that level of pics, I could not absolutely rule out zebrawood (but I'd bet against it for sure)
21. Spanish cedar --- I'll pass (but not a bad guess)
22. --- I feel like I could get this one with a much better end grain shot
23. wenge --- probably that or panga panga but I'd have to see a much better end grain shot to be sure
24. anigre --- no idea but for some reason anigre doesn't seem a great fit to me (wouldn't bet against it though)
25. --- probably some kind of rosewood, at a guess, but I'd need better info
26. --- possibly a rosewood although the face looks a bit bland for that. I'd need a better end grain shot
27. bocote --- bocote doesn't feel right to me and that end grain shot is useless. I think this may be a rosewood.
28. --- at first I thought probably something in the Mahogany family but the more I look at it the less sure I am of that.

Joseph, this is good photography, but in general for wood ID you need to get a bit closer to the face grain and you need to do a bit more work on cleaning up the end grain. Things like purpleheart and goncalo alves pretty much just jump out at you with this level of information but for many of these more detail is needed.

 

[phinds]

4 hours ago, Mike. said:

I know no pun was intended, but it still made me laugh

 

Guess I'm missing something

[Eric.]

Think of Mike as a junior high kid in full blown puberty.  Farts and wieners.  Everything is farts and wieners.

[phinds]

1 minute ago, Eric. said:

Think of Mike as a junior high kid in full blown puberty.  Farts and wieners.  Everything is farts and wieners.

Ah. Got it. It's been a long time since I've thought like that.