Need help identifying antique wood.

[NOSPAMxxxxEd]

I bought some heavy old wood that was thickly coated in lime. I thought the
wood was heavy because it was wet. After letting the wood dry out a bit for a
month or two I took a wire brush and cleaned off the debris before it touched a
jointer or planer.

I was expecting pine and when the wood revealed itself, at first I thought it
was oak but it's not.

Here are the characteristics:

At 12% moisture, it's heavy. a 30" board, 5 1/2" wide by 1 1/2" thick weighs 5
pounds.

The growth rings are about 1 per 1/16".

The end pores are tightly closed, not at all like oak or chestnut.

The quartersawn wood has numerous small rays, not like oak.

The wood surface has many tiny dark elongated flecks, hundreds/square inch.
You can't see them unless you look closely. They're uniformly distributed
across the wood.

The grain isn't dramatic like oak or bland like poplar.

Some kind of burrowing bug have left numerous holes in the wood.

I don't *have* to know what type of wood it is, but I'm really curious.

Ed

[Russ Ramirez]

Sounds like Elm Ed.

Russ Ramirez

NOSPAMxxxxEd <nospam...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20000606072958...@ng-fc1.aol.com...

[stkb...@my-deja.com]

Ed,
Give us 2 more hints: Color and is it hard or soft...
Mark
http://www.sawdustsales.com Home of the monthly woodworking giveaway!!
http://www.tablesawguards.com

In article <20000606072958...@ng-fc1.aol.com>,

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[stkb...@my-deja.com]

Ed,
Give us 2 more hints: Color and is it hard or soft...I'm guessing white
oak for now...

[NOSPAMxxxxEd]

>Subject: Re: Need help identifying antique wood.
>From: stkb...@my-deja.com
>Date: 06/06/2000 9:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <8hk9p7$16s$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>

>
>Ed,
>Give us 2 more hints: Color and is it hard or soft...I'm guessing white
>oak for now...

Wood is very hard. The color is gray -light brown. No dramatic color
variations like sapwood in cherry or maple. I'm guessing the gray is due to
age and exposure to water. This color is deep into the wood as the wood was
planed down from 2" to 1 1/4" to eliminate the twists.

[CALA woodshop]

are the rays readily visible

Maybe sycamore?

--
****************************************************
Kevin J. Groenke University of Minnesota
Operations Manager College of Architecture and
CALA Woodshop Landscape Architecture
arch...@tc.umn.edu 89 Church Street Southeast
Minneapolis MN 55455

http://www.cala.umn.edu/woodshop/main.html
****************************************************

[NOSPAMxxxxEd]

>Subject: Re: Need help identifying antique wood.

>From: CALA woodshop arch...@tc.umn.edu
>Date: 06/07/2000 7:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <393ED620...@tc.umn.edu>
>
>are the rays readily visible?

Yes, but not nearly as dramatic as oak.

>
>Maybe sycamore?
>

Needless to say, I haven't seen sycamore or elm in Home Depot lately so it's
difficult to make a visual comparison.

[Owen Lowe *bogus email-do a net search]

Go to <http://www.forestworld.com/wow/wowonline_home.html> this is the
Woods of the World (wow) online website for all kinds of descriptions and
pictures of wood species. I find it a little cumbersome to use, but if you
search for the possibilities suggested you may be able to identify what
you have by the pics.

In article <20000608073216...@ng-fc1.aol.com>,
nospam...@aol.com (NOSPAMxxxxEd) wrote:

--
*My posts relate my experiences and personal opinions only;
they are not intended to be taken as expert advice.