Can anyone tell me what type of wood this is?

hotelcali4nia1 · January 07, 2009, 04:03:59 PM

Hello everyone,

I hope I'm in the right section. I'm re-finishing my 100 yer old house, and sanding the paint off the wood door trims, and 12" baseboards so I can varnish them. Problem is, I want know what kind of wood they are so I can use the right kind of wood putty to fill in the nail and screw holes, and look half decent. (unless someone has a better method for doing this, I'm all ears). I've tried searching the web for pics to identify them but no luck.

I think I've found 2 different types of wood so far, I think one is poplar, and the other pine but not sure....so here's a couple pics.

Thanks

Dodgy Loner · January 07, 2009, 04:45:50 PM

Well, the first one is definitely a softwood of some sort, and there are no resin canals visible on the faces, so that rules out pine. It could be fir (true fir, not douglas-fir), spruce, or hemlock. The bottom pictures also look like a softwood, possibly of the same species as the top photo (it's definitely not pine and I highly doubt that it's poplar). Regardless of the species, it's not going to look half-decent if you use any kind of wood putty (sorry, but I have a highly irrational distaste for wood putty ;)). As the wood ages and darkens, the wood putty will remain the same color or sometimes even get lighter, so no matter how well you match it, it won't match for long. I would probably leave the nail and screw holes as they are, people pay good money for that in reclaimed wood

. If that's not to your liking, you could try sharpening some wood in a pencil sharpener, tapping the tapered part in with some glue, and cutting and sanding the wood flush. It won't be an exact match, but at least it will darken along with the rest of the wood.

hotelcali4nia1 · January 07, 2009, 04:55:12 PM

Thank you Dodgy. Thanks for the Tips, I never thought of leaving the holes in for that aged look....I may just do that!! ;D

ely · January 07, 2009, 05:05:00 PM

i am not an expert by any scope of the means, but i guess pine.

Tom_Averwater · January 07, 2009, 05:16:07 PM

It really doesn't matter what kind of wood it is , the putty just needs to match the color.You might have to mix different colors to get a good match. Tom

fishpharmer · January 07, 2009, 05:24:47 PM

I don't know either. I don't think its southern yellow pine.

Your location might give a big hint to folks if it is an old home. I am sure its not a rule but it seems that here in MS most old homes were built of local materials. Such as southern yellow pine.

Hope this helps,

jdphish

hotelcali4nia1 · January 07, 2009, 05:34:51 PM

Thanks for the help everyone. Fish....I meant to include that in my post and forgot about it lol. I'm in southern Ontario Canada.

LeeB · January 07, 2009, 07:37:52 PM

I would be really concerned about possible lead paint in something that old. Can't help you with the type of wood.

sgschwend · January 07, 2009, 10:25:47 PM

How heavy/hard is it?

I looks like cedar from here.

SwampDonkey · January 08, 2009, 08:43:48 AM

Top one is white pine molding with that stable knot. Not sure about the bottom two, seems like gray streaking from stain that a white pine would have though. You don't always see those resin streaks Dodgy. I have an example of that on the lid to my foot locker. A couple boards have very distinct resin canals on the surface of the board and the others nothing. Most likely most prominent near the sapwood. One of them seems to have been quartered and has some interesting ray fleck pronounced by the transverse resin canals. ;D

See now, white pine isn't always boring. :D

I'll also tell ya, that planes out a lot different than flat sawn, you get some little dimples marks you have to sand out. It's weird.

Tom Sawyer · January 08, 2009, 08:48:45 AM

Quote from: hotelcali4nia1 on January 07, 2009, 05:34:51 PM
Thanks for the help everyone. Fish....I meant to include that in my post and forgot about it lol. I'm in southern Ontario Canada.

Can you be more specific? I am on Lake Huron north of Grand Bend.

