Hi Everyone,
I'm coming in today with a fun one. This is a piece of wood I was gifted as a "mystery dense exotic" by a fellow woodworker. He's had it for many years, has no idea where its from, where he got it from - that ol chestnut. Anyway, he gave it to me as its the perfect size for my pieces. Question is what is it... This guy used to get in a lot of pretty high end, rare woods so really it could be anything!
I've done my usual analysis and have the following:
Density (specific gravity): 1.01
Odor: Fairly faint, but fragrant and slightly sour. Almost sour faint rosewood smell?
fluorescence: Water - blue/green very faint, ethanol - green.
An old piece, but certainly feels fairly oily and clogs my sand paper like it is!!
Side grain appears to have the same "feather grain" (thats what I call it - have no clue about what its proper name is) on the face which I see in madagascan rosewoods, Swartzia and some of the asian Dalbergias.
Colour is relatively brown but contrasting, with the dust being more of a dark red - I suspect deeper in itll seem more red too.
End grain is where it goes a bit up in the air. It doesnt LOOK to me like Swartzia end grain whatsoever, nor does it look to me like any of the usual madagascan rosewood candidates (wrong grain - 100% not baronii or greveana). end grain has a nigra-esque look to it in some ways but its definitely definitely not nigra either.
I have added a scale of 10mm onto the end grain if that is also helpful.
I've also added a magnified pic of end grain 3mm across from one side to the other. I tried to get a good shot in a couple of places, but theres so much end grain its hard to give a full view in such a small pic.
I do have a thought of what I think it might be, but I don't want to say yet as I would like to see if anyone else comes to the same conclusion based on the pictures. As always, thank you for your help!
I'm coming in today with a fun one. This is a piece of wood I was gifted as a "mystery dense exotic" by a fellow woodworker. He's had it for many years, has no idea where its from, where he got it from - that ol chestnut. Anyway, he gave it to me as its the perfect size for my pieces. Question is what is it... This guy used to get in a lot of pretty high end, rare woods so really it could be anything!
I've done my usual analysis and have the following:
Density (specific gravity): 1.01
Odor: Fairly faint, but fragrant and slightly sour. Almost sour faint rosewood smell?
fluorescence: Water - blue/green very faint, ethanol - green.
An old piece, but certainly feels fairly oily and clogs my sand paper like it is!!
Side grain appears to have the same "feather grain" (thats what I call it - have no clue about what its proper name is) on the face which I see in madagascan rosewoods, Swartzia and some of the asian Dalbergias.
Colour is relatively brown but contrasting, with the dust being more of a dark red - I suspect deeper in itll seem more red too.
End grain is where it goes a bit up in the air. It doesnt LOOK to me like Swartzia end grain whatsoever, nor does it look to me like any of the usual madagascan rosewood candidates (wrong grain - 100% not baronii or greveana). end grain has a nigra-esque look to it in some ways but its definitely definitely not nigra either.
I have added a scale of 10mm onto the end grain if that is also helpful.
I've also added a magnified pic of end grain 3mm across from one side to the other. I tried to get a good shot in a couple of places, but theres so much end grain its hard to give a full view in such a small pic.
I do have a thought of what I think it might be, but I don't want to say yet as I would like to see if anyone else comes to the same conclusion based on the pictures. As always, thank you for your help!
