Wood identification

[Dr Al]

A few months ago I acquired some blocks of unknown wood, found when clearing out my late father-in-law's shed. They didn't look very inspiring and had obviously been coated in something dark and oily. I nearly chucked them out, but they felt too heavy to be pine so I brought them back and dumped them in my shed.

Finally got round to getting them out and planed the top off one of them. Really nice looking wood, but I don't know what it is. Can you help?

Two of the blocks with the slightly oily coating:

Planed off one surface (with some known woods for colour reference):

Close-up:

I can take more photos if it's helpful.

 

[adidat]

Looks like greenheart what they build lock gates and costal defences from. Very tough and I belive gritty so will wear edges off tools very quickly

Adidat

 

[Steliz]

From the colour it looks like some kind of Mahogany.

 

[okeydokey]

Looks Greenheart to me, I have some offcuts from when they were rebuilding some groynes on the South Coast, they've been outside for years under a tree - solid. I picked them up for turning but was advised the dust is an irritant so there they are.

 

[Cabinetman]

Looks like Brown Oak to me.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If it's greenheart it'll sink in water.

 

[Fitzroy]

That grubby coating will likely have penetrated quite some, I’ve had similar and had to plane quite a way to get to fresh wood. With a light pass the wood may still be darker than usual.

F.

 

[Trevanion]

As people have already said, it looks a lot like Greenheart which has been used for various things over the years in this country as @adidat said, sea defenses are a very common use as well as railway sleepers which these looks similar too as they look to be coated with something like creosote.

If it is indeed creosote coated be careful with it, it's particularly bad for your health.

Also, as @Phil Pascoe said, its one of the few timbers that sinks in water, it is also a timber which splinters will go almost instantaneously septic. It's very hard though, and very tough going on the tools. I've got a mallet somewhere that I made with a Greenheart head.

 

[Dr Al]

Thanks all. I'll take my wood book out tomorrow and compare the greenheart photos with it. The water sinking thing is a good tip as it's an easy test to do.