who knows what wood this is?

[Laurence Dell]

Are you talking about fresh cut Pine, it's fine if you don't mind getting covered in sticky sap

There's no way that spoon is Birch, spalted or otherwise. The original poster said that it was hard to carve. Birch is soft and easy to carve when fresh never mind when partially decayed

It rots so quick you could probably carve spalted birch with a sharpened spoon never mind a spoonknife

 

[leon-1]

Sorry to reopen a thread which is so old, but that looks really like sycamore to me, I have a load of it in my garage and my green house and the bark looks just about right.

 

[gaz_miggy]

the white it could be some sort of spolting

 

[pierre girard]

Hi all,

I just returned from camping in France. Did a bit of spoon carving in the quiet woods of Aube (Champagne region). I used a bit of allready cut wood since there was quite a bit of that lying around.

When I started to shape the spoon the wood turned out to have a lovely grain. I think it is the most stunning piece of wood I have used so far for spoon carving (this spoon is my sixth effort). Problem is I have no clue as to what kind of wood it is. I was walking in a mixed forrest and nearby were fruittrees as well.

I am sure someone will be able to recognise the grain and tell me what it is......

here is a close up pic:

Thanks in advance for any help!

Kind regards,

Lennart

Not sure on the wood, though like Abbe, the bark reminds me somewhat of a conifer. Absence of scent would quickly rule that out. The wood has the appearance of a hardwood, though I don't think it is maple or birch due to the bark. Whatever it is, the spots and lines show it is in a state of rot. Balsam fir that has lain for a time often shows similar markings and can be quite beautiful.

It doesn't look like our local (US) ash, or oak - not enough figure in the grain, though I don't know what european strains look like. I'm also not familiar with european walnut. Our walnut (black walnut) is much darker than that. From the checking and appearance of the end grain, my best guess would be a fruitwood. Another guess - from the appearance - would be iron wood, though that is ruled out by the fact you were able to carve it at all. I'm not familiar with hornbeam, so that could be a possibility too.