Wood identification help please!

[Joints]

Hi all,

Just found this railway sleeper and gave it a quick plain down today with the help of a friend.

Beautiful heady aroma of diesel nd parafin!

I was expecting to find oak under that red and white paint but was suprised to see something quite different.

Its got the colour of some types of rosewood, deep amber-brown colour with a hint of purple. The grain is interlocking like sapele and it does have the general look of that but the colour is quite different and when oiled it looks fantastic.

Could the colour be to do with the years of work and rubbish it was soaked in?

Anyway the question is what timber is this, is it worth keeping as there are another 5 sleepers and if it is, could it be planked up nd left to try to make something with.

Would make a beautiful bed. Here are the pic's

PS Only the first pic comes close to showing the true colour of it. It is a much darker red colour IRL.

Thanks

 

[wizer]

Those last 2 pics look just like what I've just been using for my bath panel. I used a wood called Yellow Balau which was sold to me as decking wood. I'll get a pic tomorrow to compare.

 

[LocalOak]

If you look here http://www.uksleepers.co.uk/product-cat ... imed_(used)_Railway_Sleepers you can see a variety of tropical hardwoods that have been used for sleepers. Its not an answer I'm afraid but it might help you track it down.

 

[MikeG.]

I reckon there is a chance that this is jarrah. If so, you have struck lucky!

How hard is the timber? Could you nail a 25mm pin into it, for instance? If that is a struggle, it increases the chance that it is jarrah. Could you rub some oil or white spirit on a section and post a photo.....that might give a better idea? If it is jarrah, there will be a reddy-orange hint.

Mike

PS If it is jarrah, here is a bit of inspiration:

http://www.jarabosky.co.uk/content/view/65/123/

I've just picked this page out at random......there are dozens of others.

 

[OPJ]

Hi George,

Don't listen to wizer; he thinks everything looks like yellow balau!! :roll: (Only joking, Tom! :wink

Before you consider resawing or having any of this resawing in to planks, give it a very thorough going over to check for odd bits of metal that may have become embedded over the years - some sleepers will have had lump stuck in to the end grain, to hold it all together as you wood expands/contracts. You're bound to encounter a lot of internal stress on something this thick. Not perhaps as bad as green oak but, at that thickness, I wouldn't expect to ever really dry out on the inside!

Azobe is another suggestion; I've seen several firms locally selling sleepers made from that (...generally 2.2m long x 10"x5", IIRC! :wink. It's also quite red but I've only ever seen it with a sawn finish.

 

[wizer]

Hi George,

Don't listen to wizer; he thinks everything looks like yellow balau!! :roll: (Only joking, Tom! :wink

:shock: :shock:

This board has been sanded and a couple of coats of osmo. But it started out like the ones above.

 

[johnbs]

Looking at the interlocked grain and colour, I'd hazard a guess at iroko....?

John

(oh, and of course, iroko is a very durable & tough timber: poor-man's teak)

 

[woodbloke]

The timber in the pics has clearly been subjected to a lot of exposure to the elements as well as possible immersion in preservatives so it's almost impossible IMO to give an accurate, or even remotely close to accurate stab at what it might be. The only way you can accurately determine the species is by a botanical analysis of the leaf/twig structure and/or a slice from the end grain for expert microscopic examination...anything else is just straws in the wind.
Don't forget that there are 30-40,000 different species of timber on the planet that we know of...the cynic in me says it's balsa, but who really knows? - Rob

 

[Joints]

Thanks guys!

It does have similar crack pattern as yours wizer but like Mike said it is extremely dense and when we oiled/spat on it it was very red in colour.

I rammed a moisture meter into it and barely got a mm into it!

I will have another look at it tomorrow possibly and take more photos.

Olly, always the wise one! I gave it a thorough check and went over it with a metal detector at it came up blank but your right, still have to be very carefull. It was incredibly heavy and its a lot of weight on that planer for it to hit a hidden bolt or pin.

My car still looks a bit wonky!

 

[MikeG.]

.....it is extremely dense and when we oiled/spat on it it was very red in colour.

I rammed a moisture meter into it and barely got a mm into it! It was incredibly heavy

I'm sticking with jarrah!

Mike