Identify this wood?

11/24/15, 10:59 PM #1

Dave Shombert
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Identify this wood?

David Shombert

I tried to post this last night but the photo wouldn't show. Perhaps, as Dave Paine suggests, it was just a random glitch. So here goes again:

This wood came from a scrap box and I can't identify it. It has the smell of cured tobacco when being cut (think pipe tobacco before being lit). Can anyone identify it? Thanks,

- - -

http://www.woodspunworkshop.com I started turning wood about 50 years ago. Unfortunately, I stopped turning wood about 49 years ago. If you haven't guessed, that was high school wood shop, and my brief encounter with the lathe stayed in my memory all my working life. I retired from the US Public Health Service in 1993, moved to West Virginia, bought a lathe, and started back up again. Soon afterward, I met an old man who had been a mouldmaker and patternmaker in the glass industry that once thrived here. I spent a year learning his method of segmented turning - different in the preparation stage from most methods used today - and he became my mentor and friend. More than anything, I learned patience from him. I still do segmented work (using his method) but have now branched out into some other areas. Along the way, I moved up to a Robust American Beauty lathe. I sell my work in a few galleries and I find tremendous satisfaction in woodturning. I'm also an old-time fiddler and square dance caller, and I spend more time with that in the summer, more time in the shop in the winter. Take a look at my website to see my shop and some of my work.

Re: Identify this wood?

11/24/15, 11:01 PM #2

Dave Shombert
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Re: Identify this wood?

David Shombert

Success. John & Dave, thanks for your help.

- - -

http://www.woodspunworkshop.com I started turning wood about 50 years ago. Unfortunately, I stopped turning wood about 49 years ago. If you haven't guessed, that was high school wood shop, and my brief encounter with the lathe stayed in my memory all my working life. I retired from the US Public Health Service in 1993, moved to West Virginia, bought a lathe, and started back up again. Soon afterward, I met an old man who had been a mouldmaker and patternmaker in the glass industry that once thrived here. I spent a year learning his method of segmented turning - different in the preparation stage from most methods used today - and he became my mentor and friend. More than anything, I learned patience from him. I still do segmented work (using his method) but have now branched out into some other areas. Along the way, I moved up to a Robust American Beauty lathe. I sell my work in a few galleries and I find tremendous satisfaction in woodturning. I'm also an old-time fiddler and square dance caller, and I spend more time with that in the summer, more time in the shop in the winter. Take a look at my website to see my shop and some of my work.

Re: Identify this wood?

11/25/15, 1:14 AM #3

John Veerkamp
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Re: Identify this wood?

John Veerkamp

Looks a lot like English (properly Persian) walnut that I have turned. Hard to tell, it could also be silver maple.

Re: Identify this wood?

11/25/15, 1:24 AM #4

Dick Coers
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Re: Identify this wood?

Dick Coers

Hard to tell from that picture, but guessing ash. Are those cracks? Be really careful turning wood with that kind of cracking, it can and does explode and cause serious injury!

Re: Identify this wood?

11/25/15, 1:39 AM #5

Dave Shombert
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Re: Identify this wood?

David Shombert

It's not ash, I've turned lots of ash and this is definitely different. The odor, for one thing. I'm pretty sure it's not domestic - maybe Central American. Here's a closer look:

Yeah, cracks. Those showed up as the blank was drying. That's why I didn't want to go any thinner with it. They're less noticeable when the finish is on.

- - -

http://www.woodspunworkshop.com I started turning wood about 50 years ago. Unfortunately, I stopped turning wood about 49 years ago. If you haven't guessed, that was high school wood shop, and my brief encounter with the lathe stayed in my memory all my working life. I retired from the US Public Health Service in 1993, moved to West Virginia, bought a lathe, and started back up again. Soon afterward, I met an old man who had been a mouldmaker and patternmaker in the glass industry that once thrived here. I spent a year learning his method of segmented turning - different in the preparation stage from most methods used today - and he became my mentor and friend. More than anything, I learned patience from him. I still do segmented work (using his method) but have now branched out into some other areas. Along the way, I moved up to a Robust American Beauty lathe. I sell my work in a few galleries and I find tremendous satisfaction in woodturning. I'm also an old-time fiddler and square dance caller, and I spend more time with that in the summer, more time in the shop in the winter. Take a look at my website to see my shop and some of my work.

Re: Identify this wood?

11/25/15, 1:54 AM #6

Dick Coers
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maybe olive?

Dick Coers

It loves to crack. Did it feel kinda oily or waxy?

Re: Identify this wood?

11/25/15, 3:17 AM #7

Dave Paine
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Re: Identify this wood?

Dave Paine

Happy if I was able to help with the picture issue.

I wish I could help with the wood ID. The pipe tobacco smell means I have not had this in my shop - so far.

Re: Identify this wood?

11/25/15, 3:22 AM #8

Dave Shombert
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Bingo!

David Shombert

Olive - I'm pretty sure that's it, Dick. I remember now that the guy whose scrap bin it came out of speculated that very thing when I picked it up. Thanks.

- - -

http://www.woodspunworkshop.com I started turning wood about 50 years ago. Unfortunately, I stopped turning wood about 49 years ago. If you haven't guessed, that was high school wood shop, and my brief encounter with the lathe stayed in my memory all my working life. I retired from the US Public Health Service in 1993, moved to West Virginia, bought a lathe, and started back up again. Soon afterward, I met an old man who had been a mouldmaker and patternmaker in the glass industry that once thrived here. I spent a year learning his method of segmented turning - different in the preparation stage from most methods used today - and he became my mentor and friend. More than anything, I learned patience from him. I still do segmented work (using his method) but have now branched out into some other areas. Along the way, I moved up to a Robust American Beauty lathe. I sell my work in a few galleries and I find tremendous satisfaction in woodturning. I'm also an old-time fiddler and square dance caller, and I spend more time with that in the summer, more time in the shop in the winter. Take a look at my website to see my shop and some of my work.

Re: Identify this wood?

11/25/15, 11:56 PM #9

Brad Vietje
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Re: Bingo!

Brad Vietje

Sure looks like Olive. If Spanish Olive from the area around the Mediterranean, it should smell like a pizza parlor as you cut it.

Olive is also very prone to heat checks, especially in end grain, from excess heat from sanding. Good idea to lubricate the sandpaper with wax or an oil finish and go slow to avoid heat build up.

Pretty little bowl -- too bad it cracked on you. Time to get some more (?)

Safe spinning,

Brad Vietje

Newbury, VT

Identify this wood?

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