Thread: Anyone good at identifying antique timber type? I think it's oak.

definately euro oak mate have worked with it all my life im a cabinetmaker
cheers ken

I'm pretty sure it's ..Didgro.

Not oak = Quercus sp.
There are no flames from multiseriate rays.The close up of the arm is close enough to radial section/aspect that I would expect to see the big rays.

Hi Robson I know you have the credentials to identify wood better than anyone else....but...just look at those marks on the perpendicular face of the arm in the second photo and they look to me like medullary rays end on. So of the eighty or so species of quercus could this be one which just doesnt show a lot of figure and a piece that has been cut to minimise the rays ?

ok someone will have to translate what robson is saying ~scratches head~. I know what medullary rays are and to me these chairs have them. I also went and looked at a european oak cupboard and the similarity to these chairs was very close.

My guess is multiseriate rays are what we know as medullary rays and radial section aspect is the quarter sawn face. Now the ball is in your court Vegemite Girl, if you can see rays then take a really steady, well lit, close up picture and post it here and solve the mystery.

They arent medullary rays in the middle picture.

Medullary rays would show as long thin lines running along the arm of the chair almost 90deg to the grain patterning. They would be vwry difficult to see in a thin piece.

The grain looks like a faster growing timber. I've worked oak for many years and that would not be my first guess

How about this for a test. Shave a hidden area (even the bottom of a leg) and put a drop of ammonia or bleach on clean wood. If oak, will go chocolate brown.