Wood identification?

[PopS]

Hi, I've placed a Photo Gallery at:

has 4 largish but small enough for dialup, thumnails of 4 different shots of a door's stiles and rails. If you're on a faster line you can click each one and get a larger picture with more detail. Is that Oak? If so, any idea what kind of oak? I see now I should have removed the router-cloth from under them, for better definition, but alas, I didn't think about that. Oh, the last two pics are just something I put up for relatives to see; a rack came down in the garage and made a mess; especially the flourescent bulbs that were on it! I've removed links to the rest of the site so I don't look like I'm whoring my web site.

It's one of two doors I've taken apart and am refinishing. I -think- they're from about the 1960's. The house is a 1950's design which used to be quaint, but is facing redecoration now for obvious reasons; like, we're sick of the decor. Anyway, they're 32" fully louvered doors but pretty heavy. The hinges are pivots, rather than hinges; interesting. Opens either way, in or out. It doesn't appear they were glued; they pried apart easily with reversed clamp heads and a rubber mallet assist. Their strength apparently came from very substantial ribbed dowels at the 4 corners and the middle rail. No evidence of glue anywhere! Was that a normal design "back then"? They're pretty banged up, scratched, dented & otherwise battered with many years of skin oil and dirt, polish, oils, and so on, so a refinishing was required if I want to keep them, which I do. The new scheme is country and they go well with it.

Last Question: Can you tell what the existing finish might be? I've been able to use al oxide sandpaper on both my belt and my palm sander without any gumming up at all with the exception of a couple of grime spots on the palm sander that I missed when I cleaned it. It's not soft like Shellac, but looks like it. It also had at least one coat of poly applied over it, but it was so long ago it's no problem to the sandpaper. One already used belt and about 5 pieces on my palm sander are all the paper I used on the door, not counting the slats, which are a real PIA. 80 grit for the removal. Color before sanding was brownish yellow, but not like a pine yellow and it's obviously not pine color. Discoloration was minimal, really, considering their age and the fact that the sun hit one side of them (East) but not the other (no facing windows on one side) west facing side.

I've never seen anything but Shellac that sanded so easily, but what do I know? Would a light stain/Shellac make a good finish for this? Or should I go the poly route? They're bedroom doors so they'll get an average amount of use.

TIA,

Pop

[Doug Miller]

Sure doesn't look like it to me. Not the piece on the left in your first pic, anyway -- that one looks a lot like Douglas fir. Hard to tell what the other one is, because the grain doesn't show up well in the photo. Might be oak, but doubtful.

[PopS]

Hmm, thanks; That's where my head's been too; about it not being oak I mean. I'm going lumber hopping this weekend so I'll check against the Douglas Fir. Only reason I suggested oak is because a friend suggested that's what it was, but he wasn't sure either.

Pop

[RicodJour]

No, I'm pretty sure it's either a fir or a pine. Possibly Douglas Fir, but from your later comment about the wood not darkening much with exposure to sunlight over the years, that's not very likely. I've seen Hemlock with similar wild grain, but not sure of that for the same reason. Another possibility is Larch.

Then there're the many varieties of pine, almost all of which I haven't seen in person.

It's one of two doors I've taken apart and am refinishing.

Dowels were always glued. The ribs are to let the glue slide past and fully coat the hole/dowel.

Standard way of testing for finishes is to work your way through the solvent groups.

There are many species and colors of pine.

It looks like you'll have to even out the color, otherwise your doors will look like patchwork quilts.

R

[fredfighter]

Looks like Douglas Fir.

Douglas Fir has a wide range of appearance depending on how fast it grew and how it was cut. That looks to be old-growth.

Doug FIr should smell piney when cut and there will usually be some resin oozing out somewhere.

A close-up of the endgrain would definitiviely rule in or rule out oak. The ray flecks run perpendicular to the grain in the end grain. Search the web for end-grain pictures of oak or check some out at the lumberyard to see some examples.

[robo hippy]

Looks like Doug fir to me. One piece is flat sawn. and the other is quarter sawn. robo hippy

[PopS]

Hmm, didn't know about the end grain business; I'll see if I can figure that out; thanks. There's definitely no sign of resin anywhere, new or old, and it doesn't smell piney at all. It's got more of a musty or "forest" smell than anything but it's faint, even during the active sanding with 80 grit. I tried some water on a spot today under the pivot cover, and it didn't raise any grain, so that didn't help; tried shellac on the other side; no raised grain. Now I'm out of room to test .

No big deal I guess; whatever it is, I really like the look of it, and plan to reuse it anyway. Some of the grain's very similar to our new red oak floor, but then again, it's not quite the same; sort of "exactly the same except", if that makes any sense.

Thanks for looking; appreciate it.

Pop