# Species of old wood



## Dale Whitaker (Jan 20, 2012)

I'm getting ready to dismantle a very only school house and I want to know what kind of wood I have. Forest Pine vs Yellow Pine for an example.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

G’day 

Welcome to the router forum.

Thank you for joining us, Dale.

I thing that depends to a great extent to where you are and when the school house was built......


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## Woodshaper67 (Jan 13, 2012)

One thing that will give some idea about the wood is where in the country you are .In the southeast it more than likly will be pine a little north and it could be hemlock.I have a guy I know that went to Michigan bought a building that was built in the 1800's it was all walnut.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

...That reminded me of a project we did, back in the '70s. A client brought in an Interior Designer to do the painting schedule. ALL the trim in this gorgeous old home was lightly stained and varnished WALNUT...I'd never seen that much Walnut in one place! 
The Int. Designer (a woman) called for ALL the Walnut to be painted white...
The client and I just stared at her. Needless to say, the client suggested to her that her services were no longer required.


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## wbh1963 (Oct 11, 2011)

Hi Dale,

There is a link to the USDA Wood Handbook in my tagline. In addition to good descriptions of different species of wood, it has low magnification (approximately 15x) micrograph photos of each types cross section. As the book states, the colors in the images are a result of dyes to used to make the cell structure more visible and not representative of the the wood type.

A 'toy-store' grade microscope (or low end ones on ebay, some with digital cameras built in) would go a long way in 'confirming' the general physical interpretations of density, hardness, color, scent, etc.

Good luck in your quest for details.

Bill


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## Dale Whitaker (Jan 20, 2012)

Dale Whitaker said:


> I'm getting ready to dismantle a very only school house and I want to know what kind of wood I have. Forest Pine vs Yellow Pine for an example.


Thanks. The school house is located in NW North Carolina, in the foothills, just short of the 'real' mountains. It's in Surry County close to Mount Airy. Best guess at the date the school house was built is between 1910 and 1930


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