# mystery wood #173



## phinds

*mystery wood 173* Send to me from Australia. The owner had it as "snakewood / Brosimum guianensis" but was not confident in that identification and I agree w/ him that is most emphatically is NOT that wood. It is also not Austrailian lacewood (or Brazilian lacewood or leopardwood) or any other wood I can ID. The very strong rays should make it easy to ID for anyone who is familiar with it. There are tiny shiny specs in the wood, especially the rays, which I think are probably silicon deposits. I also note the apparent lack of growth rings (the dark streaks do NOT appear to be growth rings). On first glance I thought it might be English brown oak, but the end grain closeup ruled that out. This little piece is about 2" long a 1.5" high and 3/8" thick


[attachment=13901]
face grain


[attachment=13903]
end grain


[attachment=13902]
face grain closeup


[attachment=13904]
end grain closeup


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## woodtickgreg

Holy porosity batman! That's gonna need some sealer for sure!


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## phinds

woodtickgreg said:


> Holy porosity batman! That's gonna need some sealer for sure!



I think you're overreacting to my closeup pics. This is downright tight-grained compared to red oak.

Remember, these pics are about twice life-sized


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## Kevin

Well it's for sure very unique and very pretty. If I had about 10K BF of it I could tell you exactly what it was then; it would be pay day.


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## phinds

Kevin said:


> Well it's for sure very unique and very pretty. If I had about 10K BF of it I could tell you exactly what it was then; it would be pay day.



Hell, if I had 10K BF of it I wouldn't CARE what it was, I'd just start selling it as Mystery wood #173


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## bench1holio

it could be one of the new guinea oaks (castanopsis acuminatissima) or (lithocarpus spp.) maybe???? :i_dunno:


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## healeydays

Paul,

What are you using for a camera to get closeups like that?


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## davidgiul

Maybe Australian Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon)? What is the weight?


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## Molokai

It looks like this...

[attachment=13934]


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## Kevin

Molokai said:


> It looks like this...



Sure does. But you have the file labeled as "snakewood" and it's certainly not snakewood. This is snakewood.

[attachment=13935]


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## phinds

Kevin, he has it labled snakewood because the dealer who posted that pic, who happens to be the one that my correspondant bought the mystery wood from, has it labled as snakewood. As pointed out, that is NOT a pic of snakewood, and the mystery wood is not snakewood. It is also not Australian blackwood by any remote chance. As it happens, the correspondant also sent a piece of Australian blackwood, which is a wood I'm already mildly familiar with. and it doesn't look anything like this mystery wood.

The mystery wood DOES look like that pic, the problem is that I have no idea what that pic shows (I believe it DOES show the same wood as the mystery wood, I just don't know what it is)

healeydays, I used to use a Canon PowerShot S3 and now use a Canon SX40 HS, which has a much greater distance zoom, but the same close-up zoom. Both can give as much as 20X if you can get the light on the subject while still getting the lens right up to it. The closeups in this posting are about 12X, which is the standard for my site, because that allows me about an inch between lens and wood, which is plenty to get lots of light in.

bench1holio, I'm not familiar w/ the New Guinea oaks but I'll check them out.

Thanks for the replies.


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## Molokai

phinds said:


> Kevin, he has it labled snakewood because the dealer who posted that pic, who happens to be the one that my correspondant bought the mystery wood from, has it labled as snakewood.



Did anybody tryed to contact the seller. Maybe he has some clues.
And yes, i labeled that wood snakewood but i am sure it is not snakewood.
I believe this mistery wood is some sort of accacia but :dash2:


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## phinds

Molokai said:


> Did anybody tryed to contact the seller. Maybe he has some clues.
> And yes, i labeled that wood snakewood but i am sure it is not snakewood.
> I believe this mistery wood is some sort of accacia but :dash2:



As I stated, the guy who sent me the wood GOT it from that seller and yes he contacted that seller, who, as I said in my original post, just stands by his story that it is "snakewood / Brosimum guianensis", which it clearly is not. It is not that unusual, in my experience, for vendors to not know what wood they acutally have. I mean, it doesn't happen ALL that often, but it is far from unique.


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## Molokai

:dash2:


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## wombat

davidgiul said:


> Maybe Australian Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon)? What is the weight?



definiitely not blackwood, I've got a fair bit of it around.


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## wombat

phinds said:


> Molokai said:
> 
> 
> 
> Did anybody tryed to contact the seller. Maybe he has some clues.
> And yes, i labeled that wood snakewood but i am sure it is not snakewood.
> I believe this mistery wood is some sort of accacia but :dash2:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As I stated, the guy who sent me the wood GOT it from that seller and yes he contacted that seller, who, as I said in my original post, just stands by his story that it is "snakewood / Brosimum guianensis", which it clearly is not. It is not that unusual, in my experience, for vendors to not know what wood they acutally have. I mean, it doesn't happen ALL that often, but it is far from unique.
Click to expand...


hehe I'm that "guy" and yep everything he said above is true.
but I'm curious molakai, where did you find the pic, as it's identical to the one my dealer used?


