Barn find (Actually a shed)

TurkeyHunter

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Found 7 of these planks. 1” thick a little over 4” wide and just over 10 feet long in my father-in-laws old work shed. He passed away a little over 7 years ago. I inherited his old Shopsmith and whatever I want in the shed. Never really had time until last year to get into it. After turning for about a year I decided today was the day to start going through some wood in the shed. I believe this is vertical grain cut heart pine. And a piece of walnut.

Sorry no end grain because I don’t have a saw with me to clean the ends up.

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phinds

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First 3 look like Douglas fir and the last one I'm not sure about but it could be walnut
 

phinds

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First one still looks like Doug fir to me but Barry could be right about it being Southern yellow pine. Also, it's rift cut, not quartersawn but you couldn't tell that by looking at just the face grain.

Second one, end grain pic not particularly helpful. Needs more cleanup so the anatomy can be seen.
 

Tony

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The last pic, hard to tell, but by coloring and the way it burns looks like Cherry to me.
 

phinds

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The last pic, hard to tell, but by coloring and the way it burns looks like Cherry to me.
Tony, I can't say that's impossible but I do think it is VERY unlikely. A cleaned up end grain would tell for sure, but in the mean time I found a section of a walnut piece that is close to the mystery wood and similarly a section of cherry that is as close as I could get to the mystery wood and here they are:

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mystery wood and walnut

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mystery wood and cherry
 

TurkeyHunter

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What is the best way to clean the end grain up for you to tell? My father-in-law loved walnut, cedar, and mahogany. Sure did not look like cedar or mahogany. But I will admit it is lighter than most walnut. Again it has been in a workshop drying for a minimum of 7 years and maybe even closer to 20 (that is how long I have been married and I don't recall Pops ever working with anything (he appeared to have stopped woodworking just before I married his daughter).
 

phinds

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What is the best way to clean the end grain up for you to tell?
Sand it down to at LEAST 280 grit and preferably 400 grit and get a well-focused closeup. See my site for examples.

As an alternative, if you are really good with hand planes you can try planing it smooth. Also eXacto knives and razor blades work on small areas (enough to distinguish walnut from cherry)
 
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phinds

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Oh, and @TurkeyHunter you can send me a small sample and I'll do it. That's likely to get the best results.
 

TurkeyHunter

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Have not had a chance to send out the samples yet. I did make a call from the Doug Fir/Heart Pine.

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phinds

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That definitely looks more like heart pine so I think Mark and Barry are right and my first guess of Doug fir was wrong. When you send samples I can likely confirm that since pine generally has larger resin channels than fir.
 
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