My Dad bought a fairly large lot of wood at an auction in the shop of a wood turner who lived hear him. Most of the wood was relatively small pieces and most all of it was unidentified, and much of it unidentifiable, at least by me. This is one of the pieces from that lot.
The wood was pinkish and roughly cut, not at all square, but without any bark present. There were significant checks in one face, so I made that the front figuring that I could cut out most of the checking, which I was able to do. The most interesting aspects of this piece though, which measured about 7 inches each side by about 1 inch, was the wild swirling grain and the distinct chatoyant “flame” or “tiger stripe” features throughout. The chatoyancy is highly visible under good light at the right angle, but it is very difficult to photograph successfully. I did that best that I could.
Mystery Wood Close Up Unfinished
The wood moderately hard and it cut cleanly, but there was distinct smell of vinegar when it was cut. I’ve never smelled anything else like it. I read that some red oak smells like vinegar when it is wet, but I would be very surprised if this was red oak as it doesn’t look anything like any oak I have ever seen.
The distinctive “waterfall” appearance, the color, and the chatoyant features reminded me of some of the pieces of Bubinga that I have seen. This type of wildly swirling grain is fairly common in Bubinga. I have also read that Bubinga has a distinctly unpleasant scent when cut while wet but that it disappears as it dries. So, not matching on the scent point exactly.
Mystery Wood Close Up Finished
Back in another life, I worked in a microbiology laboratory where a daily task was identifying bacteria that had grown in culture. However, every once in a great while, there would be a bacteria isolated that just resisted identification by man or by machine. In those cases it would be reported as “most closely resembling X” with X being whatever bacterial species came closest to the biochemical signature of the isolate in question. So, in that spirit, I would say that, in my limited experience of exotic woods, that this piece most closely resembles Bubinga. I am NOT saying that it is Bubinga, just that it has some common characteristics.
Knowing the source of the wood, it is equally like that it is wood from a completely non-commercial species that was cut down in someone’s yard. I suspect I will never know for certain, and perhaps it doesn’t matter as the wood is still pretty to look at regardless.
Mystery Wood Platter
All the cuts were done using my trusty Easy Wood Tools. All sanding was done with Green Wave paper discs from Packard Woodworks. All pieces were held in Nova Chucks. All of the walnut pieces were finished with my standard go to finish, ShellaWax, from Australia.
If anyone reading this has any ideas about identification, please let me know! It is also possible that it is Australian in origin as the original source had some fairly extensive stocks of some Australian woods. Any ideas at all, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.