Amazing timber sample

[ROb McGilp]

Anyone care to hazard a guess at what this timber is? The piece on the left is sanded to 400g, the piece on the right has been oiled and sanded to 4000g.
Hint: Its not Maple and its not Rosewood.

Regards,

Rob

 

[nickao]

Show me a super close up of a fresh cut of end grain if you can, like cut with a new razor to expose the cell pattern.

Then I will give you my best guess.

 

[regneethling]

......Could it be Elm?

Elm: Light brown wood type with distinctive blackish figuring when old and ingrained with dirt. Used extensively for country furniture and chairs, including seats of Windsors. Cut into burr veneers of fairly small sheets with extremely pleasing effect.

 

[ROb McGilp]

Hi all,

This is, in fact Brazilian Walnut!! I suspect it is spalted. Never seen anything like it before.
I am making a box with it and Tasmanian Blackwood, which I shall post later today or tomorrow.
I have a board 1.4 metres x 25mm x 145mm left, which I think would be best veneered and used more sparingly.

Regards,

Rob

 

[nickao]

Rob Brazilian Walnut is a trade name and not really the name of a wood per se. Brazilian Walnut is Ipe.

 

[butzla]

Ipe is the trade name for Pao Lobo

 

[nickao]

Actually Pao Lobo  is a regional name I guess as I can not find it referred to that anywhere in my info, as opposed to a trade name and I can list at least 30 more, but IPE is the most well known here in the US technically it is:

Tabebula spp.- Lapacho

http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/Chudnoff/TropAmerican/html_files/tabebu1new.html

http://www.nogalink.com/brazilian-walnut-flooring.htm

As you can see on the link Brazillian Walnut is not listed because it is something the manufactures dreamed up, Pao Lobo may be what people call it in a certain region(commercially) as is Ipe. None of my books list Pao Lobo as a regional name, but still it may be. Lobo in Spanish I think is Wolf .

AH ha I found that "Pao Lobo" is Portuguese(used in Brazil) and in English the translation is - Pao  Hard bark or end wood or Heavy hardwood and is also used to describe Lignum Vitae and other super hard woods, Lobo preceded by Pao is what refers to the wood Ipe as far as I can tell in Portuguese. But a direct translation on some sites show it as Bread wolf or Wolf Bread and others  hardwood wolf, weird.

I only am interested as I collect wood and never heard it called Pao Lobo before.

 

[tbellemare]

This is a pretty good resource:
Center for Wood Anatomy Research.

It looks like that's where you're first resource is from, Nick. It seems to be about as authoritative as there is.

Tom

 

[KM]

Here's another site I like, http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/ . Lots of species and lots of pics.