# Mystery Wood



## Ralph Muhs (May 9, 2012)

Walnut, elm and my mystery wood. What is it?

[attachment=5341]


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## Mike1950 (May 9, 2012)

Ralph, congrats picture looks great!!!! so does wood!!!


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## Kevin (May 9, 2012)

Ralph that could be many things do you have a leaf perchance?


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## Ralph Muhs (May 9, 2012)

Kevin said:


> Ralph that could be many things do you have a leaf perchance?



No leaf! This is a small sample of a stash of 50,000 or more bd. ft. in a shed in Illinois. Lots of poplar, some elm, some sycamore, coffee tree, walnut, some ash, and who knows what else. The mystery wood is dark, but not as dark as walnut. Grain is open like walnut or oak. The color is kind of grey. I think maybe it is locust, but that is just a guess. All this lumber is air dried for many years.


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## Graybeard (May 9, 2012)

Rain drops on the wood right?

Just a guess but looks like butternut - might that native to that area? Our butternut is pretty much wiped out by bugs.

Graybeard


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## Final Strut (May 9, 2012)

I am thinking it looks a lot like black ash.


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## Mike1950 (May 9, 2012)

Is it light in weight- I have some basswood from michigan that looks like middle one.


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## Ralph Muhs (May 9, 2012)

Graybeard said:


> Rain drops on the wood right?
> 
> Just a guess but looks like butternut - might that native to that area? Our butternut is pretty much wiped out by bugs.
> 
> Graybeard



Yes rain drops. Butternut has been gone fot years in Illinois, but some of this lumber is quite old


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## Ralph Muhs (May 9, 2012)

Final Strut said:


> I am thinking it looks a lot like black ash.


Don't know anything about black ash. Never heard of it.


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## Kevin (May 9, 2012)

Funny you mentioned KCT because that was the first thing that came to my mind. Then butternut. But you have coffee tree in the stash so you would probably be able to rule it out by comparison. 

A lot of the hardwoods y'all have (and those in Illinois) we simply don't have so I don't think I can be of much help. But I am sure glad you hung with us Ralph you have great wood and great pics of it.


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## Ralph Muhs (May 9, 2012)

Mike1950 said:


> Is it light in weight- I have some basswood from michigan that looks like middle one.


No it is quite heavy, about like oak or walnut. I think the middle one is elm.


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## Mike1950 (May 9, 2012)

I would have guessed the one on the right to be elm???


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## DKMD (May 9, 2012)

Looks like butternut to me, but it's just a guess


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## phinds (May 10, 2012)

My first thought for the one on the right was butternut, like others have said, but it's just a guess based on that pic alone. Can you get a good end grain closeup?


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## hardwoodhoarder (May 10, 2012)

Mike1950 said:


> I would have guessed the one on the right to be elm???



Yeah; when he said "Walnut, Elm........" my mind juped to the board on the right as Elm. I am pretty sure it is Red Elm as compared to the white American Elm in the middle


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## Ralph Muhs (May 13, 2012)

hardwoodhoarder said:


> Mike1950 said:
> 
> 
> > I would have guessed the one on the right to be elm???
> ...



Red elm it is! I talked to the brother in law of the guy who sawed it. He said it is red elm. hardwoodhoarder had it right. walnut, white (American) elm, and the mystery wood is red elm. American elm is pretty much gone from Illinois due to the dutch elm disease of a few decades ago. I don't know if red elm was affected. It probably was.


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