Mark J Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 Found this interesting chart in another forum. Personally I couldn't get past the first question, and I mean the first question, whether or not it has pores. Although I can usually recognize if it's wood. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 Yeah I agree, it really needs some accompanying photos or literature. Also pores might not be the best characteristic to use in all cases. If you are just considering domestic hardwoods, surely color and open/closed grain are useful traits when separating hard maple from walnut... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 This is not instructional, but a good reference card. Once you understand pores, you have 50% of common ID features. This will also help you understand why Phinds requests cleaned up end grain shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 You probably identify based on the pores already more than you think you do. If maple is stained or dyed the same color as walnut they still don't look similar. Maple's grain is sily smooth where as walnut is coarse. This is a result of the pore structure of the wood. It's also the same reason that Oak stained a walnut color doesn't fool any one. Wood that can get difficult to ID this way are Ash and hickory. I still think on some wood smell is the best way to ID. While ash and hickory look similar taking a cut on the miter saw with each of them i'll always guess ash from hickory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinds Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 Not a bad table as far as it goes. Very simplistic and very limited but useful for the woods it discusses. For those interested in perusing this more, try https://woodbarter.com/threads/wood-anatomy-an-introduction.18349/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinds Posted May 25, 2019 Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 On 1/20/2019 at 9:59 AM, Chestnut said: You probably identify based on the pores already more than you think you do. Wood that can get difficult to ID this way are Ash and hickory. Not when you look at them up close. They are VERY easy to distinguish. Even if you don't clean up the ends well enough to see the banded parenchyma (which CLEARLY distinguishes them), hickory has pores that change somewhat gradually from large to small all the way through the growth ring whereas ash makes that change quickly and then has very small pores through the rest of the ring. hickory and white ash: 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted May 25, 2019 Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 4 hours ago, phinds said: Not when you look at them up close. They are VERY easy to distinguish. Even if you don't clean up the ends well enough to see the banded parenchyma (which CLEARLY distinguishes them), hickory has pores that change somewhat gradually from large to small all the way through the growth ring whereas ash makes that change quickly and then has very small pores through the rest of the ring. hickory and white ash: That's pretty cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinds Posted May 25, 2019 Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 1 hour ago, pkinneb said: That's pretty cool! Well, that's what my web site is all about 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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