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Can you help ID this wood, please? http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=29292 |
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Author: | Mike Baker [ Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:05 pm ] |
Post subject: | Can you help ID this wood, please? |
I built the neck for my first guitar out of this. My mother in law gave it to me, telling me it was walnut. Since she worked in antiques for a long time I took her word for it. But building the neck with it, working it, and looking at it, I don't believe it is. It is a hardwood. It has fairly large pores, and it works pretty well. It is also very stiff. The color, at least on my monitor, is accurate. The pics below are the neck blank I made up from the last of it. It is several pieces laminated together, because it was flatsawn, and I wanted it as quartered as I could get, so I cut it into strips, flipped it 90 degrees, and laminated it. It makes IMHO an excellent neck. Very stiff and stable. The blank you see is for my next build. I know IDing wood from pictures, especially bad ones like these, can be dicey at best. But your best guess? Any help would be appreciated. Attachment: DCFC0037.JPG Attachment: DCFC0036.JPG
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Author: | bluescreek [ Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:54 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
looks more like oak to me |
Author: | Mark Groza [ Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:55 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Hard to tell from pictures. Looks like Red Oak to me. |
Author: | jonsse [ Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:05 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Ash ? |
Author: | Alexandru Marian [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:18 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Looks like oak to me too. I don't know about American oaks, but the Euro variety has a noticeable sour smell when worked. |
Author: | Tom West [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 4:22 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
My impression was oak also. Lots of furniture made from oak,and since your mother in law worked in antiques.......??? Tom |
Author: | Mike Baker [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:38 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Thanks, guys. A lot of you mentioned oak. My impression is that oak is really hard wood. Hard to work, hard on saws and cutting tools, and hard to file. But I could be wrong about that. This wood, though a hardwood, and stiff, works relatively easily. It files beautifully. It's also really light weight. No smell when worked that I noticed(other than, lol, a woody smell). Could this still be oak? The reasons I'd like to identify it fairly positively are that, firstly, I'd just like to know what to tell folk it is when they ask, but also, I'm new to this. It's my understanding that the way we learn about woods has a great deal to do with working it. I'm sure I'd recognize this if I came across it again. It'd be a shame to waste all that I've learned about it for lack of knowing what it is. But I also know that posting pics of wood and saying "name this wood" isn't the most difinitive way of getting that answer. I know it's really hard to do this from pics. Thanks for all your help. It's appreciated. |
Author: | Tom West [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:17 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Mike: Maybe if you tried to take closer pictures....?? Tom |
Author: | Mike Baker [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:30 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
westca wrote: Mike: Maybe if you tried to take closer pictures....?? Tom I tried, but I have really crappy pocket sized digital camera, and it won't focus well enough to get a good, close in pic. |
Author: | Steve Walden [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 4:33 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Mike - If your camera is a higher resolution, say 5 or more megapixels, you could just crop the picture and resize it. It then might give enough of the closeness to see the grain pattern and color. Good luck! |
Author: | windsurfer [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 4:48 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Alexandru Marian wrote: Looks like oak to me too. I don't know about American oaks, but the Euro variety has a noticeable sour smell when worked. American Oaks smell pretty bad, too. -jd |
Author: | Mike Baker [ Fri Oct 01, 2010 6:32 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Thanks, Steve, I'll try that. Here it is, best I can do. Probably not good enough. ![]() Thanks everyone for your help. At this point, since I cannot get a pic with clear enough resolution to do any good, I'd ask you to stop. I'm wasting my time and yours, too. I'll just use it, since I know it to be a good neck wood. Perhaps later on in my journey into luthiery I'll find out what it is. Again, thanks to all of your for your patience and help. |
Author: | peters instruments [ Sat Oct 02, 2010 1:12 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
well it is hard to tell from the pictures, but if you were told that it was walnut and its works fairly easily its quite possible that its butternut. ive heard butternut refered to as white walnut they have an almost identical grain pattern, but the butternut is obviously much lighter in color. from what i can see in the pictures it looks like oak to me, but if it doenst work like oak then butternut may be a possibility. |
Author: | Mark Groza [ Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:29 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Mike, You can do a test to see if it is red oak by blowing smoke into the endgrain to see if it comes out the other end. If it does, then it is red oak. Hope this helps. |
