This Is Not a Pop Quiz!

[David L]

I reapeat, this is not a pop quiz, however, I do need help identifying this wood. I do not know what it is, I swear. I found it in my shop, well actually it's my Father-In-Law's shop but I sort of inherited it as he is to old and feeble to do woodworking anymore. I used it on a little project (non-guitar related).
To me it looks like sycamore on the quarter but he says (paw-in-law) that he never bought/owned any sycamore. He said he thinks it's Maple but I haven't seen maple that looks like this. It has the whole ray fleck thing going on. It's not a very hard wood but it also isn't that soft either, somewhere in-between, it also isn't very heavy. When I ran it through the table saw it cruised right through it without a strain. My father-in law is a big fan of cypress (I'm not) we can get it pretty inexpensively here in south Louisiana and his shop is slam full of the stuff, thinking it could be cypress but the color isn't quite right and I've seen little to no ray fleck on cypress. Anybody have any ideas?

Please click on pictures for close-ups!


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David L

[Jim_H]

Hard to tell from the color. The figure looks sort of like lacewood, but it's hard to say.

Color is the biggest challenge when trying to identify these things via pictures. Color temperature of your internal lighting will affect the color of the wood in the picture. If you could take the picture outside, or as close to a window as possible, during the day (for the natural lighting) with your camera set to 'outdoor' or something similar, it would be a big help.

[David L]

Jim . I will try some some pics outside perhaps tomorrow but I know paw-in-law doesn't do lacewood either.

David L

[tippie53]

the 3 woods that I know that look like this is silver Oak , Sycamore and lacewood.
Sycamore has a sweetish light cinnamon aroma also the grain raises so much with water
Oak has that typical feel
Lacewood is not the same as oak or sycamore

Hope it helps

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Looks like Silver Oak to me too.
but then what do I know.

Kevin

[mjmeehan]

David, I have two pieces of wood that look pretty darn close to yours. It was given to me by a friend that repairs and sells guitars. He told me that it is maple. I've used it to reinforce the inside of a soundport and as a peghead overlay on my baritone uke. Here's some pics...

[David L]

Here's some pictures taken outside.

David L

[David L]

And some more.

David L

[tippie53]

Not maple as you can see the redish color . Money is on the oak. What does it smell like ?

QS Beech, but more likely QS Eucalyptus