Wood ID

phinds

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OK, I got the piece, but I'm having trouble with the ID. I'm pretty sure it's larch or spruce but so far I can't tell which. I'm going to have to leave it for tonight and come back to it. I've sanded it down to 400 grit and looked at it til my eyeballs hurt, along with looking at my own larch and spruce samples and checking Hoadley for clues. If I had a gun to my head I'd say it's probably spruce but absent that degree of urgency, I'd just say it's probably wood.

My eyes through my 10X loupe are getting more information than my camera can capture to show you but it's doing no good because the micro characteristics of the two are VERY similar and I can just barely see the open ends of the tiny tracheods anyway. I'd need a microscope to see them at the level that might distinguish the two and even then I don't know that it would be a sure thing.

I'm looking at the tracheids, rays, and spikes at a level of detail that is finer than where I normally go, and I need to spend more time with it all, so ... g'night all
 

tiggu

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OK, I got the piece, but I'm having trouble with the ID. I'm pretty sure it's larch or spruce but so far I can't tell which. I'm going to have to leave it for tonight and come back to it. I've sanded it down to 400 grit and looked at it til my eyeballs hurt, along with looking at my own larch and spruce samples and checking Hoadley for clues. If I had a gun to my head I'd say it's probably spruce but absent that degree of urgency, I'd just say it's probably wood.

My eyes through my 10X loupe are getting more information than my camera can capture to show you but it's doing no good because the micro characteristics of the two are VERY similar and I can just barely see the open ends of the tiny tracheods anyway. I'd need a microscope to see them at the level that might distinguish the two and even then I don't know that it would be a sure thing.

I'm looking at the tracheids, rays, and spikes at a level of detail that is finer than where I normally go, and I need to spend more time with it all, so ... g'night all
Thank you!!!! You are incredible.
 

phinds

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Well, I've come back to it but am no closer to an ID. I AM more confident that it is either larch or spruce but I've gone back and forth about which of them it might be. I'm going to have to hold on to it until the next time Mark (@Mr. Peet ) is over and see what he thinks. Sorry about that Chris.

I did notice one thing, which is that the spikes in the "spiky" indented grain have regular rays running along their surface at about the same density as the rest of the wood, so I'm pretty confident that this is NOT the "rays on steroids" type of spike but rather adventitious buds. Unfortunately, that doesn't help with the ID as far as I know.

One other thing that is somewhat bothersome is that the density of the resin canals is WAY higher than I'm accustomed to seeing in either larch or spruce (and suggests a Pinus spp.), and this is true over the entire suface (about 3" x 5"). Anyway, here's one of the macro shots and then some end grain micro pics at 12X

As I mentioned in the previous post, my eyeballs can see more via the 10X loupe than shows up in the pics but it hasn't helped with the ID.

@Mr. Peet do you think this could be a Pinus?

upload_2018-10-16_19-23-25.png

upload_2018-10-16_19-19-33.png upload_2018-10-16_19-20-1.png upload_2018-10-16_19-20-12.png upload_2018-10-16_19-20-24.png
upload_2018-10-16_19-20-56.png upload_2018-10-16_19-21-28.png
upload_2018-10-16_19-19-54.png
 
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phinds

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@phinds
Check it against Jeffery Pine, P. jeffreyi, closely related to Ponderosa pine.
Good call. Lot of similarity there so that could be it. Same wide-spread heavy density of resin canals. One of the reasons I didn't take pine too seriously is that Pinus generally has larger resin canals than this mystery wood but P. jeffreyi does have similar sized canals.
 

tiggu

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Are the black marks on the outer part of the wood slice due to the density of the resin canals you mentioned? They don’t disappear when I sand and get more pronounced when I apply the finish. Is there anything I could do to even out the wood tones of that outer rim?

IMG_4260.JPG

IMG_4753.JPG
 

phinds

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That's mineral stain (or possibly blue stain), has nothing to do with the resin canals, and it will not every go away and yeah, finishes make it even uglier.

EDIT: since it's only in the sapwood, I'd say it's blue stain, not that that really makes any difference.
 
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Mr. Peet

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Agree, blue stain. You can try using a tiny brush and painting bleach on it, but that could raise issues with finish later.
 
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