# Up for a challenge?



## m34 (Sep 28, 2012)

Hey Everyone! I have some wood that I picked up in CT at my wife's mother's house. The wood is from a giant tree that they had to cut down so it didn't fall on the house. Ashley (wife) insists it was a cherry tree she used to get cherries from, as a child. I dunno, it doesn't look like cherry to me - not red enough. Basically, this tree (which was HUGE) was cut up, all of the small stuff was taken away, and the large truck discs (3 feet in diameter, I would say) were rolled into the woods behind the house. They were probably there for a good 2 years? before I harvested one of the discs. 

Unfortunately, I have no leaves to use as a reference. I may have a piece of bark that I could snap a photo of, but in the meantime, here are some photos of a piece of scrap I cut off and then hand-planed down for fun. It is the worlds largest cup coaster I suppose. 

I did put danish oil on the wood to see how it would finish, don't know if that will help or hurt the process. 

Let me know if there is anything else I can say or look into to help? 

Good luck? 

Thanks so much!

[attachment=11263]
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[attachment=11266]


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## DKMD (Sep 28, 2012)

Does Ashley eat gum balls? It kinda reminds me of spalted sweet gum. I've never seen cherry spalted like that, but we don't get much cherry around here.


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## m34 (Sep 28, 2012)

I don't know if I've ever seen a spalted sweet gun, but this tree was ancient, so I can only assume it is something relatively native to Connecticut.


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## Mike1950 (Sep 28, 2012)

I have no clue- does not look like the spalted cherry I have- mine does not look that great. That looks great. I bet you could saw some onto turning blanks and sell or trade to some of the sucke...  err I mean turners here!!!!!


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## Kevin (Sep 28, 2012)

Sycamore.


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## Mike1950 (Sep 28, 2012)

Hey Damion I have one complaint- we need a much larger picture of avatar bowl or?? Looks nice.


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## m34 (Sep 28, 2012)

Mike1950 said:


> Hey Damion I have one complaint- we need a much larger picture of avatar bowl or?? Looks nice.



Just posted some pics on my "introduction post" so you can see there! 

Enjoy :D


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## m34 (Sep 28, 2012)

Joe Rebuild said:


> Looks like sweetgum to me too. Know matter what it is GO get the rest if it.



I am planning a field-trip to do just that. I just need to get a rental van or a 1-way uhaul or something that I can bring it all back in! My Rav4 is not the "truck" to lug all of that (unless I get a trailer hitch in a hurry)


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## Kevin (Sep 28, 2012)

The colors could definitely be SG, but I guessed syc because of the grain pattern in the lower half of the bottom picture. :i_dunno:

And of course SG drops "cherries" and sycamore doesn't so . . . .


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## NYWoodturner (Sep 28, 2012)

It does look like some of the wild cherry that grows around here. - I am about 60 miles from CT. The sap wood is the right color - the heart wood is the right color and I have have seen it spalt very similar to that. In fact I have two log sections i hope are spalting now. I wasnt planning on opening them up until spring - but now you have me curious...
Scott


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## m34 (Sep 28, 2012)

Kevin said:


> The colors could definitely be SG, but I guessed syc because of the grain pattern in the lower half of the bottom picture. :i_dunno:
> 
> And of course SG drops "cherries" and sycamore doesn't so . . . .



I am assuming SG is sweet gum? I see a lot of wood abbreviations that I am going to have to pick up in this site! 

I'll have to look into an enterprise rental truck...


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## Kevin (Sep 28, 2012)

m34 said:


> I am assuming SG is sweet gum?



Yep sorry about that. It's not an "official" abrv or anything it's just that some of us are lazy.


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## m34 (Sep 28, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> It does look like some of the wild cherry that grows around here. - I am about 60 miles from CT. The sap wood is the right color - the heart wood is the right color and I have have seen it spalt very similar to that. In fact I have two log sections i hope are spalting now. I wasnt planning on opening them up until spring - but now you have me curious...
> Scott



And now I am really curious about your cherry to see if it is close to mine! I wonder if really is the cherry tree Ashley grazed on as a child...


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## Brink (Sep 28, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> It does look like some of the wild cherry that grows around here. - I am about 60 miles from CT. The sap wood is the right color - the heart wood is the right color and I have have seen it spalt very similar to that. In fact I have two log sections i hope are spalting now. I wasnt planning on opening them up until spring - but now you have me curious...
> Scott



Scott, I'm right there with the cherry, too. 

But, it does look like some elm I just picked up.


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## m34 (Sep 30, 2012)

Here are some photos of the bark (the only patch of bark left that I could find). Maybe that will help with the wood diagnosis? 

[attachment=11392]
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## The_Architect_23 (Oct 1, 2012)

that kinda look like some beech i have.
nice find
:wacko1:


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## m34 (Oct 1, 2012)

I can send a slice to someone if they think that would help w/ identification?


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## Kevin (Oct 1, 2012)

m34 said:


> I can send a slice to someone if they think that would help w/ identification?



Send it to Paul. PM him for his address. If he doesn't want it (he will) I'll ID it or at least rule a bunch of stuff out. I have the ID kits to do it with but so does Paul and he has lots and lots more samples than I do.


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## m34 (Oct 1, 2012)

Kevin said:


> m34 said:
> 
> 
> > I can send a slice to someone if they think that would help w/ identification?
> ...



Thanks for the help Kevin! I'll definitely reach out to Paul. 

