Thread: ID this timber please

I have a coffee table that I bought when I was living in Papua New Guinea. It is made from a timber that the cabinet maker in Port Moresby called "Red Silkwood" or "bauvudi", but which is known botanically as Palaquium Sapotaceae, and marketed as "Pencil Cedar". If your piece of timber came from PNG, or anywhere else in the equatorial south west Pacific, then it's possibly Pencil Cedar.

I can't find any references to Australian timbers that have the common name or marketing name of "Red Silkwood". The grain on PNG Red Silkwood is fairly bland. This reference mentions PNG Red Silkwood, but has no photos. This reference has some photos of Pencil Cedar (Red Silkwood), and unfortunately the photos don't look much like your sample photograph......

Unfortunately, there's not much point in my publishing a photo of my coffee table as an example of Red Silkwood, as my table has been stained very dark (nearly black) before being lacquered.

Hope that info helps.

RoyG

Originally Posted by RoyG

I have a coffee table that I bought when I was living in Papua New Guinea. It is made from a timber that the cabinet maker in Port Moresby called "Red Silkwood" or "bauvudi", but which is known botanically as Palaquium Sapotaceae, and marketed as "Pencil Cedar". If your piece of timber came from PNG, or anywhere else in the equatorial south west Pacific, then it's possibly Pencil Cedar.

Hope that info helps.

RoyG

+1 if it's imported.

Red Silkwood if domestic is a trade name for Palaquium galactoxylum, but it's more commonly known as Cairns Pencil Cedar.
Silkwood Maple also gets labeled as red Silkwood too sometimes, as does Bolly silkwood.

20160904_175239.jpg

Looking at the growth rings, I could see that there are quite a bit of seasonal differences between very thin dark rings in comparison to the lighter and thicker rings.
Would that be consistent with either PNG or Cairns climate?

Doesnt look like the Cairns Pencil Cedar that I have worked with.