What wood have I just acquired?

[Doris]

So have been offered tons of this stuff for exchange for a few carvings by a chap who was clearing out his sisters property. It was originally her husbands wood and has been sat in his shed for 14 years.

I was told that most of this was mahogany but some of it looks more like sapele but their are other bits that are much heavier but the same size and colour.

Some pictures I've attached to this thread.

Cheers

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

its a little difficult to tell from the pics (no end grain) but its clearly a dark exotic. If it's mahogany then BRILLIANT. If it's Sapele then not half bad so either way its good stuff and can be used in dozens of projects.

 

[Rhossydd]

The lighter timber looks exactly like the Brazilian Mahogany I used to build a bed from 30 years ago, I've still got a few off cuts left in the workshop.

 

[No skills]

Ohh nice, any better pictures?

 

[Doris]

I shall get some pictures tomorrow.

 

[Doris]

Some pictures of the end grain now I've managed to find a place to store it all. Hope it helps.

 

[Doris]

No one?

 

[custard]

Doris, when someone asked for a photo of the end grain I guess they wanted a super enlarged photo of a clean section of end grain. The way the real experts identify timber is by examining a sliver of end grain under powerful magnification, they're looking for evidence like "semi-diffuse ring porous". Have read of this if you're interested,

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/wp-co ... _Guide.pdf

In any event, identifying wood from an internet photo is just a random guessing game. Enjoy your good fortune in acquiring some decent if mysterious hardwood, and don't sweat too much over identifying it! It might be the fabled Cuban Mahogany, it could be some perfectly decent Honduran Mahogany, or maybe it's an economical African equivalent. In any event it'll serve you well, and unless you're in the business of restoring antique furniture treasures for the V&A Museum you don't need to know much more than that!