I’m a home builder in southern NJ, and I recently had interior stairs fabricated for a custom single house that I’m doing. The treads and nosings are supposedly Brazilian Cherry, to match the hardwood floors that will be installed after drywall. The treads and nosings that I received seem much lighter in color and weight than a similar job I did last year. The material that I worked with last year was hard, dense, and dark red; it matched the hardwood flooring perfectly. If I hadn’t had that experience, I probably wouldn’t question the material that I have now. The stair builder claims that the current material is Brazilian Cherry. I’ve had several people (my hardwood flooring contractor, a flooring supplier, and a local millwork shop owner) look at the material in question, and no one can give it a postive I.D., though many are skeptical. How can I get a definitive assessment of what wood species I have?
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Have you posted this Q over at Knots? They have some guys more fluent in this subject over there.
My suspicion is that you are dealong with one of those names for wood that is not specific enough. For instance, Mahogany covers a wide berth of wood species - not all of which are true mahogany, but are sold as such. Same with Merantii.
On the flip side, there are a lot of names for the same wood sometimes. There is a larch here that is called Tamarac or hackmatac....
Or within a species, suich as Oak, there are several with differing characteristics. I would be glas to use red oak for some casings but would never dream of using it for sill beams.
I think I recall reading not long ago that a certain species under discussion was also known as a brazilian cherry. So I am presuming that the title is used to cover several similar woods.
There is another source you might check - Google up Woodweb. They have discussion boards and a great knowledge base.
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http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/search/search.cgi
Maybe something here will help
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To the sellers of 'exotic' hardwoods, the term 'Brazilian Cherry' can mean almost any wood that has some redness to it, so long as its not an open-grained wood.
I'm betting that the earlier installation was one species, and this one is a different species.
Support our Troops. Bring them home. Now. And pray that at least some of the buildings in the green zone have flat roofs, with a stairway.
I think you're right.
The same goes for many woods we come to think of as a single species, while in fact the name is rather generic and can be one of a dozen.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
The US Forest Products Lab in Madison, WI used to offer a service where they would ID wood samples.
Check with them and see if they still do.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.