Wood ID help?

[Doug Miller]

Anybody have any idea what this is?

Photo doesn't show quite the full width of the board; it's 9+ inches wide, and the photo probably shows between 7 and 8.

The wood has no perceptible odor, dry or damp (which also rules out oaks).

It's hard enough that I can't dent it with a fingernail, and surprisingly lightweight -- suggestive of ash, I suppose, but the grain isn't quite right, and the color is definitely not right, for that. Not heavy enough for oak, and the grain isn't right, either.

I'm located in Indianapolis, and the wood is presumably of more-or-less local origin -- it's been sitting in the corner of a high school wood shop for many years. Likely to be from somewhere in the Midwest, probably central Indiana.

Kentucky coffee-tree, maybe?

[Leon]

Ash

[G Ross]

Looks like chinaberry, but not sure if it grows there.

[hubops]

... from this site ?

The 10 x end grain close-up photos are neat. John T.

[Dr. Deb]

When in doubt, and really wanting to know, send a bit to the Forest Products Lab in Wi. It will take them a bit to get and answer back, but you will know exactly what you are dealing with. Reclaim some of your tax dollars, because its a "free" service.

[John Grossbohlin]

It looks like ash to me... with perhaps some mineral or other staining on the left (e.g., embedded metal). I've been felling and milling quite a bit of ash the past few years and I've run into staining in some of the logs. The grain varies depending on its orientation in the log when cut...

[Jay Pique]

+1 on Leon's "ash".

[Doug Miller]

"John Grossbohlin" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I guess I should have mentioned that there was a strong light over my left shoulder when I took the photo. That "discoloration" on the left is actually the shadow of the stack of boards to the left of the mystery wood.

I still don't think it's ash -- it looks too yellow.

[Doug Miller]

Leon wrote in news:27925409.540278629.491935.lcb11211- [e-mail]:

[...]

Maybe... but I don't think so. It's much yellower than any ash I've ever seen.

[Leon]

This is all ash. The drawer fronts are solid ash, the top yellowish panel is ash veneer.

[Leon]

Take a look at my response below, and the link. I have a picture of a chest I built for my wife's sewing stuff. All natural colored wood is ash.

[Doug Miller]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

suggestive

Actually from woodidentification.net, and from memory (having seen some coffeetree at a lumberyard a few years ago).

Yep. So is the information -- which I missed the first time I read either site -- that coffeetree fluoresces under blacklight. I'll have to see if I can lay my hands on a blacklight.

[Doug Miller]

Leon wrote in news:p-WdndxlA98UQBnHnZ2dnUU7- [e-mail]:

Nice work, Leon. Is that black ash?

[krw]

+2. I have a few hundred bf of it in the basement.

[woodchucker]

Any chance it's butternut, walnut's lighter cousin.

[woodchucker]

I take back the butternut, Osage Orange? It looks it.

[Markem]

Might be have some english walnut here, they grow well in southern Illinois.

Google pictures of the type.

[Markem]

Like teak Osage has a high silca content, it laughs at chain saws.

[Leon]

LOL, AAMOF Black and Red Ash. Good one Doug!

[Leon]

You suck!