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captainamauraca

captainamauraca

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Maura
Hi everyone! My name is Maura, and I'm an intern at the library archives on my college campus. I joined this forum principally because I'm working my way through a collection of music related objects from around the world. Many if not most of these objects are wooden, some handmade touristy figurines, some instruments. There's just about zero verifiable information about these pieces, and I fell down a rabbit hole trying to identify the wood types many of these are made from. I'm hoping that if I post some images into the wood identification thread you all might be able to help me out! Trust me, when I say around the world, I mean around the world. I've got stuff from every continent except Antarctica! 14 large boxes worth of stuff.

Otherwise, I've always been interested in woodworking, with a carpenter for a brother-in-law and a true jack of all trades for a dad. It's something I hope I'll be able to pick up once things settle down a bit and I'm no longer in student debt lol! I truly think that wood is one of the most interesting materials available to us on our planet, being so diverse in range.

Happy to be here! - Maura
 
Welcome from Bulverde, TEXAS! Unique hobby that you have! There are several folks on this site that are experts in wood ID. Chuck
 
Welcome from Arkansas -- your first line of defense against Texas!

I'm not the greatest wood ID expert here, but I'll be glad to help if I can. Note that, in order to ID wood, we often need magnified photos of the end-grain (i.e. cut perpendicular to the grain of the wood). You might need a dissecting microscope or some such to get the best photos. (Ideally, you'd cut and sand a fresh wood surface perpendicular to the grain -- but I appreciate that you can't do that with archival objects!)

Also, your profile says you're in New York. There's a big reference collection of wood samples at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at SUNY - Syracuse. Sometimes you really need to compare wood samples in person, and I'd bet the SUNY folks could help you out if you need an in-person consultation.

Good luck!
 
Welcome from Austria. I used to build flutes so I could likely help with the ID of most wind instruments.
 
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  • #8
Cloud of Sawdust Farms said:
Welcome from Arkansas -- your first line of defense against Texas!

I'm not the greatest wood ID expert here, but I'll be glad to help if I can. Note that, in order to ID wood, we often need magnified photos of the end-grain (i.e. cut perpendicular to the grain of the wood). You might need a dissecting microscope or some such to get the best photos. (Ideally, you'd cut and sand a fresh wood surface perpendicular to the grain -- but I appreciate that you can't do that with archival objects!)

Also, your profile says you're in New York. There's a big reference collection of wood samples at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at SUNY - Syracuse. Sometimes you really need to compare wood samples in person, and I'd bet the SUNY folks could help you out if you need an in-person consultation.

Good luck!
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I wonder, if my family and myself are originally from Texas do I still need a line of defense? Or does the New York placement weigh out in the end?

And yes, definitely can't change or damage the pieces in any way (much to the detriment of finding good end grain) but I've been snooping around the Wood ID stuff on here so that I can hopefully get some fair pics. I'll have to check out and see if the SUNY has anything physical or digital like a catalogue that I can request through inter-library loan, thank you!
 
captainamauraca said:
Hi everyone! My name is Maura, and I'm an intern at the library archives on my college campus. I joined this forum principally because I'm working my way through a collection of music related objects from around the world. Many if not most of these objects are wooden, some handmade touristy figurines, some instruments. There's just about zero verifiable information about these pieces, and I fell down a rabbit hole trying to identify the wood types many of these are made from. I'm hoping that if I post some images into the wood identification thread you all might be able to help me out! Trust me, when I say around the world, I mean around the world. I've got stuff from every continent except Antarctica

Otherwise, I've always been interested in woodworking, with a carpenter for a brother-in-law and a true jack of all trades for a dad. It's something I hope I'll be able to pick up once things settle down a bit and I'm no longer in student debt lol! I truly think that wood is one of the most interesting materials available to us on our planet, being so diverse in range.

Happy to be here! - Maura
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Welcome from Tucson, Arizona. You will appreciate being here as you'll get a lot of good info.

Now, "14 large boxes worth of stuff." That statement looks like you aren't a very serious collector of wood. You are gonna need to up your inventory. ................ Nubs
 
Welcome from the Philly burbs. You came to the right place for wood identification. There are some truly knowledgeable people here. We geek out about wood every day. Being unable to work the wood piece to get an ideal view of the grain is a challenge but not an insurmountable problem. Certainly a veteran luthier could speak to the common woods used on stringed instruments, and other experts can speak to their respective area. Id also encourage you to join forums dedicated to the particular instrument or object in question, as those places will have additional information that may not be available here. The aggregate knowledge base from all resources will get you the answers you seek.
 
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