Help with wood identification.

msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

I love designing and putting woodworking projects together but wood identification is not one of my strength. Have read tons about wood ID online but with little success. Recently, I got bunch of wood/scrap from a cabinet shop that was closing down and please help me figure out what species these are. I will post pictures below (total of 13) with some of my observations.

thank you,
msakaki

msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

Images are fairly too large and may require scrolling but wanted to make sure all the details would be visible.

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msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

The center darker wood has Sapele written on the side - actually, only the top two have sapele written on them.

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Dave Paine · Jun 9, 2013

Looks like a mahogany species. The best pictures for wood identification are magnified end grain.

Take a look at Phind's excellent site. Need to start with a species name. This has the best collection of wood pictures I have seen to date.

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/#letterM

FYI, those images are too large. People are going to have a difficult time viewing, especially on the phones, the site software buttons are too far to the right.

msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

To the right of the sapele (darker center piece in the pictures above) is a wood with very characteristic grain reflection. color changes dramatically as you look from various angles and these pictures do not do justice. Also, the top piece from the same column is probably different since it does not share the same grain reflection pattern.

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msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

In general, there should be some mohagony, cherry, and others.

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msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

I also got some walnut but not all pieces look like walnut. Do they all look like a walnut?

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msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

I know these images are very difficult to navigate due to their size but it will be great if you can reference the image number (written before each picture) in your response. Thanks again.

tc65 · Jun 9, 2013

If you don't re-size them, I'm not sure anyone will bother to look at them. It's a major PITA and takes forever for them to load!

cabinetman · Jun 9, 2013

trc65 said:
If you don't re-size them, I'm not sure anyone will bother to look at them. It's a major PITA and takes forever for them to load!

+1. :yes: Your images are too large. They are 3264 px wide. You need to resize them to 800 px or less.

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Dave Paine · Jun 9, 2013

Adding more pictures which are too large is not helping you get responses.

The large images are not necessary. 600 - 800 pixels wide is sufficient.

Having the scroll to the right is a major PITA for many folks.

Dominick · Jun 9, 2013

They look fine on my iPhone, but unsure of the species.

msakaki · Jun 9, 2013

Just re-sized them to 800 pix. yes, it is much easier to look at it now.

Dave Paine · Jun 10, 2013

Thanks, much easier to load and review.

I see some mahogany, some walnut, not much cherry, likely some "others".

If you have a board marked sapele, or want to confirm a species, just use Phind's site I linked earlier.

Sapele is in the same family as mahogany.

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/#letterM

So why do you need to ID each piece?

msakaki · Jun 10, 2013

Hi Dave, thanks for the link.

I will be making little things from each and would like to learn what I am working with. Plus, some of these pieces are truly beautiful and would not know what to look for if I wanted to buy more.

Dave Paine · Jun 10, 2013

msakaki said:
I will be making little things from each and would like to learn what I am working with. Plus, some of these pieces are truly beautiful and would not know what to look for if I wanted to buy more.

I can understand the desire to be able to purchase additional supplies.

I purchase turning blanks from Woodcraft, and some are labelled "WOOD 7", which can be anything. Some of these are very nice and I wish I knew the species so I could get additional supplies.

Mahogany covers many species, reminds me of "soft maple" which can be 1 of 5 species.

Many places will just label "mahogany" and not the sub-species. I purchased some mahogany at a local lumber yard, long since out of business. No hint of the sub-species, but the wood looks similar to some of your boards such as in image 7, 8 and 9.

The strips are the grain coming out of the board. Nice grain pattern, but it will tear when planed, so try to sand and not plane if possible.

This is a sidelight I made for my front door from this mahogany.

msakaki · Jun 10, 2013

Hi Dave,

It is somewhat reassuring that I am not the only one having difficulty with the identification and the overall classification schema is somewhat hazy - have to learn to better deal with uncertainty.

The mahogany sidelight looks great. I love how the glass compliments the pattern of the wood.

del schisler · Jun 10, 2013

Dave Paine said:
I can understand the desire to be able to purchase additional supplies.

I purchase turning blanks from Woodcraft, and some are labelled "WOOD 7", which can be anything. Some of these are very nice and I wish I knew the species so I could get additional supplies.

Mahogany covers many species, reminds me of "soft maple" which can be 1 of 5 species.

Many places will just label "mahogany" and not the sub-species. I purchased some mahogany at a local lumber yard, long since out of business. No hint of the sub-species, but the wood looks similar to some of your boards such as in image 7, 8 and 9.

The strips are the grain coming out of the board. Nice grain pattern, but it will tear when planed, so try to sand and not plane if possible.

This is a sidelight I made for my front door from this mahogany.

View attachment 73004

i belive the bottom board is ribbon sepele ? nice looking

Help with wood identification.

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