Damion


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## phinds (Oct 1, 2012)

Most likely it's sweet gum. I'd bet against cherry and sycamore is dubious but Kevin does have a good eye for wood so I wouldn't rule it out.

Best you send me a chunk. Something at least 6" long by 4" wide, by 3/4" thick is good, but bigger is better and try for something with both heart and sap.

Did you look at the sweet gum pics on my site?


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## barry richardson (Oct 1, 2012)

I think it could easily be cherry. Easy way to tell is the sweet smell when you cut it. Especially if you burn it when you cut it. Another indication that it might be cherry is that it is not cracked all to heck. Cherry is quite stable.


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## phinds (Oct 1, 2012)

barry richardson said:


> I think it could easily be cherry. Easy way to tell is the sweet smell when you cut it. Especially if you burn it when you cut it. Another indication that it might be cherry is that it is not cracked all to heck. Cherry is quite stable.



I'd be very intested to see any pics you have of any cherry that looks like this, with black-line spalting. It will be the first I've ever encountered. I've asked about this on another thread and so far no one else has ever seen any either, so you've really got my curiosity up about having seen cherry like this.

Thanks,

Paul


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## m34 (Oct 1, 2012)

phinds said:


> barry richardson said:
> 
> 
> > I think it could easily be cherry. Easy way to tell is the sweet smell when you cut it. Especially if you burn it when you cut it. Another indication that it might be cherry is that it is not cracked all to heck. Cherry is quite stable.
> ...



Hey Paul, I'm going to Fed-Ex you a slice to see if that helps you with identification. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thanks, 

Damion


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## barry richardson (Oct 1, 2012)

phinds said:


> barry richardson said:
> 
> 
> > I think it could easily be cherry. Easy way to tell is the sweet smell when you cut it. Especially if you burn it when you cut it. Another indication that it might be cherry is that it is not cracked all to heck. Cherry is quite stable.
> ...


Never said I have seen any like it, just sayin I don't see any compelling reason that it can't be cherry. The colors are right, not an expert on cherry spalting. Work with it all the time though, so if this was smellavision I could tell if it was cherry in a heartbeat:rotflmao3:


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## barry richardson (Oct 1, 2012)

phinds said:


> barry richardson said:
> 
> 
> > I think it could easily be cherry. Easy way to tell is the sweet smell when you cut it. Especially if you burn it when you cut it. Another indication that it might be cherry is that it is not cracked all to heck. Cherry is quite stable.
> ...


Never said I have seen any like it, just sayin I don't see any compelling reason that it can't be cherry. The colors are right, not an expert on cherry spalting. Work with it all the time though, so if this was smellavision I could tell if it was cherry in a heartbeat:rotflmao3:


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## phinds (Oct 4, 2012)

m34 said:


> Hey Paul, I'm going to Fed-Ex you a slice to see if that helps you with identification. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Damion



Got the box just now. I"ll get the pieces (nice pair , by the way) cleaned up in the next couple of days and let you know if I figure anything out.

Paul


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## phinds (Oct 4, 2012)

Well, I couldn't keep my hands off of it, so instead of waiting for the weekend, I just went right at it, and here's the results, with pics, after I sanded down all the surfaces.

CHERRY --- liklihood = no way
- porosity is higher than mystery wood
- grain lines are WAY far not as sharply defined as mystery wood
- ray flakes look very similar to mystery wood
- spalting does not look quite like mystery wood (an individual line here and there might, but the total spalting on these pieces is very differnt than cherry)
- I have never seen this kind of mineral stain in cherry

GUM: --- liklihood = about 25% (might well be much less if I were more certiain about lack of ray flakes in gum)
- end grain is more porous than mystery wood
- gum grain lines are not quite a sharply defined
- I have not seen ray flakes like this on gum
- spalting does not look quite like this (an individual line here and there might, but the total spalting on these pieces is very differnt than on gum
- mineral stain looks almost identical to mystery wood

RED MAPLE --- liklihood = about 99%
- porosity is identical to mystery wood 
- grain lines look almost identical to mystery wood, and the differences are small enough that they could just be in the particular samples I had
- ray flakes are identical to mystery wood
- spalting is identical to mystery wood
- mineral stain looks identical to mystery wood

later edit: SYCAMORE --- ruled this out immediately with the end grain and have not bothered to post end grain pics of sycamore.


[attachment=11622]
Here are the two nicely matched pieces (the match is nowhere near as nice on the other so I'm figuring these are the resaw faces). The pieces are 13.5" long.

[attachment=11623]
A couple of closeups of both spalting and ray flakes --- I've seen this pattern over and over again on maple

[attachment=11624]
end grain closeups for mystery wood and maple

[attachment=11626]
end grain closeups for cherry and gum --- unfortunately my gum selection is pretty poor.


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## m34 (Oct 4, 2012)

Wow! That is an amazing analysis! I love the pictures they are very educational. Thank you so much for the the help in identifying the wood - it really drives home the fact that I have so much to learn!. 

Makes me wonder though... I wonder what DID happen to that cherry tree - some lucky guy probably made off with the wood... At least I know I'll have plenty of Spalted Red Maple to last me a good long while!

In the meantime, I hope those slices are something that you can find a good use for! 

Thanks again for the amazing work!

Damion


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## phinds (Oct 4, 2012)

Always happy to help, and yeah, I know I'll get good use out of those pieces. Thanks for sending the matched pair.


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