What type of wood is this ???????

CRAIG1952

Well-Known Member
I was given some chunk's of wood, from a guy I had met . He told me he tried to split it for fire wood, but gave up up after several attempts. He said he had never seen anything like it:what!:
Today I attempted to use my band saw to cut it into 10" lengths. That was no problem, but when I tried to cut it down the center my band saw blade ground to a halt:what!:Backed up the wood and blade started again.(I wasn't forcing the wood:mad:and it is dry as an old bone) I have a 1hp motor in my saw. I did cut one piece, but it took quite awhile. Blade is brand new so I know it wasn't dull ! My question is do I have Iron Wood? It is very dence and heavy for it's size ! Can someone help me Identify and give me help into cutting it into scales. Thank you all for any suggestion you can give me :biggrin:350.JPG352.JPG
 

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It looks like quilted maple to me. The "quilted" refers to the pattern of the grain, not a species. Some species of maple can be quite hard but I don't know about that hard. All the iron wood that I've seen is much darker. The dense and heavy part also makes me wonder if it is other than maple, but with no more than the pictures and description, that's what I'd go with.

Doug
 
Craig,
Call me after 11a at the shop. I can walk you thru how I get it to scale size.
It doesn't look like ironwood? But sometimes Ironwood is light color and you need to let it oxidize for it to darken. I think Doug is on track with a Quilted Maple. Did this guy collect it locally?

Laurence
www.westsidesharpening.com/
 
Note that there are a lot of woods called ironwood. Doesn't look like Desert Ironwood to me but might be one of the others. That quilted piece is certainly pretty whatever it is.

Most ironwoods sink in water. You might try that.
 
Dan,
Thanks for the information. I threw a piece into water and it did float ! So it's not Iron wood (Darn!!!!!!!!!):(
 
could it be Mesquite? not to familiar with it, but the color is close to a set of scales that I have.
 
I don't know what kind of wood it is but it's going to have some excellent curl in the grain, if that one pic is any kind of an indicator. Lets see some pics when you get it cut up into slabs! Dampen the piece and you'll be able to get a good idea of what it will look like when finished!
 
I cut several pieces and what I saw wasn't very good. Wood had several wide cracks and splits running through the grain:confused2: I was going down to see Laurence @ Rhino Knives to visit him for a couple of hours. His opinion was not to waste my time with it as it would not Stabilize :sad: So I am glad I didn't waste my time and Band Saw blades :)
 
Bummer, that had some great figure to the grain. Well, at least you didn't have any money invested in it.

Doug
 
Looks like Eucalyptus to me we use to burn a bunch of it when we lived in So Cal, and it is a bear to split, I had a piece blow the filter off a log splitter once.
 
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