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## wombat

This is what the finished product looks like. You'll notice that those nice fat rays have disappeared and all that is left is some red concentric rings.
sanded to 220 and finished with 3 coats of an oil based polyurathane.

[attachment=13975]


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## phinds

wombat said:


> This is what the finished product looks like. You'll notice that those nice fat rays have disappeared and all that is left is some red concentric rings.
> sanded to 220 and finished with 3 coats of an oil based polyurathane.



I was going to respond to your email about this but I'll do it here: I do NOT see that the rays have "disappeared" they have simply changed appearance in a way that is perfectly normal when the wood is cut differently (the "red concentric rings" that you mention).


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## wombat

phinds said:


> wombat said:
> 
> 
> 
> This is what the finished product looks like. You'll notice that those nice fat rays have disappeared and all that is left is some red concentric rings.
> sanded to 220 and finished with 3 coats of an oil based polyurethane.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I was going to respond to your email about this but I'll do it here: I do NOT see that the rays have "disappeared" they have simply changed appearance in a way that is perfectly normal when the wood is cut differently (the "red concentric rings" that you mention).
Click to expand...

thanks for that. I was pretty sure that, that was what was going on, it's nice to have someone with more experience confirm it.


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## Molokai

Molokai said:


> but I'm curious molakai, where did you find the pic, as it's identical to the one my dealer used?



Found it on ebay when i was searching to buy some snakewood... 
I believe its the same dealer. I hope i didnt make a mistake uploading his picture from ebay. If so, it will never happen again. :irishjig:

Is this wood maybe Desert Rosewood? Alectryon oleifolius


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## phinds

Molokai said:


> Is this wood maybe Desert Rosewood? Alectryon oleifolius



Based on the single pic I found I'd say there's not a chance, but that's a single pic. Do you have any of this wood? Any pics? What makes you think the mystery wood might be this?


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## Molokai

phinds said:


> Molokai said:
> 
> 
> 
> Is this wood maybe Desert Rosewood? Alectryon oleifolius
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Based on the single pic I found I'd say there's not a chance, by that's a single pic. Do you have any of this wood? Any pics? What makes you think the mystery wood might be this?
Click to expand...


I was just guessing, after searching on internet.... Found some web pages etc...
There are lots of Australian snakewoods....


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## phinds

Molokai said:


> I was just guessing, after searching on internet.... Found some web pages etc...
> There are lots of Australian snakewoods....



OK, that means you found some pics of the wood you are suggesting. Can you point me to them, please?


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## Molokai

phinds said:


> Molokai said:
> 
> 
> 
> I was just guessing, after searching on internet.... Found some web pages etc...
> There are lots of Australian snakewoods....
> 
> 
> 
> 
> OK, that means you found some pics of the wood you are suggesting. Can you point me to them, please?
Click to expand...


my first guess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_xiphophylla

my second guess and first again
http://ajh-knives.com/xylo-2.html


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## phinds

Molokai said:


> phinds said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Molokai said:
> 
> 
> 
> I was just guessing, after searching on internet.... Found some web pages etc...
> There are lots of Australian snakewoods....
> 
> 
> 
> 
> OK, that means you found some pics of the wood you are suggesting. Can you point me to them, please?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> my first guess
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_xiphophylla
> 
> my second guess and first again
> http://ajh-knives.com/xylo-2.html
Click to expand...


OK, thanks. Not a chance this is it, but I can see why you thought it might be.


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## indonesianwood

from the grain thats look like "kempas".
[attachment=14805]


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## phinds

indonesianwood said:


> from the grain thats look like "kempas".



Well ... except that kempas doesn't have the rays so it can't possibly be kempas.


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## thewoodguy

Your wood is Australian gumwood. It's a very dense, heavy hardwood. I've used it for stair treads.


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## phinds

thewoodguy said:


> Your wood is Australian gumwood. It's a very dense, heavy hardwood. I've used it for stair treads.



Excellent. Thanks for that. Unfortunately, my database shows 534 different species that have the name gum in one or more of their common names and probably a couple of hundred of these (possibly more) are native to Australia. 269 of them are of the genus Eucalyptus

Any clue what species it is?

Do you have other pics of it? Does it have any other widely used common names in Australia that might help me pin it down?

Thanks, 

Paul


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## thewoodguy

I'll do a little research and get back to you! I wouldn't know about the common names for it in Australia, since I'm in Minnesota! Wish I were there! I've been there and it was beautiful. Maybe I'll get back there someday . . .


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