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PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:54 am 
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First name: Peter
Last Name: Fenske
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I found these planks in my dad's garage! They're both something Brazilian. The darker one has a density of about 750 and the lighter one about 675. This could be out though as I don't have accurate scales. The darker one is vile to work with and the grain tears out no matter which way you plane it and it's extremely hard.There's still some patches on the photo where I haven't removed the finish.
I have a feeling the lighter one might be a softwood. It has lovely colours in the grain which the photo doesn't really bring out - red, purple and white streaking. Annoyingly, they both have holes drilled in them in just the wrong places - some creative inlay work will be needed I think!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k7acqeml5m6n7zw/100_2963.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntwvocrderaf2je/100_2964.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rnreryb73vphu98/100_2965.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sz6xgwlbi37l555/100_2966.JPG

I also found a big chunk of bubinga. Would this be a good material to make the bridge out of?

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:58 am 
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The dark one could be Jatoba, also called Brazilian Cherry.

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:43 am 
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They both look like cedar to me but since you say the red one is hard that rules that one out. The yellow one definitely looks like cedar though. I would think that rather than shoehorn these pieces into a project that's going to then require inlay work to hide their flaws you'd be better off getting some other wood. That's just my opinion though.


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:58 am 
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My guess wood be:

left - bubinga
right - cypress


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:30 am 
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Thanks for the answers. I'm not going to be using these in the near future, I just thought it was great finding big pieces of exotic wood for free! :D I think the darker one does look like jatoba - I have a piece of bubinga (I think) and it doesn't look the same. The lighter one feels quite heavy and relatively hard. It's definitely not wr cedar. It might not be a softwood at all.

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:02 am 
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Don't know what the wood is but the dark one looks like it just might make a fine looking guitar

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:07 pm 
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The dark one looks like Jatoba to me, too (which is very hard and with interlocking grain -> tearout).
The varied colors in the 3rd pic remind me of Canarywood, which also has the right density and origin, but I've not seen Canarywood quite as light as in the first 2 pics.

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