Woodworkers read ....... (1 Viewer)

So I go to a coworkers house who is moving and wants to clear out their garage. They say they have some "wood" from when her husband used to be a woodworker, so being a woodworker and having a father who is a woodworker we go check it out. The house is a hundred years old and in pretty shotty shape, but when we get there we find a garage with a crap load of lumber.
We take an entire truckload back to my place. The truck load is uncut oak, cherry, and walnut stock. Nice stock, 8 foot boards 8-12 inches wide, some of them up to two inches thick. We figured about a very conservative 1500 dollars worth of hardwood lumber. We where happily on our way to making many a hardwood table, chest, ect.

There is one board that we have to go back for. About twelve feet long 12 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick. It looks to be Walnut, and my dad says that its probably a 60+ dollar piece by itself. We come back and cut it in half. After a final strole through the garage flipping over junk wood and piles of crap I look up in the rafters.

Like many people do these people have huge planks running across the rafters to store stuff. But the only think piled on these planks appears to be more wood. I jump up on a cabinet and take a peek. These are huge dirty boards that dont look like they have been moved in 50 or more years, the grain cannot even be seen. Planks as wide as 15 inches 1.5 thick and twelve feet long, so huge you really dont see boards there size anymore. I lift them and they are HEAVY. So me and pa about crap our pants. Its all hardwood and what appears to be walnut. We rip all of it down and load it up after cutting it to get it in the truck. We are all smiles.He takes a piece home to clean it up after dropping the rest at my place.

I show up a couple hours later, excited to see clean pretty walnut, but I am shot down at the door. My dad says "I dont think its walnut" Disapointed I ask "well what was it". He has been woodworking for 20 years which is why I was suprised when he said "I dont know, but I am trying to find out" He pulls out this plank that he had cleaned up in the plainer and shows me one of the most beautiful pieces of wood I have ever seen. It was very heavy and dense, a rosish brown with very long grain running the length of the board. "Its definetly an exotic" he said. So now we have a huge pile of oak, cherry, and walnut. and a huge pile of flawless exotic hardwood. Not to shabby for 125 bucks. Subwoofer cabinets yeah?

wet the wood w/ mineral spirts or plain water and take a picture of it, maybe someone might know what it is.

here are some links w/ samples.

http://www.blueheronwoods.com/WoodsDomestic.htm

http://www.blueheronwoods.com/WoodsExotic.htm

So, what part of the country are you from?

I am from Iowa. Whatever this is, its going to make some beautiful furniture.

From looking at the above grains it looks pretty similar to tulipwood, but I couldnt be sure.

What part of Iowa are you located in? Just curious.

Damn, that's crazy prices. It really appears like you are going to have some fun with that wood. Keep us posted on your projects. A nice sub out of that exotic wood sounds wonderful.

at the shop that i created my tempest at, the guy had a stock pile of wood mostly domestic, but he has some exotic rare stuff, the coolest piece he had was a 15 X 20ish by 2 inch piece of Ebony, he took out his pocket knife and shaved a piece off and the cut from his knife was the smoothest raw wood i have ever touched, i can't imagine how much that pice would cost today

ROSISH???!!! Keoni, if it is rosewood, I will appear at your doorstep. Your city will NOT be big enough for you to hide from me. I WILL have some of that. You are forewarned...

It being quite old and all, it could be Rosewood.

I'm getting the feeling that whatever it is, it's going to be a lot more valuable than what you bargained for. If there's more of it left, and you have any ability to go back for more, I would definitely do it. These are once-in-a-lifetime types of opportunities. Don't look back and wished you had.

Even if you can't use the wood, I guaranty that you could sell it and use some of the proceeds to acquire some tools you've been droolin' over!

Good find! Finding good deals always gets ya excited.

FWIW, rough cut lumber is quite inexpesive if you get it from them mill. My father has a pile of rough cut 1 x 8 cherry that is 6' x 5' x 12' that he only paid $100 for. He bought a planar and a joiner and has made some really nice stuff.

Rough cut is where it's at.