Anyone have an idea what type wood this might be?
Was walking past a pallet that grabbed my eye when at first view it seemed red cedar and I thought what the hey? a red cedar pallet?
Then upon closer inspection it seemed a hardwood so I took it home and ran a piece thru the planer.
Replies
It looks like some kind of mahogany, but it's impossible to tell from those photo's for sure......
If it's a hardwood the grain looks to be pretty tight......make something pretty out of it......
Pretty sure it's one of the many mahoganies. Obeche, Meranti..
Anything shipped from overseas like motorcycles, and stuff..have some neat wood in the pallets.
If it is grainy with white flecks in the pores, it definitly is a Mahog.
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"We strive for conversion,we get lost in conversation, and wallow in consternation. "
Me.
Can't really say there are white flecks in the grain and the old camera won't let me get any closer for a better detail shot.
Clerk had a look of huh on his face when I ask if I could take the pallet.
Sure didn't want to plane out very easily especially for such a narrow piece.
Thanks all.
be time for a better camera.
Edited 6/14/2008 10:38 am ET by rez
I agree with the others, mahogany of some sort.
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Edited 6/14/2008 10:23 am by Ted W.
I'd call it 'luan' ... the stuff they usually face doors with.
What Duane said. I would say Philippine, or merante. Crates & pallets are made from it just like we use oak to make ours.
Jer
Pallets are made from many hardwoods not just oak..A pallet that meets GMA standards can be any hardwood. When I bought most of my Black walnut, black walnut didn't have any real market. Buyers were all looking for Blonde woods like maple, birch etc..
The sawmills were often forced to sell it to pallet mills. That's why I got most of my black walnut at 17 cents a bd.ft. today with Chineese buyers being the major market Black walnut is selling at wholesale levels for $2.65 a bd.ft.
True. I made 720 pallets a day back in my youth. Being as I was just getting my feet wet in woodworking I culled the walnut that would appear in my stacks, and took it home to make tables and chairs.
Most of our wood came up from Va. at first we bought trailer loads of 2x4, 1x4, 1x6..etc. Then as we grew we purchased and installed a cant saw..and we started sawing our own out of 4x6 cants.
I ran a Campbell SuperNailer, it could make a 40x48 as fast as you could feed the wood and fill the nail hoppers..we got paid by the nail..a 4 way 40x48 has 36 nails on the bottom, and 48 on top for a total of 84 nails..at .0011cents per nail or 9 CENTS a pallet..daily pay=65.00$..not a highpaying job!!!!
I loved it tho', we also made pallets with guns and jigs on a table, and heavy mach. pallets on a Doig nialer, all manual. Some of those had 6' 4x6 stringers and 2x8 tops ( skids, not pallets). I was in Super shape back then, handling tons of wood a day..feeding multiple end trimmers, swing saws, BIG MoFo resaw to resaw 2x12 SYP..hard , hard work.
What sucked was if we went too fast and were making too much money they would hold back on the wood ( or we would out nail the saw room's ability to supply) and we dropped to "down time" and had to maintain the nailer..grease and tighten stuff up from vibration. So teh down time dropped to like minimum wage, which was like 2.00$ an hour back then.
I still have a few pc's of the furniture I made with that wood..I learned fast that it had to dry for a spell..LOL.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"We strive for conversion,we get lost in conversation, and wallow in consternation. "Me.
Duane,We used to go to Withers' sawmill that had an adjacent pallete Business. Poco Palletes. I asked Mr. Withers what type of wood did they cut most. He said 'Son, if it grows, we cut it.'We would buy a pick-up load of slabwood for $10.00 (back in the '70s) We had to hand pick it because pine and poplar were mixed in with the oak and walnut. We had 2 woodstoves in the shop and a perpetual peculator on one of them.We would buy a blackwalnut log or 3 every once in a while and have Mr. Withers cut it 4/4, 5/4 and 8/4. 15 cents a board foot. We would air stack it and dry it for 1 year per inch.Post some pics of that walnut furniture. That oak chest you made last year was sweet.I think Rez's wood was phillipine mahogony, or one of the merantis or virolla.Chuck Slive, work, build, ...better with wood
Ah hell, nuthin special, just Shaker lamp tables about 14"sq top with a small drawer. The chairs went with the exwife..ladder back with shaker tape seats.
Man it is rough here, I have NO LOCAL sawmill, like I am used to. I just now found a hardwood supplier in Lex ( 25 miles away) and went there Fri. I got there at noon ( kinda expected a lunch hour closure) and lo and behold..hours are M-Th.=800-300, Fri 800-1200, Sat. 0900-1200..so I was outta luck.
I have a pallet mill sawyard in the next county over, but they have no kiln, and just saw for pallet grade #3 common, and Fence boards. 1x6 oak and poplar. 16' My tree buddy has the Lucas but we never find the time to run it. Then there is a hardwood veneer log yard, they just buy the boles and resell them..I get the butts and ends for firewood..but no sawn stock.
Gotta arched trellis to build up..need a 4''x4'' half circle 34" radius..trying to figure if I want to brick lay and double laminate it or resaw and bend/glue up the 2 half circles..or what..don't even know what I want to use for stock..Cypress would be my first choice, followed by cedar..but again, finding small quanities local enough is a pain..tight budget as well for this one, more or less a birthday present for a customer, she has been real sweet, and I am feeling generous..LOLSpheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"We strive for conversion,we get lost in conversation, and wallow in consternation. "Me.
I think brick lay it with double laminate would work fine. We made some 4' redwood circles and ovals for " windows" in lattice porch panels. 2 layers of 5/4 segmants.Resawing and gluing would work but by the time you made the forms, you would be about finished with the segments.Chuck Slive, work, build, ...better with wood
I think the same.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"We strive for conversion,we get lost in conversation, and wallow in consternation. "Me.