Author: | Mike Baker [ Sat Oct 02, 2010 11:28 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Thanks, Shad. I've been really thinking that it might be butternut, from all that I've read about it. But I've never seen or worked it either, so am not sure. I do, however, really think that it is not red oak. Everything I've read or heard about oak screams at me that this is not oak. It's too light, it saws and files too easily, etc. I've also seen the red oak at places like Lowes, and though the grain is really similar, the color is off. There is much more of a reddish hue to the oak. This stuff has a duller, almost pecan colored hue to it. Mark, thank you for the tip, but I don't smoke, and would have no idea how to blow smoke through the pores without inhaling it first myself. But that info is good to know. |
Author: | Mark Groza [ Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:53 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Since you don't smoke Mike, You can still test it by putting it in water and blowing on one end. If it is oak, you will see bubbles. You don't have to drink the water to do this test or inhale smoke to do the other test. ![]() |
Author: | Mike Baker [ Sat Oct 02, 2010 4:42 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Mark Groza wrote: Since you don't smoke Mike, You can still test it by putting it in water and blowing on one end. If it is oak, you will see bubbles. You don't have to drink the water to do this test or inhale smoke to do the other test. ![]() Cool. The water test sounds interesting. But I'm near positive it's not oak. |
Author: | cphanna [ Mon Oct 04, 2010 6:56 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
If you have a sense of smell, and if it is, indeed oak of any variety, you would smell it when you but, scrape, plane, sand, etc. Furthermore, oak tends to be heavy, and also springy. I know many people will insist that it is stiff, but oak is VERY springy. Hey, ship timbers are bent from this stuff! Beyond that, I'm sorry to say I can't help you. |
Author: | treadwm [ Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:05 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
I was looking at a piece of butternut. Its a pretty good match colorwise but does not have the strong grain lines of your sample. It of course cuts and machines just like walnut. |
Author: | Tim Mullin [ Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:15 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Mike Baker wrote: Mark Groza wrote: Since you don't smoke Mike, You can still test it by putting it in water and blowing on one end. If it is oak, you will see bubbles. You don't have to drink the water to do this test or inhale smoke to do the other test. ![]() Cool. The water test sounds interesting. But I'm near positive it's not oak. The "water test" will not work for all species of oak. Oak (ash, hickory, elm) are known as a "ring porous" wood -- meaning if you look at the end grain, each growth ring starts with a band of large, open vessels, and switches over to small fine vessels for the later part. Pretty easy to see. Whereas walnuit (butternut, maple, mahogany) are known as "diffuse porous woods", having more-or-less even-sized, smallish vessels across the entire growth ring and no obvious "ring" of large, open vessels. Doesn't identify your wood, but allows to rule out oak pretty easily. |
Author: | Mike Baker [ Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:56 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Tim Mullin wrote: Mike Baker wrote: Mark Groza wrote: Since you don't smoke Mike, You can still test it by putting it in water and blowing on one end. If it is oak, you will see bubbles. You don't have to drink the water to do this test or inhale smoke to do the other test. ![]() Cool. The water test sounds interesting. But I'm near positive it's not oak. The "water test" will not work for all species of oak. Oak (ash, hickory, elm) are known as a "ring porous" wood -- meaning if you look at the end grain, each growth ring starts with a band of large, open vessels, and switches over to small fine vessels for the later part. Pretty easy to see. Whereas walnuit (butternut, maple, mahogany) are known as "diffuse porous woods", having more-or-less even-sized, smallish vessels across the entire growth ring and no obvious "ring" of large, open vessels. Doesn't identify your wood, but allows to rule out oak pretty easily. Here are some shots of the end grain, as best I could get them. ![]() ![]() ![]() If I understand what you're saying, this looks like ring-porous wood to me. To me, it works too well, weighs too little, to be oak. But it does look like that is what it is. Thanks, all. |
Author: | John Arnold [ Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:27 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Oak has very large rays that are distinctive, and quite visible on quartered surfaces. Absent the oak-like rays, add the workability and ring-porous structure, and I would vote for woods like catalpa, swamp ash, ailanthus (tree-of-heaven) or sassafras....just to name a few. Sassafras does have a distinctive odor (root beer), so it should be easy to confirm or eliminate. Butternut is very soft and weak. If it is antique wood, chestnut is another possibility. |
Author: | Mike Baker [ Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:46 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
It is most definately antique. Never thought of chestnut, but that is indeed a possbility. And thanks to the info and pics on this site http://web.utk.edu/~mtaylo29/pages/Identifying%20Chestnut.htm I really believe that this is what I have here. Thank you, John, and the rest of you for your help, indulgence, and patience. |
Author: | Corky Long [ Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:10 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
I've got some old chestnut from door frames, etc. that has a similar look to it. If it's lighter than oak, that may be what you've got. |
Author: | tomthiel [ Tue Oct 05, 2010 8:33 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Can you help ID this wood, please? |
Chestnut is a very good idea. I suggest making a habit of tasting wood, in the privacy of your own studio. Oaks are acidic, etc. Chestnut tastes / smells somewhat sharp and musty. You can compare your sample to the underside of an antique table, etc. and learn as you go. By the way, Chestnut makes an excellent neck. Tom Thiel |
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