What wood?

[Stuart]

I’m very much not a fan of what wood is this posts but I’m desperate so what wood is this?!

It’s our current kitchen worktop and I’ve spent hours trying to track it down with absolutely no success at all. We’re going to extend and my wife loves this and wants to keep it if at all possible so any help appreciated.




Staves are about 75m wide

 

[Trevanion]

It reminds me of Rubberwood, I’m not sure what exactly it is though but I would suspect Asian in origin.

 

[Doug]

Looking at the end grain it’s made from remarkably small trees with a lot of sapwood presumably plantation grown trees, do they do plantation grown Walnut :eusa-think: I have seen Walnut worktops with a lot of sapwood which is why I ask the question.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Ygiagam. Definitely ygiagam.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

It does looks a bit like small bits of walnut with loads of sapwood ?

 

[Cabinetman]

Perhaps you could put a pic into a search like TinEye ( if I have it right) that may also bring up worktop suppliers who stock it.
Ian

 

[Lons]

It looks a bit like some wood I was given stripped from an old piece of furniture Stuart. I was told it was Indian Rosewood which I looked up at the time and apparently like my wood it's often stained to give it a dark even colour but when I stripped that back it was like yours, If I can remember I'll take a pic tomorrow.

Here's a link to some being sold on Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indian-Rosewoo ... 35&sr=8-22

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That's sheesham - Dalbergia sissoo. It is a rosewood. 90% of it is used in India as firewood, apparently. I don't dislike it.

 

[Stuart]

Thank you for the suggestions.

Ian, - tin eye doesn’t have any suggestions whilst Google Lens says hickory.

The simple fact seems to be nothing like this is currently available in the UK as kitchen worktop. I have spent hours searching and spoken with a couple of professional fitters who don’t recognise it.

Looks like we’re having oak!

 

[Cabinetman]

Thank you for the suggestions.

Ian, - tin eye doesn’t have any suggestions whilst Google Lens says hickory.

The simple fact seems to be nothing like this is currently available in the UK as kitchen worktop. I have spent hours searching and spoken with a couple of professional fitters who don’t recognise it.

Looks like we’re having oak!

You don’t have to tell your wife, but if I were you I would be glad that it’s no longer available haha

 

[Lurker]

90% of it is used in India as firewood,

Certainly a better use of it than for kitchen worktops!

 

[Lons]

90% of it is used in India as firewood,

Certainly a better use of it than for kitchen worktops!

Yep but it makes nice pens if the right sections are chosen.

 

[Stuart]

90% of it is used in India as firewood,

Certainly a better use of it than for kitchen worktops!

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. However, I have to admit it doesn’t actually look too bad in situ. You’ve only seen a couple of ‘extract’ photographs.

That said, I won’t be unhappy with oak!

 

[Lurker]

I didn’t mean to be rude, Stuart.

 

[novocaine]

Looks a bit like yew.

 

[Trevanion]

Looking at it again, maybe it’s Mango Wood? Commonly used on inexpensive furniture from Asia.

 

[AJB Temple]

The well known top quality Oak Furnitureland now has a mango wood range. They market it as equivalent to oak. https://www.oakfurnitureland.co.uk/blog ... 0furniture.

 

[D_W]

Sissoo may be what it is. If it's about as dense as heavier beech samples and only slightly harder, it's a candidate.

Sissoo was and may still be CITES appendix II listed, and it's probably not easily usable for things like indian or other rosewoods without coloring (trees (legumes?) small, so heartwood small).

it's a craft wood in india that was added to cites less because it's threatened and more because people use its lack of scarcity as a way to mislabel other rosewoods that are less common. Put differently, if you're selling a pallet of e. indian rosewood or ceylon ebony dyed and lacquered trinkets, you could label them as Sissoo and get away with it. So Sissoo gets added, and it doesn't have the draw for instruments, etc, that "better" restricted woods do, so it won't be found often.

it's been a long running debate as far as I know, whether or not to try to upgrade detection standards so that the woods that can "look like" restricted woods don't get restricted to due to mislabeling shenanigans. Last I heard was "well, not ready yet - so recommendation is to keep it restricted".

 

[Tellurian]

Looks a bit like yew.

I wouldn't like a food prep area made from Yew wood.

(Good to see you here D_W)

 

[Stuart]

Thanks for all the thoughts. The search is formally over.

I haven’t found out what it is I just can’t be arsed anymore! There has to be a limit on how much worktop searching a man can be expected to do.

Anyone wanna take odds that I find out what it is the day after I rip it out?!

 

[D_W]

Thanks for all the thoughts. The search is formally over.

I haven’t found out what it is I just can’t be * anymore! There has to be a limit on how much worktop searching a man can be expected to do.

Anyone wanna take odds that I find out what it is the day after I rip it out?!

You'll find something labeled that matches it as soon as it's not worth knowing what it is.

16 years ago, I bought an offcut turning blank (not neatly made) that a store here had labeled as "rosewood", but it was the size of a backpack and $16, so that didn't make sense.

I bought it, anyway. It dried over the years and it looked like a lot of things, but i never could pin it down.

Years later, I found out when I bought a wood called Lauro Preto that the big blank that I never used (and pondered throwing away) was Louro Preto. By then, the cheap blank was probably 14 years old and it was cracked about 6 different ways.

it looks like this:
https://i.imgur.com/ttx7Gjw.jpg

It turns out it's OK, but not that great, and if you use it where you expect to see rosewood, somehow your brain says "looks weird - almost like rosewood". it's splintery, dusty and very perfumey.

 

[D_W]

(Good to see you here D_W)

thanks. years ago, I registered here and ran afoul of something but there wasn't much posting. I figured it would be kind of low traffic, but I'm glad to see I was wrong - and glad to see that most of the stuff seems to be more on topic than most places.

Not looking for a place to post regularly despite the flurry - trying to wean off of things that get in the way of spending time making stuff.