Tom

Dodgy Loner · January 08, 2009, 09:54:43 AM

Quote from: SwampDonkey on January 08, 2009, 08:43:48 AM
Top one is white pine molding with that stable knot. Not sure about the bottom two, seems like gray streaking from stain that a white pine would have though.

I still don't think it's white pine, but a closeup of the endgrain would be necessary to know for sure.

SwampDonkey · January 08, 2009, 10:09:26 AM

Possibly Dodgy, hard to tell one way or the other from a not so focused picture. Like to have the wood in my hands. ;D Spruce will have wad of pitch around the knot hole many times.

Dodgy Loner · January 08, 2009, 11:10:38 AM

My gut says the top one is spruce - that's what all of the 2x4s in the big box stores are made of, so I see plenty of it ;). Most of them come from Canada. Maybe it's a different species than the one you're familiar with ???. The second one is a little bit tougher because of the blue stain. Could be anything, really.

SamB · January 08, 2009, 11:44:46 AM

Hotel, If you have a piece of that wood to spare, crosscut it create some fine sawdust, mix that with some wood glue and you'll have your filler for the holes you want to fill. Should match up well and you can take a picture of the end grain for further ID if you desire.

SwampDonkey · January 08, 2009, 01:40:11 PM

Dodgy, unless it's Sitka, you wouldn't be able to tell one eastern spruce from another. This ain't box store material, it's an old house. But, I agree without seeing those resin canals that spruce is a good guess. Spruce wouldn't be out of character, but white pine is used heavily up in this country for molding and that's molding. In this old house I'm in however, it was spruce that was used for moldings because the pine around here were pretty much cut a long time ago, very sparse, but all kinds of spruce. Eastern white pine will darken like those bottom pics with age and some is just reddish brown to begin with. I've never seen spruce that dark even in my old barn, they go straw brown color or gray if exposed to weather. They will darken if water stained though, almost black. Even though the spruce resin canals are not as prominent as pine, they are there. My barn door oozes spruce sap all the time. I have some now on my hands from closing the door. :D

ohsoloco · January 08, 2009, 02:32:44 PM

Top one looks like spruce to me.

Jeff · January 08, 2009, 02:46:34 PM

You could generate enough sawdust to make your own sawdust/glue wood filler by sanding the length of the back of the molding with a palm sander.

hotelcali4nia1 · January 08, 2009, 05:32:38 PM

WOW...great responses, tom I'm from the lindsay/peterborough area, I love the glue and sawdust idea, I'll have to decide if I wanna go with leavine the holes there for the rustic look,or fill them...I may fill the bigger ones and leave the small ones. as for the wood, I'll try to get a photo of the end this weekend. see if that helps any

SwampDonkey · January 08, 2009, 06:28:29 PM

Can ya scrape a fresh surface with a utility knife? ;D

In the Tree and Plant ID Board there is a sticky topic up top with lots of photos of flat, quartered and end grain of different species some of the members posted.

In particular is this post by Qweaver.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,8854.msg504760.html#msg504760

WDH · January 08, 2009, 06:34:09 PM

My first thought on the first pic was spruce. Can't really tell on the other two.

hotelcali4nia1 · January 08, 2009, 11:49:51 PM

ok, thx swamp for that site

thats alot of wood too look at lol. but after looking through them all I'm pretty sure the last 2 pics....wood 2......is tulip poplar.....looks darn close to me lol

Tom Sawyer · January 09, 2009, 09:00:05 AM

I think tulip poplar for the second piece as well. Colour is right.

SwampDonkey · January 09, 2009, 11:19:37 AM

Well there now, you answered your own questions. ;D

hotelcali4nia1 · January 09, 2009, 05:11:27 PM

actually swamp, I think you answered it for me my giving me the link to that website with all the pics on it :D I've been looking for a site like that and had no luck so thank you!! And thanks to everyone for all the advice, it was all very helpful. when I get them sanded and varnished I'll post a few pics so you can all see how it looks "shined up" ;D