# Identifying Drift Wood?



## ArcticDog505 (Jul 15, 2014)

Hello all

Today I had just found a piece of driftwood on the beach. It's pretty lightweight and easy to carve. The weathered outside of it is a kind of grey-ish light brown (there is no bark and no leaves) and the inside is a clean sandy colour infused with streaks of grey-ish colour. It was found in the Cape Cod, Massachusetts area.

Are there are good wood identification websites which could possibly help me in identifying this piece of wood?
Or are there any tips or tricks which could help me in identifying it? The identification does not have to be exact (for example, rather than knowing what I found was a white birch pine, simply pine would be okay)

(Obviously, hehe) I am new to woodworking so please excuse my lack of knowledge


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## marecat3 (Nov 30, 2010)

It might be helpful if you post a photo of the drift wood in question.


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## ArcticDog505 (Jul 15, 2014)

marecat3 said:


> It might be helpful if you post a photo of the drift wood in question.


Unfortunately, I do not have enough posts to post an image yet.... ):


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

AD, All you need to do in order to accumulate 10 posts is to say "howdy" to people on 10- different threads. This takes about 10 minutes, max. I am also interested in the answers that come from this thread, because I keep and exhibit reptiles and many of the animals have various pieces of "cage furniture" within their habitats. I've purchased several very nice pieces of driftwood to place into these habitats and on a couple of occasions I've actually found the pieces on my own.

If we knew your name and location, it would be helpful; but it isn't mandatory.

Otis Guillebeau from Auburn, Georgia


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

Simple. It's driftwood, which means it's free wood. Free wood is always popular. So it's popular wood. No brainer.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Welcome to the forum Arctic Dog. If you google "identifying wood" several sites will come up. You are able to post pictures as long as they are in your hard drive and not from a photo sharing service. You still won't be able to post links yet but you can follow Otis' advice and get there quickly. The light weight and easiness to carve, combined with the wood color make me think spruce or pine. There is an excellent book by Bruce Hoadley named "Identifying Wood" that you might find at the library.


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

Hello,it's great to meet you and have you as a member of our community, welcome! 
You can upload pictures from your computers hardrive,go advance and upload


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Arctic Dog; one of the interesting things about driftwood, here in the Pacific NorthWest is that a lot of it comes down from higher altitudes as a result of erosion caused by the Fall rains. This is especially true of logging cut blocks. Everything not merchantable is littering the ground waiting for a crew to do a bit of a clean up prior to burning the slash piles. "Wood' can be anything from Staghorn Sumac to D. fir roots.
I assume you have an equally varied list of native trees on the East Coast?
Common Trees of the Pacific Northwest

Trying to identify a specific species once it's become 'driftwood' is a job for a botanist...


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

If it is 'driftwood', it may have even come up from Cuba.....

You would need an expert to physically see the timber to have any chance of confirming the identity.

After months? in salt water any color may well have been bleached out.

It is what you "see" in the wood that is important.

How big is the piece and what do you intend to do with it?


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## ArcticDog505 (Jul 15, 2014)

Hi all, thank you for the help! And thank you for telling me that hard drive uploads are alright- that will be helpful in the future!

I found out I had some sort of oak branch from a friend of mine who surprisingly knows much about wood and trees.


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