Name That Wood thread

[Brmorgan]

Just thought I'd start a thread to try to stump each other with wood specimens. No "I can't figure out what kind of wood this is" stuff; the poster must know what they are offering up! Can be anything - obscure species, wild grain, unique pieces of common species that look like a different type of wood, etc.

I'll start it off with a few pieces I snagged off the grading chain at work:

End grain of previous piece:

All are the same species.

 

[mtngun]

I've never seen anything like that.

The blue stain looks familiar, though. What gets blue stain besides pine ?

 

[BlueRider]

If I had to make a WAG I'd say lodge pole pine.

 

[hazard]

I would say a birdseye pine of some sort. I am not that familiar with pines.

I have a few hundred types of hardwoods from turning pens and other small stuff but to me pine is pine. It all looks the same

Chris

 

[Brmorgan]

If I had to make a WAG I'd say lodge pole pine.

Correct, sir.

It's really weird stuff. Unlike other Birdseye (Maple etc.), these don't occur as a result of a bud. As you can see in the last photo, they appear to be really nothing more than incredibly overgrown wood rays. They do create little swirl distortions in the grain like birdseye though.

The instructor that taught me everything I know about lumber grading (and who is also the inspector) called them "mineral streaks" when I asked him a few years ago. Now, I've seen a lot of mineral streaking in woods like Hemlock, Teak, etc. that commonly contain them, but I've never known a mineral streak to distort the grain like this, or for that matter to obviously grow radially from the pith of the tree. I suppose the piece in the first photo could be somewhat considered mineral streaking because the perimeter of each little swirl is surrounded by a thin brown line. It actually does look pretty neat. I might try turning a couple small handles out of it, just to see how it looks. It isn't the hardest stuff, but should be good for something.

 

[DRB]

Could it be Ponderosa Pine?

I cut some that had some marking in it like that. I have not cut much of it so I just thought that the marks were common to Ponderosa.

I know you don't have Ponderosa up your way but they truck logs long distances. Although it looks kind of slow growing.

mtngun cuts Ponderosa I think? Maybe he's seen it look like that?

 

[LAndrews]

I've seen that grain quite a few times in the pine racks at Lowe's, but almost nowhere else. Made a box out of it for the lady - it planes a lot like birdseye maple (with lots of chipouts) unless the cut depth is scant. Saws fine though. <shrug>

Nice pics!

 

[Brmorgan]

Could it be Ponderosa Pine?

I cut some that had some marking in it like that. I have not cut much of it so I just thought that the marks were common to Ponderosa.

I know you don't have Ponderosa up your way but they truck logs long distances. Although it looks kind of slow growing.

mtngun cuts Ponderosa I think? Maybe he's seen it look like that?

It's definitely Lodgepole, came from west of the Fraser as with all the rest of our sawlogs right now.

The northernmost Ponderosas are ~90 miles south of here around 59 Mile House. Dad says he can remember when there was a sign next to the highway denoting such way back in the 70s when he came out to visit my aunt & uncle here, long before we moved out in '87. I guess it's because Highway 97 runs all the way up from southern California to the northern border of BC, and the Ponderosas range all the way up the States and well into BC, and you would get folks driving the highway all the way north on their way to Alaska etc. who had seen them along the highway the entire way until where they suddenly stop.

 

[Gunther274]

Im taking a wild guess that I believe to be totally right. That tree was infected with dwarf mistletoe, and those little spots are the "roots" of the mistletoe.

Here are some images I found that might help explain what Im seeing there.

 

[Brmorgan]

You know, I never even thought of that. We do have quite a lot of mistletoe in the Pines around here - the mills and logging companies spend enormous amounts of money to have spacing crews go through and cut infected trees. It tends to create noticeable bulges in the tree or branch around the affected areas; I'd never really cut a sample of wood to see what it looked like on the inside though.

It'll sometimes take hold in a Spruce or Douglas Fir, but not very often. They're a lot more pest-resistant than Pine in general though. Spruces get a really dense "Witch's Broom" formation from Mistletoe. I've never personally seen it on a Fir, so I can't speak to them.

I'm not quite 100% convinced that's what it is though. It would have to be one hell of a mistletoe infestation the likes of which I've never seen in person, since the entire trunk often seems to be affected. I'll usually get half a dozen to ten boards at a time or so that have the markings to some degree. At any rate, I'll be sure to ask my grading inspector if I get to talk to him next time he's at the mill to see what he thinks. I have a couple boards set aside out of the way at work just in case.

 

[Gunther274]

Im not saying for sure thats what it is, that is just what comes to mind when I dig through my education.

 

[JeffandTamara]

Any Ideas on this piece of wood...Has us "Stumped" LOL

 

[betterbuilt]

You might have to get a better picture.

 

[Dave Boyt]

Being from KY (I assume), and the texture of the grain, my first guess is yellow poplar, though it is so common, I would be surprised if it would have anyone in your area "stumped".