What wood is this?

[Andy Kev.]

Above a bit of a piece of wood I recently got from the timber yard just to see what it is like. Can you guess what it is?

It planes readily to a marble like finish and of course the picture doesn't do it any justice at all. The general colour effect is reddish-purplish. It really is remarkably beautiful. The bottom left of the piece has a bit of sapwood and the very dark bit seems to be linked to the heart of the branch which is just out of the cross section of the piece.

 

[thetyreman]

it's hard to tell because the lens has focused on the shavings not the wood grain, can you not take another photo?

 

[AndyT]

I'll guess at plum, or maybe pear, but could you get your camera to focus on the wood, not the shavings?

 

[Andy Kev.]

I'll guess at plum, or maybe pear, but could you get your camera to focus on the wood, not the shavings?

That didn't take very long!

Yes, it's plum. The boards are not very big - about 4´long - but it's so gorgeous I met get a couple more possibly with a view to building e.g. a wall clock some time in the future.

As for the photography ... suffice it to say digital cameras are not my thing. I focussed on the LH edge of the piece or at least I thought I had. Mind you, well focussed shavings have an artistic appeal all of their own. :lol: I might have another go when the if there's better lighting tomorrow.

 

[AndyT]

It's more fun when someone knows the answer!
It was a guess though. Get the rest while it's still there!

 

[thetyreman]

I was going to suggest pear wood, it looks like one of the pear, apple or plum type woods, a fruity wood

 

[Woody2Shoes]

It is stunningly beautiful - but sadly the pink shades mellow down to brown over time.

Other prunus species have a similar colouring e.g. blackthorn.

It has a very nice texture too, doesn't it?

Looking forward to seeing what you make out of it. Cheers, W2S

 

[custard]

Interesting, you commonly find a very similar brown staining with Swiss Pear.

Like Yew, Pear seems to be a timber that's afflicted by bark inclusions, and the stains are normally in the area of an inclusion.

If I lived in Germany like you I'd be using a lot more Pear. Pear is not really a commercial timber, but because it has such a long history of being planted as a road side tree in central European cities, supplies are far better where you live than here in the UK. I believe there are actually two completely different tree species that are sold as Pear, but once converted to sawn boards they're virtually indistinguishable so for all practical purposes it makes no difference.

Pear (and I guess also Plum), share that ultra fine grain structure that makes it so appealing, here's Pear next to Oak which illustrates that,

The big advantage of Pear over Plum is that you can find Pear in quite wide boards, where as with Plum you're generally limited to small stuff.

For UK woodworkers a good substitute for Pear is American Cherry, here's some figured Pear on the left and some Curly Cherry on the right (actually some Cherry cabinet legs that I'm working on at the moment),

Cherry doesn't have quite the same ultra fine grain as Pear, and until it oxidises after a few years it tends more towards orange rather than pink, but supplies of American Cherry are abundant and relatively cheap. Here in the UK I'll get Cherry for £60-70 a cubic foot where as good quality Pear can be double that and supplies are pretty unreliable.

 

[thetyreman]

according to a book of mine, it's also ultra stable as well, and it is good for carving

 

[AndyT]

Pear wood was the wood of choice for making french curves - I have one small one and the wood is only about 1mm thick, but it has stayed that way for a century or so. There's a nice one in Bluekingfsher's tenon saw rehab thread - click here for just the relevant picture.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Pear may be stable when it's seasoned, but it moves more than anything else I've encountered as it dries !

pear-bowl-wood-movement-t93972.html

I quite like the wild plum we get occasionally at Wimpole for turning bracelets / bangles. But as already mentioned, it is rare to get bits with enough heartwood.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Ref. Custard's point about pear: the timber yard I go to usually has pear and it is usually steamed (is that the correct term?) pear, principally as a counter to the movement possibilities mentioned by Sheffield Tony. This was only mentioned in passing while having a chat about a year ago. I intend to go to the yard again tomorrow if I can find the time in order to get some more plum, now that I know how nice it is, so I'll ask in more detail about pear.

The plum's not cheap. One board, about 4´ x 5" x 1" comes in at about 20 quid. I might bite the bullet and get four or five boards. As I said above, I imagine it would be ideal for making e.g. a wall clock or perhaps a large-ish box.

If the pear's significantly cheaper, I might have a look at that too.


Edit: I was at the timber yard yesterday and the lad confirmed that pear is indeed served steamed. This is supposed to make it stable. Does pear in the UK get steamed as well? Pear is also available in much bigger boards than plum. I was shown one piece (admittedly an exceptional one) which was about 8´ high and 18" wide. The plum they have is available in two thicknesses: about 1 1/4" and just over 2". Max length is about 5' and max width about 8" with the vast majority being in the 4 - 6" range. The lad said that they get plum much less often than pear and it is about 20% more expensive than pear.

I recall seeing "wild" plum trees growing by the side of the roads in Republica Serbska a few years back and none of them were particularly big. This does of course explain why none of the boards on offer are big. I had a good root through the stack and noticed that where the heart of the branch runs through the board there can be a tremendous amount of splitting, presumably because it doesn't take to drying out too well. Boards which are not so afflicted plane beautifully as already mentioned.