Official Luthiers Forum!

I've done rather a lot of wood identification over the years, and continue to refer to the keys in my old Wood Technology Textbook (Panshin and de Zeeuw) from my student days (I'm a registered professional forester in Canada, even if I currently live in NZ).

From your pictures, the transition from earlywood to latewood seems very abrupt, and this pretty much rules out all NA species of spruce and their hybrids. It also rules out the "soft" pines (eastern and western white, and sugar pine).

The presence and size of the resin canals in the latewood (visible on a clean, cut endgrain surface) is the next important feature to look at. Find yourself a piece of "hard" pine for comparison -- virtually any NA species will do (other than the "soft" pines listed above). You'll see that the resin canals are present in virtually every ring and are easily seen with the naked eye. If the canals on your unknown piece show a similar pattern and are of similar size, you're probably dealing with a hard pine (2- or 3-needle species), and you'll not likely indentify it any more precisely than that without a microscope, although some are more likely than others.

Do the same thing for any known spruce comparison, and you'll not see the canals easily without a hand lens, and the tiny canals will be unevenly distributed and perhaps not visible at all in some rings. If the resin canals look similar to your spruce comparison, but the transition from earlywood to latewood is abrupt, then you're likely dealing with Douglas-fir or larch. If the transition is gradual (not the case from what I see in the pictures), then it could be spruce, but positive ID of any spruce other than Sitka is unlikely, even with microscopic examination.

If you can't see any resin canals at all, even with a hand lens, then you're dealing with a Cupressacea, true fir or hemlock (but I doubt this is the case, given what I see in your pictures).

As others have said, if you can resaw quartered plates with little runout from these pieces, they may have some value for guitar tops, but my bet is that they are not spruce.

http://www.swst.org/teach/set2/struct1.html

By the way its Kirby the rest is me playing...

_________________
"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

When I first saw it I thought Mojo Tone pine carve top lap slide...
Pretty durn shure tisn't Doug fir...
Dont think is spruce...
Don't look much like sugar pine
Look a bit like yeller pine


did some thinkin and big clues is the age and east...

So...
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/TechSheets/SoftwoodNA/htmlDocs/pinuspalustris.html

Flecking that shows(looks like small pitch pockets) in pics 3&4 suggest/are exposed large resin canals(pine)...

_________________
"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

Was sposed to say(was not quite awake),

When I first saw it I thought; Mojo Tone Antique Heart Pine carve top lap slide...


Any ways try to identify with more certainty before doing anything...

I am pretty shure but but just from pics ...

If it is feel it would do alright as one piece parlor tops (with a ton of Mojo)...

I'm working hard not to beg for some( dang Just failed )...

With a little local walnut or maple an Tah-DA a little archtop squareneck named Indiana...

Well anyways in case I'm right...
tis prized for cabinetry...
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/What_is_heart_pine.html
http://www.appalachianwoods.com/lumber/heart_pine_lumber.htm

unpretentiously as possible, Kirby

_________________
"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...