Help identifying mystery wood.

A

Andy Johnston

Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
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Hey guys. When I went to Delbert's shop to learn some stuff he gave me some wood and most of them are labeled or he labeled them for me. One piece of wood neither of us could figure out. Hopefully one of you can figure out what it is. I put a little water on it so you could see the color and grain structure because, as you can tell by the dry portions, you cant see a lot when its dry. Thanks again guys.

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It's always hard to tell from just a photo but my best guess would be an oak burl. Sand on it and see what your nose tells you.

Gary
 
Yea, I'm gonna agree with Gary and say Oak burl, or possibly even Myrtlewood.

Just fyi- Myrtlewood grows in the Oregon and Northern California coast... it's a pretty wood, but it's got a very open grain and is very lightweight (about like Cottonwood!) so it's worthless as a handle material if not stabilized.

But I'm leaning toward Oak burl anyway. ;) :)
 
I won't swear to it, but that looks almost exactly like some spalted red oak burl I have in the garage. Tip: if you happen to own a bandsaw or tablesaw of some sort, check and then double check the blade tracking before cutting any test blocks from it - that is if you plan to. I didn't and there was a lot of waste wood trying to get even planes on a couple of blocks. Learned my lesson shortly and left it alone before I ruined any more than a small chunck of it.
 
I too thought oak from the start. Myrtle is a different grain structure esp the burl. The swirl black flecks give this one away IMHO.
 
Thanks guys! I've worked with a lot of wood before, but never really knew all the names or how to identify them. My grandpa was always on top of that.
 
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