# pallet wood x



## lvstealth (May 14, 2017)

it has these markings. i cant quite make out the country code, it is C something. O maybe, Columbia, or U Cuba ( i doubt) or who knows. the other is spanish (at least the lote tera is)



 

the wood seems VERY heavy, and sands as though it were VERY hard. 


 

 

 

it is a pretty wood! 
Thank you! - Lisa


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## Mr. Peet (May 14, 2017)

CU, Cuba, 'Juncaro', also called 'Oxhorn bucida' or 'Black olive', _Bucida buceras_...

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## phinds (May 14, 2017)

Mr. Peet said:


> CU, Cuba, 'Juncaro', also called 'Oxhorn bucida' or 'Black olive', _Bucida buceras_...


Hm ... the end grain does look a bit like Bucida buceras but I've never see wavy face grain on that wood, have you?

Lisa, I think this is another one you'll have to send me a cutoff of. That's a really good end grain shot but it's confusing me a bit. What's the scale on that?

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## lvstealth (May 14, 2017)

A little less than an inch. I think... Lol. I will start marking that.

There is a whole pallet of this wood. Very heavy!


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## Mr. Peet (May 15, 2017)

phinds said:


> Hm ... the end grain does look a bit like Bucida buceras but I've never see wavy face grain on that wood, have you?
> 
> Lisa, I think this is another one you'll have to send me a cutoff of. That's a really good end grain shot but it's confusing me a bit. What's the scale on that?



I could be off...as for wavy grain, you had some curly just a few months ago. Yes, a piece in hand does help a lot.

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## phinds (May 15, 2017)

Mr. Peet said:


> I could be off...as for wavy grain, you had some curly just a few months ago. Yes, a piece in hand does help a lot.


Yeah, but curly figure and wavy grain are not always simultaneous and one does not automatically imply the other so I'm not sure that count.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## lvstealth (May 15, 2017)

i am about to go harvest (hehe) some more boards from that pallet. it has more boards than most pallets and it is fighting me all the way. i dont like using a saw or anything, i try not to hurt the wood, and i like to use the stringers so i dont like cutting the nails off. that leaves LOTS of pounding and cursing as my goto disassembly method. i will try to get some more shots of other boards. cleaning them up and sanding them is hard too. it seems to just eat through my orbital sander papers. i may pull out the belt sander. - L

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## phinds (May 15, 2017)

lvstealth said:


> i am about to go harvest (hehe) some more boards from that pallet. it has more boards than most pallets and it is fighting me all the way. i dont like using a saw or anything, i try not to hurt the wood, and i like to use the stringers so i dont like cutting the nails off. that leaves LOTS of pounding and cursing as my goto disassembly method. i will try to get some more shots of other boards. cleaning them up and sanding them is hard too. it seems to just eat through my orbital sander papers. i may pull out the belt sander. - L


Boy howdy, you're a glutton for punishment. After the first time, many years ago, of trying to get a pallet apart in more or less whole planks, I've NEVER tried that again.

Belt sanding to take off the rough surface is a good idea when followed up by a ROS with a low grit (40/60/80 kind of thing) to get rid of the belt sander's scratches and then move up the grit scale w/ the ROS.

My serious processing starts off with anything from 40 to 100 grit, depending on the hardness of the wood and the quality of the saw cut, and then I move up slowly to 1200 but I could stop at 400 almost all the time, sometimes as low as 200, to get reliable wood ID. 1200 is really only necessary for things like distinguishing hickory from pecan. For you, today only, a special ... 299 grit

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## lvstealth (May 15, 2017)

I lose a plank or at least a part of one sometimes, but I've gotten lots better at it. 
I have 80 grit on the belt sander. Should I change that? Then on the ros I start with 110, 180, 220. Then I have the 400, but it is sheets. I use those because it's what I have, I inherited that from dad's old toolbox.
It is the hardest wood I've had. (Hehe, my mind needs a wipe!).
It is all very pretty, and mostly no splitting or weak parts.


 

 
lunch break! im not through yet, but here is the 2nd piece from that pallet. they all seem to be like this... well, under the crud and yuck.
i really like knocking off the yuck and finding something pretty! - L

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## lvstealth (May 15, 2017)

this is the end grain, not sanded much, but i will work on it!


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## Palaswood (May 15, 2017)

that last endgrain pic reminds me of what eucalyptus endgrain looks like

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## phinds (May 15, 2017)

Yep, eucalyptus is my thought as well, both on the end grain AND the face grain but I'll never be positive unless I can see the end grain better

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## lvstealth (May 15, 2017)

from what i see, the weight is wrong. it is MUCH heavier than red oak. i am going to guess half again as much. and eucalyptus is lighter according to what i see. it is the hardest wood i have worked with. 

i will send it to you when i get one more to send. this would be 2 now, so at 3... lol 

the op is a good end grain shot, it looks just like that. 

thanks! - L


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## phinds (May 15, 2017)

lvstealth said:


> from what i see, the weight is wrong. it is MUCH heavier than red oak. i am going to guess half again as much. and eucalyptus is lighter according to what i see. it is the hardest wood i have worked with.
> 
> i will send it to you when i get one more to send. this would be 2 now, so at 3... lol
> 
> ...


Lisa, my own database, nowhere near exhaustive, includes well over 700 species in the genus Eucalyptus. Some of them are very heavy including several that are among the heaviest and hardest woods known. Red oak doesn't hold a candle to them.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## lvstealth (May 15, 2017)

ahhh, i did not know that! but then again, i know very little! ok, what ever it is, it is heavy and it is hard. when i send it, you will know more.


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## lvstealth (May 15, 2017)

i was just thinking... do they have eucalyptus in Cuba?


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## phinds (May 15, 2017)

lvstealth said:


> i was just thinking... do they have eucalyptus in Cuba?


Well, mostly in the Australian part of Cuba.

EDIT: sorry, I can't help my frivolous nature sometimes. Eucalyptus grows in Florida and Cuba but is not native to either place.

I want to emphasize again to you, "eucalyptus" is a HUGE Genus. In Australia, saying that something is eucalyptus is approximately the same as saying that it is wood.

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## lvstealth (May 16, 2017)

I have been reading about it! Big small tall short bush giant... Wow! but it is not a real "forestry" tree in Cuba. 
The more I read about pallets from there, the more I think it should be pine! Lol. Here, just under 20% are pine and a fraction less oak. So 60+% are "other". There it doesn't have available stats, but they have pine and mahogany, and import most other. Till last summer people there could not buy wood... At all... None... 
I'm taking apart one from Mexico next, and I'll see what that is, then send them to you. 
I like your sense of humor!


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## Mr. Peet (May 16, 2017)

That other end grain did look to be a Euc....

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## lvstealth (May 16, 2017)

it was taken before i cleaned it at all, and with my cell phone... so not the best


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## Tony (May 16, 2017)

lvstealth said:


> it was taken before i cleaned it at all, and with my cell phone... so not the best

Reactions: Funny 1


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