# Exotic wood ID help



## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

At the end of December I posted an exotic wood score from my BIL and confessed I only know what about 1/3 of the woods are, or could be. Well, I need some accent wood, small pieces, and I picked three from the group but no idea what they are. 

So... can anyone help me with these?

















Thanks!
David


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## mimac (Dec 13, 2009)

My Shot
Top dark wood cocobolo
Stripped wood zebrawood
Last one lacewood


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Lacewood was my guess for the light one but I don't recall seeing it this tiny. All the Lacewood I've seen had much larger spots. 

The other two aren't Cocobolo or Zebrawood. Cocobolo is red with black streaks and Zebrawood has stripes, not dots (dark cells) in end grain.

















David


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

The are all horrible. PM me and I'll give you my address, so you can get rid of them.

Easy to tell what type of wood they are. They were all free, so that makes them all popular wood.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

'Popular' wood - now that's funny!! :grin:

David


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## 2muchsanding (Sep 17, 2018)

Ok, a guess here too, Top is Bum-ebony meaning it's not pure black. But still high dollar per board foot. The lighter one is sycamore, and the other Zebra?
Sycamore is really pretty turned on a lathe.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

The one with stripes is not Zebrawood, that one I know. I showed it against Zebrawood and it is decidedly different.

And I have several different flavors of Ebony on hand but I don't think the dark one is Ebony, at least not like I've seen. It has sort of a Wenge look and feel but end grain is wrong for Wenge.

After doing some searches I think you're right on Sycamore - good call, Cary!!

David


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## mimac (Dec 13, 2009)

The large dark one in the new pictures looks like a Rosewood and the large stripped one appears to be Zebra, smaller brown possibly Bocote and maybe Pecky Cypress for the other stripped one.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

I just put those in there to show my original ones are not Cocobolo or Zebrawood. The ones I put in are Cocobolo (large dark one in new photo) and Zebrawood (large striped one in new photo).

However, I do believe you're correct on the Bocote, Brian!! I have some other Bocote and didn't even consider that - my bad. 

And I believe the light one to be Sycamore, like Cary said.

So that just leaves the small one with the dark cell structure, appears to be stripes but you can see the dots on the end grain.

David


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## 2muchsanding (Sep 17, 2018)

This is a pet urn I made long time ago with Sycamore. Putting the tablesaw on a 45 deg. and running the board on a 30deg angle across the blade. Slowly raising the blade on every pass.
I've done some turning with it too, very nice wood.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Ok, got it now! Thanks, guys, for your help! Test is over (for now). :wink:









David


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

2muchsanding said:


> This is a pet urn I made long time ago with Sycamore. Putting the tablesaw on a 45 deg. and running the board on a 30deg angle across the blade. Slowly raising the blade on every pass.
> I've done some turning with it too, very nice wood.


Beautiful box, Cary!

David


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

I'm thinking Red Plam, Sycamore, and the other one looks a like like a piece of Malaysian Blackwood.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

According to the searches I did, Mike, it's Black Palm. And I'm sticking with Bocote for the dark one. The end grain doesn't match Malaysian Blackwood but looks exactly like the end grain shot in the wood database. But we can agree on the Sycamore. Thanks!

David


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

I've used black palm on quite a few projects and all of it I have had was really dark with light streaks.
First pic is Black Plam and second pic is Red palm


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

One option is to weigh them and then measure volume as accurately as possible and get the specific gravity. Of course it's best to do that in metric. That won't necessarily tell you what it is but it could eliminate a lot of what it's not.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

MEBCWD said:


> I've used black palm on quite a few projects and all of it I have had was really dark with light streaks.
> First pic is Black Palm and second pic is Red palm


By golly, I do believe you are correct!! The photo appears slightly redder than it really is and when I looked at samples of Black vs. Red I leaned toward Black. Now that I go back and look at it and compare to your photos I am in agreement that it is indeed Red Palm. Thanks, Mike!!









David


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## thomas1389 (Jan 4, 2012)

Looking at all those great pieces of assorted woods makes me think that if you screw up when using it you'll have nothing but "fire"wood.


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