Need help indentifying:


TheNaturalCraft

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I recently bought a bargain box of exotic hardwood cutoffs from Rockler.com.  Great deal, thing is they didn't bother labeling anything.  Most of what I received wasn't too hard to figure out, and the site www.wood-database.com was quite helpful, but there's 3 pieces I just cannot place, even limiting the search to only what Rockler lists on their web site. 

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

First piece is waxed:

 

 

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The second set has Ipe written on it.

I wrote that followed by a ? as my best guess.  The reason I doubted that is because Rockler doesn't have it listed in their exotics section, but I suppose they may have had some at one point.

 

For the third piece, it does resemble zebra wood, what gave me doubts is the extremely tight grain pattern and bluish color to the grain (but that isn't the greatest photo).

 

I'll take a sliver off one side and get some better shots of them.

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==>First one is definitely canarywood

The Canarywood I've seen is slightly to the brown-side of red -- almost a dark rust color, but I've only seen a dozen sticks or so... I've seen some Box Elder with a read streak almost exactly like your photo... Although Box Elder is a member of Acer, so not really exotic... The slab appears to be rectilinear, can you get a density? Take a block plane to the end-grain?

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==>#1 looks like some tulipwood that I have

I've got a bunch of Tulipwood --- and that was going to be my first guess, but I went into the shop and pulled some sticks -- all my Tulipwood is significantly 'pinker' (if that's a word). The colored streaks are 'finer' (meaning more streaks, but each is smaller) and much closer to pink rather than red... Not saying it's not Tulipwood, it's just that I've got about a hundred bf that I got from a luthier, and it doesn't match any of it... But it does match some Box Elder I've got almost exactly -- but Acer isn't 'exotic'... If you get a density, you can easily differentiate between Tulip and a member of Acer.

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Box elder has the red streaking but I don't think the grain matches what we see there.   Canarywood can have the red streaks and does match the grain.  I've worked with quite a bit of the stuff and there's no question in my mind that's what it is.

 

I don't have very much on hand but one of these has a poor example of the red streaks and other two show the range and edge grain to compare to the sample

 

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==>Canarywood

Never seen Canarywood. Just looked at the wood database, and it sure looks close... From the database, looks to be similar density/hardness to Sugar Maple, making it much lighter than Tulipwood. So if the OP has a similar sized block of Hard Maple??

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Just to play devil's advocate, do you really need to identify these boards? Conceivably, you'll use them as either accents (drawer pulls? Inlays?) in a larger piece or as turning stock for pens or small gifts. Fast forward to the finish line and you're done with you're project: Someone complements your work and asks you what the wood is. I think it makes the conversation even more interesting and engaging if you can say, "I don't know..."

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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==>do you really need to identify these boards?

Good point... But it does provide a nice distraction... :)

 

At some level, you should know what species you're dealing with... Some species are quite toxic, require an application of acetone prior to glue-up, won't take certain finishes, significantly lighten/darken with age, etc..

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