# help me identify this exotic wood



## Trenton Ramey (Feb 12, 2018)

I bought this wood from woodcraft of Birmingham off a scrap pallet and don't know what it is and I'd like to know if it is food safe. It's dark brown and not super hard it is a little Poress and smells a little when being cut or machined.

Reactions: Like 1


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## gman2431 (Feb 12, 2018)

Trenton I'm sure you will get lots of help but first you need to go back and read the rules here and post an intro about yourself .

Reactions: Agree 2


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## phinds (Feb 12, 2018)

@Trenton Ramey those are good face grain pics and my first guess is that it is a Shorea species (dozens of them are sold as Philippine mahogany or luan) but to be sure I need you to clean up the end grain a little better. I can't tell whether there is confluent parenchyma or just mashed grain from the cutting. If it IS strong confluent parenchyma then I'll have to revise the Shorea guess since they don't generally have that.


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## Trenton Ramey (Feb 12, 2018)

Here is a picture of the end grain after sanded too 15 grit and blown off with compressed air. It seems to have a bunch of tiny holes in the end grain.


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## phinds (Feb 12, 2018)

Yes, the "tiny holes" are called "pores". That means it's a hardwood. That pic is better and I assume you mean 150 grit not 15 grit. Still, it would be nice if you could get it cleaned up a bit more. Sorry to be so picky but wood anatomy gets very detailed. See the end grain pics on my site to see what I mean (BUT ... I do NOT expect you to get the kind of results I get. There's generally no need to go that far but I would like to see the rays, if they are visible)

Definitely doesn't look like Shorea even thought the face grain does.


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## Tony (Feb 12, 2018)

Trenton, as Cody said in the above post, you need to go to the Intro section and do a post there telling us a little about yourself before you post here or anywhere else again. Tony

Reactions: Agree 1


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## phinds (Feb 12, 2018)

Thanks Tony. I forgot that I should discontinue engagement until he's done the intro.

Reactions: Agree 1


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