BLACK Maple??

I was given some short planks 38" long and 20"wide, 2 1/4 thick, it has a grain that I have never seen? but it has some figure? I took it to a Boy Scout meeting and was refered to 2 people that work extensivly with wood. they both said it was either "BLACK MAPLE or PIN OAK". Has anyone ever heard of Black Maple? these planks are very hard, and were cut about 30 years ago from a stump secton?

Thanks

I certainly don't know, but would like to see, can you post some pics?

Black maple I've not heard of. Pin Oak, yes. I also would like to see some pix if you have any.

I will plane a piece of it down , and try to post them tonight after work.

Based on the web sites that I have perused, black maple is virtually indistinguishable from hard maple. In fact, it is considered to be a subspecies of sugar (hard) maple and sometimes hybridizes with it. It sounds like you couldn't tell it apart from hard maple by looking at the wood alone.

Pin oak is a red oak and is very coarse grained. It would be very different from maple that is very closed grain.

I of course didn't see your samples, but it's generally pretty easy to discern an oak variety from a hard maple variety. Check the pore pattern on the end grain - the oaks are very clearly "ring porous", especially visible in the open-pored red oaks, amd maples won't show the clear ring pattern of pores. Maples are classified as "diffuse porous".

black maple- acer negundo
pin oak-quercus palustris

black maple is another "hard" maple and it's wood is pretty indistinguishable from sugar maple, it's an upland species like sugar maple and it is actually a cross breed of sugar and red maple.

pin oak, is a bottom land species of oak and is in the red oak family. it has copious amounts of small banches which creates many small knots in the wood most of which are about pin sized. like meteor man says, it is open pored around the rings, just look for the poors near the rings of the end grain. it is usually marketed as red oak.

post pics and we can tell you very quickly.

see, that forestry degree does come in handy.

Here are the pictures (I HOPE?) 1 dry and 2 wet.

2nd wet

1 dry, some day I will figure out how to post more than 1 photo at a time??

Looks like black cherry to me.
Steve Chapman

Since you don't know what it is, you should send it to me. looks good, but is it stock wood? The usual stock woods (sugar and red maple, cherry, and black walnut) were chosen for good reasons. Stability, strength, workability, strength, etc.

looks like that 2nd piece may have some toe nails in it - could ruin your saw blade. :wink:

My wife gave me hell for sitting around in my bare feet, when it is snowing like crazy outside?

It was the only stand I had to show contrast.

What do you think? will the grain figure make for a good looking Vincent?

If indeed it is cherry it may look something like this!

it's hard to tell, but pin oak is definatly out of the question. i'd lean more towards cherry or maple. the colors of the pics are all blown out.

i think it's cherry after staring at it for awhile.