Anyone have an idea what type wood this might be?
My guess is it's some sort of tree wood.
yer welcome!
Doug
that's a piece of hot wood....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
How hard is it?
It looks like mahogany or lyptus.
Lyptus will be harder than the mahogany species.
Lyptus has grown in popularity in the last few years cause you can harvest the trees in 15 yrs.
Edited 6/14/2008 7:42 pm ET by plumbbill
I was thinking lyptus myself...Rez - for what it is worth, a wood scientist told me that there are several hundred varieties of "merantiii" and a lot that get called merantii and mahogany that are similar but really not.
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If it feels waaaay to heavy for its size, it may be Lyptus. It looks just like some boards I have in the shop.
Lyptus is a plantation grown, sustainable, hardwood grown in South America. I have some from when I made a sample door for a lady who wanted it in her kitchen cabinets.
I've heard that it's fallen out of favor among the "green set" because they're cutting virgin jungle forests to plant Lyptus plantations.
Thinking every time I go into Lowes I'm going to be checking for more of them.
Why? Hey, I dunno. Why not?
be knot
Cutting trash trees to plant useful trees upsets the greenies? Oh dear. Why am I not surprised? Let's face it ... these folks are either living in a pseudo-religions fantasy land .... or they deliberately wish to hobble us. Whatever their motives, they are not our friends. With every embracing of 'green' .... whether it be 'green building,' or 'organic farming,' or 'recycling,' we are only encouraging these louts.
"Trash trees", hmm that's an interesting term. I guess you are referring to trees that have little use to you? Might as well destroy all the species of animals that live with those trash trees, too, right. They don't serve any purpose to you. Are they "trash animals"?
Kill 'em and grill 'em. Ever been to the New Orleans zoo? It's amazing the recipes they have posted on each cage. Of course, having a market would give the jungle rancher a reason to care .... kind of why I don't expect to see cattle and chickens on the 'endangered' lists anytime soon. Trash trees? Yup. Which ones? Let the market decide. There's a reason the Midwest is filled with fields of wheat, corn, and soy - rather than the hodge-podge of useless plants that were once there. Not that a plant need to remain useless .... look at all the fine uses there are for that popular weed, known now as 'hemp' :D Now, if someone else wished to BUY a bit of land, and let it go / remain fallow, I'm all in favor. Ditto if THEY want to sit in the dark and freeze. Fact is, EVERYTHING you own was either mined or grown. And don't give me this #### about "some unknown jungle mold might have a cure for cancer." As soon as that mold is found, and the cure discovered ... the greenies will try to ban any harvesting or exploitation of that 'precious resource.' Wake up and smell the sawdust. All I have to do is look out my window. Apart from the $4.50 sign at the gas station, I have a charming, watery eyed view of smoke ... smoke from California wildfires. Fires that didn't need to happen. Fires that somehow were never a problem when we could run sheep on the hillsides and loggers in the pines. Now we get to watch the scrub burn every year. Some improvement ... I bet Bambi loves her annual race with the flame front. If it grows, farm it.
If it walks, ranch it.
If it sits there, mine it, drill it, use it. Planet Earth is not a museum.
look at all the fine uses there are for that popular weed, known now as 'hemp'
Too many to list.
That is one thing the government needs to pull their haeds out of there azzes on.
rez,
I've gotten some of that and other similar nices pieces from HD or Lowes pallets. The cabinet grade plywood they sell usually seems to come in these. Nice 8'+ lengths too.
Only trouble is the damn pallet nails they use that DO NOT come out very easy! And then you have the holes.
I have planned all the stuff I have just not sure what to build with it just yet.
What were you thinking of using it for?
Don't really know just the strong red tone is different enough in a hard wood to make it novel enough to keep when one comes across it.
Kind of like clamps, tape measures and utility knives... you can never have too many of them.
Edited 6/15/2008 10:37 am ET by rez
I'm going to vote for Jatoba. I used to get the 4x8' Masonite pallets from my local Depot (from Brazil); they were made from that.
I think they were nailed green - hence the impossible removal.
Bangs up planer blades, but really a pretty color and hard as nails.
Still got a hundred pieces or so.
Forrest
Maybe he could go head and oil up a section and see what it looks like?
Here's your Panga-Panga
View ImageSpheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"We strive for conversion,we get lost in conversation, and wallow in consternation. "Me.
Hey, Sphere's learned to link koolike without an attachment!
This wood is nowhere's near the wunnerful stuff on that link with the wide revealed grain.
Only with my laptop I think..the DT hasn't been playing nice with the forum software.
I have some actual Brazilian Cherry here if ya want to see it..it is MUCH more close grained than Mahog, and has more lite/dark variances. I should take a pic of both side by side..mabey I will, I have wet finish in the shop at this time, staying out to keep the dust down..but gimme a an hour or so..Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"We strive for conversion,we get lost in conversation, and wallow in consternation. "Me.
yep, starting to mimic the scene with the planer difficulties and the nails that were really tight in there.
Kind of odd to say it's easier to pull a headed nail thru instead of trying to back it out since the gun had buried them so deep in the first place.
The lumber didn't want to readily be pulled back from the bases 4x4 material blocks that would meet the ground. Had to pry like a sumbitc to loosen them up.
Edited 6/15/2008 11:16 am ET by rez
Upon closer examination it appears to be a piece of MDF.
No body should feel bad about missing this , Even expoits get tricked now and then.
this is a trick Q Right,???? OK its TREX.
Now give me one of those awards.
And a good one this time not one of those dumb ones;]
it's hot wood...
I'm tellin' ya....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!