An olive colored ironwood, mystery wood or ??!

[TimR]

@Friedrich9 , @Big Ry , @daniscool , @Mr. Peet
Ok guys, I’m going out on a limb even using term ironwood, but it has a density of about 69.84 pcf, not a floater. I sanded both sides of oxidation and sanded ends thru grits to 600. The end grain shots are 1-1/8” across. I don’t have microscope but using 10x pores seem tight and uniform. I don’t have much sense of smell but my wife likened the fresh cut as sweet and perhaps like cardamom.
Density comes out to 69.84 pcf conservative given void on one end
Whatcha think?

 

[Nature Man]

Almost looks like Russian Olive wood.

 

[Big Ry]

To me it looks like Italian olive (Olea europaea) with the swirling brown and the structure of the end grain. It would also be consistent with that density, but it seems there may be larger ranges than wood database provides. Either way, Italian olive is typically pretty heavy stuff. I have live edge slabs, turning blanks, off-cuts, ect. Theyre all quite dense. If youre up for it, I'd actually give it a bath to see if it truly sinks. That's one way to obtain some useful data. I was trying to ID a small piece labelled as lignum a month or so ago. My PEC caliper-measured density said it was around the same - 69pcf, but when I threw it in a cup of water it didn't completely sink. One corner poked above the surface, so clearly it was slightly less than 62.4pcf. Having said that, I measured the weight using my scale that I now believe to be inaccurate. This test was one of the things that made me question the scale's accuracy.

 

[Friedrich9]

It very well could be cape olive. I’d be lying if I said I had the eye to distinguish between the different Olea species. Or a sub variety of the cape olive. It looks a little darker than Italian olive wood. But this isn’t a group of woods I have a lot of experience with

 

[daniscool]

It is likely some kind of olive. Which one is the hard part.

 

[Friedrich9]

Maybe we can send a piece to that lab?

 

[TimR]

To me it looks like Italian olive (Olea europaea) with the swirling brown and the structure of the end grain. It would also be consistent with that density, but it seems there may be larger ranges than wood database provides. Either way, Italian olive is typically pretty heavy stuff. I have live edge slabs, turning blanks, off-cuts, ect. Theyre all quite dense. If youre up for it, I'd actually give it a bath to see if it truly sinks. That's one way to obtain some useful data. I was trying to ID a small piece labelled as lignum a month or so ago. My PEC caliper-measured density said it was around the same - 69pcf, but when I threw it in a cup of water it didn't completely sink. One corner poked above the surface, so clearly it was slightly less than 62.4pcf. Having said that, I measured the weight using my scale that I now believe to be inaccurate. This test was one of the things that made me question the scale's accuracy.

Sank in 10 inches of water like the proverbial rock. Sitting on the bottom of the container.

 

[daniscool]

Looks very olive like in there

 

[Mr. Peet]

Sank in 10 inches of water like the proverbial rock. Sitting on the bottom of the container.

View attachment 285246

Help me out a bit, just read through Proverbs and fail to follow which rock you speak of. When saying proverbial rock, I immediatly think of the rock that was split....

 

[TimR]

I was thinking more likely a rock similar to the one in the story of Sisyphus.
or the same stone that took down Goliath!!