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Another What wood is this?

863 Views 13 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  ibewjon
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From LA area. Nice color. Gummy sap under the bark. Any ideas?
Brown Natural material Wood Trunk Circle


Wood Trunk Natural material Plant Tree

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Sweet Gum or "Liquid Amber" - (my guess)
Not much to use for identification?
Any better pictures of wood, and end grain?

What does wood/bark smell like when cut or sanded? Soft or hard?

Silly guesses based on abused bark, while I watch to see if anyone knows: :-(0)

Soft:
Fibrous bark is often seen on; pine, spruce, fir, cedar, juniper, cypress trees.
Smooth bark is found on some; fir, pine, and spruce species.
Based on color, leaning towards; cedar, or Juniper. But both tend to have thicker sapwood bands.

Hard:
One of the 700+ possible eucalyptus species, some of which are called Gum trees in ornamental landscaping world. Red Flowering Gum is popular in CA.

Best Luck!
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Definitely not sweet gum. I have used it and have one growing in my yard. I do see them growing in this area. Sorry, those are the best pictures I can get at the time. I was hoping the dark bark, the wood color and the white, sticky sap might be a clue. I will look up eucalyptus trees for a possible match.
Definitely not sweet gum. I have used it and have one growing in my yard. I do see them growing in this area. Sorry, those are the best pictures I can get at the time. I was hoping the dark bark, the wood color and the white, sticky sap might be a clue. I will look up eucalyptus trees for a possible match.

- ibewjon
Do you have pictures of it before you cut it down?
If around here it might be Larch. From where you're at, that's unlikely. :)
No pictures. I picked it out of a community wood pile after the chainsaw massacre. There were no leaves attached to the victim when I found it. I just liked the interior color and thought of a couple nice bowls.
Without better pix it's gonna be hard to make a positive ID.

But white sticky sap seems to indicate a conifer of some sort.
All the conifer sap I have seen is like honey, clear, yellow to amber color.,.., and the wood is lighter. I will add better pictures when I can get them.
What does it smell like?
FWIW - The white sap has been bothering me, because I vaguely remember it can be bad thing?

After a quick internet reminder it hit me: White stuff is called latex, and is not really sap. It is often a poisonous excretion. Poison Oak and Hemlock will create white latex at bark when cut. There is also famous poison tree found it FL (Manchineel) with same trait. Here is AZ we have Oleander shrubs that get trained into trees. Was offered a 13" OD trunk section once. (No thank you) The Oleander excretion and leaves will kill backyard pets. The latex residue (or white sap) is nasty, as it often creates chemical burns on skin.
Many pine tree species can have whitish surface when sap is exposed to external moisture. Most famous is turpentine pine. The pine sap is very irritating to skin and mucous membranes for most people.

Hence, suggest caution when working with this wood, until you determine what it may be?
And do not burn your scraps. Don't want toxic smoke blowing around neighborhood.

It' s always better to be safe upfront, than sorry afterwards.
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I was wondering if it some type of latex. Won't be turning it till I know more. Will get a smell sheck when I can cut into it
Take good pictures and text them to a local forestry worker and they can hook u up faster than we can. I've never heard of poisonous sap from a tree but if it's creditable I wouldn't want to mess with it.
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