Reddish wood identification

[chinkapin_oak]

I'm 100% sure it's walnut. Aged walnut will often get a reddish tint to it. It also loses it dark brown/black color as it ages, giving it a light brown color, often with a red tint.
You have a perfect example of a stressed, slow-growth walnut. I'm guessing it has some pretty tight growth rings?

 

[basswidow]

It looks like cedar to me.

How's it smell?

 

[billb3]

I've had some dead standing (for a real long time)red oak get an odd color and texture like that (hard as a rock, too) and the one I was pretty sure was pin oak had little nubs like that for branches but ( if I RC ) the centers of the nubs were black.

 

[Danno77]

It looks like cedar to me.

How's it smell?

It's almost devoid of any smell at all!

If walnut looks like that when aged for a realllly long time, then explain why walnut furniture that never gets that color... The grain is similar, though, so I don't really have much else to argue with that ID other than I've never seen some that color!

 

[basswidow]

Looking at it again, I would swear its cedar. We've got a ton of field cedar like that. Makes great fence posts. Looks just like it.

 

[Danno77]

Looking at it again, I would swear its cedar. We've got a ton of field cedar like that. Makes great fence posts. Looks just like it.

It is the exact same color as cedar. That was my initial thought. BUT, my experience with cedar is that it smells no matter how old it is, especially on a nice fresh cut.

Also, this thing had a top on it like a decidous type tree. Mostly gone at this point, but still a few branches there.

It was standing, no punk or rot on it at all

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

I'm going to chime in here.
It looks like old red oak to me.
Does it look like it has been laying around for a bit?
Thin layer of "punk" on the outside?
Sure looks like some of the old stuff we
have laying around in our woods.
Probably 5 - 10yrs+ old.

 

[ScotO]

I'm 100% sure it's walnut. Aged walnut will often get a reddish tint to it. It also loses it dark brown/black color as it ages, giving it a light brown color, often with a red tint.
You have a perfect example of a stressed, slow-growth walnut. I'm guessing it has some pretty tight growth rings?

I agree...looks alot like American Walnut........esp. after he cut it with the table saw....my banisters and balusters are from the 1840's handmade out of virgin Walnut and they have the exact look, pores, and grain......not black walnut, but American Walnut......black walnut is really dark, American is more reddish....I am 100% certain of this.....I may have a leftover piece of that banister I will get a pic of the fresh cut end if I can find it.....

 

[Thistle]

Black Walnut & "American" Walnut are the same species - Juglans Nigra

 

[benjamin]

It was standing, no punk or rot on it at all

Sounds like walnut heartwood to me, all of the sapwood rotted off which is why the top was mostly gone. It could have stood dead for 50 years easily. The color looks just right to me, but I've got a lousy pic here.

Take a hand plane to it and see if it cuts even smoother than fresh walnut.

 

[krex1010]

Looks kinda like Kentucky coffee to me

 

[ScotO]

Walnut, like I said earlier.......

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Id guess either cherry or sassafrass.

Holy catfish Lee. Can sasafras grow that straight?

Yes!

:lol:

Well on occasion we've found one or two that are straight but around here most are really crooked things.

 

[firefighterjake]

Not very good at IDing trees solely by their inner wood . . . but it looks like a cherry that may have lost most of its bark to me . . . assuming that the other rounds were not part of the same tree.

 

[Danno77]

Not very good at IDing trees solely by their inner wood . . . but it looks like a cherry that may have lost most of its bark to me . . . assuming that the other rounds were not part of the same tree.

Nope, the other rounds were from hickory and walnut trees nearby.

 

[ScotO]

Definately no cherry, but the more I look at the piece you cut through the saw it looks alot like mahogany...can't understand what it is growin up there for.....lol.....is it heavy wood?

 

[Danno77]

It's pretty light. I lifted that 8ft section into the truck bed on my own, FWIW.

 

[krex1010]

I only know of three trees that could possibly be, walnut, sassafras and Kentucky coffee. Walnut and sass have a pretty distinct odor, the odor isn't as noticeable as the wood ages, but you should be able to smell it when you cut it up, sass smells like trix cereal to me, walnut smells like walnut can't think if anything comparable.