Wood Identification

[Jongwe]

I am at work, but I will look out the book I use when I finish.
I am not a health and safety nut, but I remain horrified when I see professional tradesmen without ear defenders, facemasks, hard hats, etc., where appropriate.

Thanks - no hurry.

No excuse really is there just to take a few precautions? My HSE manager is a good chap and always helps with advice on what gear to get.

 

[Bedrock]

"Wood Identification &Use" by Terry Porter - GMC Books.

It should be self-interest, but talking to a joiner last week working nearby with a piece of Iroko, he had no idea of the risks.

 

[Jongwe]

"Wood Identification &Use" by Terry Porter - GMC Books.

It should be self-interest, but talking to a joiner last week working nearby with a piece of Iroko, he had no idea of the risks.

Thanks.

Been a busy week, so still haven't got round to giving the wood a sniff...

 

[Ttrees]

I only notice a peppery smell on entering the workshop as its full of iroko, but can't smell it from working with it.
Not sawdust, shavings, nor shavings from the shooting board.
Compared to sapele which has what I think smells like carrots and parsnips.

Had a look again at Keruing, Bob over there at the wood haven 2 had some issues with resin from it, and it looks to have longer pore lines which does not look evident from the pics.

Are you sure that piece you turned is not a piece of iroko, and the rest is not?
I would plane another face or two of some of the other stock you have, maybe try finding a lighter coloured stock
if your thinking it's iroko.
Not many timbers that shade, maybe the odd red meranti piece which is way softer than iroko
or utile piece comes close.

Distinerior, that looks possibly like it could be Idigbo.
I have a few doors of it and that's what I presume it is.


Tom

 

[Jonathan S]

Looks like Sipo to me.
I believe in the uk you refer to it as Utile
Trying to identify some timbers from a data base can be difficult as one variety can have many different appearances.

Jonathan

Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk

 

[woodbloke66]

I believe in the uk you refer to it as Utile
Trying to identify some timbers from a data base can be difficult as one variety can have many different appearances.

Jonathan

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I'd agree, but it might not be. This is the problem with trying to identify this type of wood as there are literally dozens, possibly hundreds that look very similar. It appears to be a brown, mahoganyish sort of wood so it could be Utile, or Sapele, or African Mahogany, or Honduras Mahogany or Iroko etc etc or any one of dozens of different timbers that all look much the same. There are only two sure fire ways of identifying a timber species, the first is an expert analysis of an end grain slice and the second is a botanical analysis of the tree itself - Rob

 

[That would work]

Try cutting some of it, when freshly cut iroko can be quite pale... expose it to bright sunlight and it you can almost watch it darken. Another way of knowing if it's iroko is when you sand it any inilation will feel like a punch in the chest.
Just looked at the photos.... it's too red for iroko and the sap is too pronounced. The four pictures look a lot like utile.

 

[Jongwe]

Thanks everyone - still not managed to get into my little workshop to have a sniff. I'll try getting some pics with a pit planed or cut, but I did notice when I cut the corners off to make a piece octagonal that the wood is a different colour. Will try get some pics this week.

 

[Jongwe]

Here's a piece that I cut down the middle.

As for the peppery scent, I wouldn't say it is However my sense of smell is a bit rubbish, so will someone else to have a sniff.

 

[Ttrees]

Looks like sipo to me also from these pictures.
Judging from the fleck, as I've never seen anything similar to that in iroko, or meranti.
The small amount of sipo I have is bit harder than the meranti, but a good bit softer than the iroko.

Tom

 

[Trevanion]

I would still say the first piece is Iroko, but the other pieces shown are definitely Utile (Also called Sipo).

 

[Ttrees]

I wonder what else is there in the timber pile?
Any folks taking a shot at what species Distinerior's cabinet is made from?

I love these threads

 

[Trevanion]

Any folks taking a shot at what species Distinerior's cabinet is made from?

Well it's hard to see from the photo but it looks like Sapele to me, quartersawn Sapele is quite unique in figure and it looks a bit like that.

 

[Jonathan S]

It looks the same as the Sipo I get in Spain, don't know there it originated from but it super stable, lovely to work with...where is the sapeli I get hold of is probably one of the most unstable timbers.

Jonathan

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[That would work]

Im going to say, looking at the last photo that it could be red seraya. Think about the timber that many 'hardwood' doors and window frames are made from. (which I'm pretty sure is also meranti!)

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Here's a piece that I cut down the middle.

Based on your subsequent images, it's certainly not what I tentatively speculated might be red palm, a possibility I came to because of the appearance of your first images of the light pulls.

Based on subsequent images you've posted, I can only say I've no idea what the species might be, apart from, as others have noted, it's something vaguely 'mahoganyish' in appearance, which provides a multitude of possibilities. Generally, it's quite commonly impossible to precisely name a wood species from a few low resolution photographs posted on the internet, and I'd say all the suggestions you've been given by others are as close as you'll get to an accurate identification, i.e., they're all just a reasonable guess, so I suppose you can take your pick.

When it comes to the difficulty of identifying wood species I have in the past put a few small pieces of oak (mostly offcuts) on the bench in front of people who were positive they could differentiate via a superficial inspection between any of the American white oaks available, and the European oaks that can be purchased. In these, admittedly not especially scientifically constructed experiments, no-one that I can recall has ever been able to get much more than about half right, which I suspect is about as good as guessing the general oak type for each sample on a random basis (e.g., toss a coin to decide if a particular sample is one of the American whites or one of the European types), ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[Jongwe]

Thanks everyone. From looking into most of the suggestions, it certainly looks like it is some form of African hardwood, so I'll probably just go with that.

Thanks for all your input.