Wood identification

[Duane N]

I was given a piece of wood by a co-worker that found it in his shed at the house he's renting and I'm not 100% sure what type of hardwood it is.  It's dense and feels heavy (like Oak) but has a sweet smell to it when it's cut.  If I had to take a guess could it be Hickory?

I hope I'm posting this in the correct forum.

[tomsteve]

im thinkin white oak

[Paul-in-Plymouth]

Without larger and clearer photos, the best I can do is guess.  I can suggest some resources to help you make the ID yourself without guessing (at least very much).  First, borrow the book “Identifying Wood” by Bruce Hoadley from your public library.  If they don’t have it, ask them to borrow it for you from another library (and suggest they also get one for their own collection).  

Hoadley presents straight-forward, systematic keys for identifying an unknown piece of wood down to the species or to a small number of related species.   For most hardwoods the characteristics Hoadley references are readily visible in clean-cut samples with a 10X hand lens.  Ring-porous hardwoods (oak, ash, elm, hickory, pecan, etc.), which I’d guess your sample belongs to - but it’s only a guess -  are particularly clear and easy to ID in Hoadley’s system. 

Second, there are collections of very good photographs of wood samples on the Internet for comparison.  These two are my favorites:  

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/
http://www.wood-database.com

Good luck with this.

[Curlycherry]

Maybe sycamore?  Here is a stock photo of sycamore and based on the photos your's looks kinda similar.

[gMike]

Looks like Bubinga to me.  Cut it and see if it smells spicy.  Bubinga is heavy and hard and works real well.

[cams2705]

I would say it is oak as well ... if you look at the end grain, it appears to be a ring-porous species.

[salmo]

I suspect that these pieces are teak...

[Curlycherry]

I suspect that these pieces are teak...

Salmo may be onto something. It's not first growth, but it very well could be second growth teak. Does it feel "oily" and does the sawdust kind of feel like brown sugar?

[Duane N]

Salmo may be onto something. It's not first growth, but it very well could be second growth teak. Does it feel "oily" and does the sawdust kind of feel like brown sugar?

I've worked with teak before and actually have a few pieces and I know this isn't teak.  No oily feel to it.  It does have a sweet smell to it when it's cut.  I know it's not Oak because the Oak I've used has that distinctive smell to it when it's cut.  I'm taking a piece of it down to my local hardwood dealer tomorrow in hopes they can help me ID the type of wood.  If it's not too expensive I may make a small entertainment center out of it because it's easy to work with and looks great with some Danish Oil on it.

[Steve N]

I don't think that this is a domestic, beyond that I'm not sure. My initial thought was that it looks like this pic of Bubinga