# ID help need



## against.the.grain (Sep 17, 2016)

I have a few spindle blanks from an old cabinet shop. Hard- barely scratch it with a finger nail with a lot of effort. Fairly dense- estimated at 4.15 lbs/bd/ft. A little oxidized but I turned a piece round and sanded for comparison. Any thoughts?


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## phinds (Sep 17, 2016)

against.the.grain said:


> I have a few spindle blanks from an old cabinet shop. Hard- barely scratch it with a finger nail with a lot of effort. Fairly dense- estimated at 4.15 lbs/bd/ft. A little oxidized but I turned a piece round and sanded for comparison. Any thoughts?


Seems like that end grain should jump right out at me but I'm drawing a blank at the moment and will have to get back to it.

It would be useful if you would put a scale in the pics.

Reactions: Like 1


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## against.the.grain (Sep 17, 2016)



Reactions: Like 1


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## tocws2002 (Sep 18, 2016)

Looks a lot like Jatoba (aka brazilian cherry) to me. Hymenaea Courbaril?

-jason

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Mr. Peet (Sep 18, 2016)

Looks similar to the Intsia genus, but the pores appear a little big on the tangential side. Additionally, the unknown shows sign of interlocking grain. Notice the pore direction orientation. Second picture shows pores on a slant on the left, upright in the center and again slanted on the far right.

Taun, _Pometia_ genus, has a wide range of graining that could match, but the weight is off. Parakwa, _Diniana_ genus, is much closer, but this wood carries a dog feces smell, and no smell was mentioned.


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## against.the.grain (Sep 18, 2016)

I don't know if this helps or not- A friend also picked up some wood from the same supply and mentioned that there was some sepele in the pile. He passed away in a hunting accident last January and I never asked for his opinion on this.


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## against.the.grain (Sep 18, 2016)

Mr. Peet said:


> Looks similar to the Intsia genus, but the pores appear a little big on the tangential side. Additionally, the unknown shows sign of interlocking grain. Notice the pore direction orientation. Second picture shows pores on a slant on the left, upright in the center and again slanted on the far right.
> 
> Taun, _Pometia_ genus, has a wide range of graining that could match, but the weight is off. Parakwa, _Diniana_ genus, is much closer, but this wood carries a dog feces smell, and no smell was mentioned.


No significant smell noticed.


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## LATYDBDIL1COR16:14 (Sep 18, 2016)

Ipe/ Brazilian walnut
Handroanthus spp.


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## phinds (Sep 18, 2016)

LATYDBDIL1COR16:14 said:


> Ipe/ Brazilian walnut
> Handroanthus spp.


No possibility. Ipe does not have marginal parenchyma the way this wood does. Also, I'm not positive but I believe this wood shows signs of lozenge shaped ailiform parenchyma which ipe does not have. Also I think the pore density here is too light for ipe.


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## phinds (Sep 18, 2016)

tocws2002 said:


> Looks a lot like Jatoba (aka brazilian cherry) to me. Hymenaea Courbaril?
> 
> -jason


I agree. It looks a LOT like jatoba and that was my first thought when I saw the end grain, but for some reason I didn't believe that's what it is so I passed. Mainly I was put off by the extreme graininess in the face, but now that there's a scale to give me some sense of size, I agree w/ you. What adds to my belief that it's jatoba is the little TINY multitudinous flake-looking things that you can just make out in the magnified (click on it) view of the most recent face grain pic. Jatoba is hardly the only wood to have those but as I said, it adds to the evidence for jatoba. Additionally, jatoba sometimes exhibits lozenge shaped aliform parenchyma, and the distribution of pore multiples is similar to jatoba (identical, as nearly as I can tell, to some of my pieces).

Good catch Jason.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## against.the.grain (Sep 18, 2016)

I have some jatoba that I can take a comparison picture with.


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## tocws2002 (Sep 18, 2016)

I bought a trailer load of wood almost 15 years ago that was sold as "brazilian cherry/jatoba" and there were variations between some of the boards, but a lot of it looked like the pictures posted above. I'll see if I can dig up pictures of some mallets I made out if it.

-jason


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## phinds (Sep 18, 2016)

against.the.grain said:


> I have some jatoba that I can take a comparison picture with.


Why bother? My site has quite a few already available. I suppose it would be good to see the two woods in the same pic since that would assure the same scale.


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## against.the.grain (Sep 18, 2016)

Here are two pieces of Jatoba with the original unknown piece - for comparison.


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## phinds (Sep 18, 2016)

Good shots. The face grain shots are misleading because the mystery wood is a flat cut surface and the jatoba is quartersawn. Always best to compare apples to apples where possible.

Clearly jatoba


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## against.the.grain (Sep 18, 2016)

Thank you for your help. Do you attribute the "finer grain" appearance of the quarter sawn pieces to natural variations from one specimen to the next or quarter sawn v/s flat sawn ? Possibly a combination of the two?


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## phinds (Sep 18, 2016)

against.the.grain said:


> Thank you for your help. Do you attribute the "finer grain" appearance of the quarter sawn pieces to natural variations from one specimen to the next or quarter sawn v/s flat sawn ? Possibly a combination of the two?


quartersawn and flat cut have widely differing characteristics. That's just a fact of wood anatomy.


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