Strange Wood – Bigbox store South Eastern US
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I’m building a coat rack/shelf for an entryway. Since this was supposed to be a quick/simple project to satisfy my wife, I chose to go with some 2×4’s I had in my shop for the main body. I milled and glued these to give me the back I wanted. When I went to cut in some dados – good grief. (2) dados 1″ wide and 7″ long and I had to resharpen (3) chisels twice. It kept rounding the tips over. My router plane barely made it through some of it. I spent nearly 1.5 hours working at these two simple cuts. With my #8 plane (with a Hock blade – razor sharp) – tear out from either direction. I had to take translucent shavings – and still have gouges all over the place.
I thought these were some relative of Pine or Spruce. They were very dry – been in my shop for some time. The consistency was almost like chopping into a dense rubber mat. The color of the wood was reddish. The grain looked similar to pine and the grain was straight. I chose these boards (way back when) because they were strangely straight – compared to the others. I think these may be hemlock – but I really don’t know.
I’m curious if anyone else has any input on this – or may know what this is. I bought them at Lowes Home Improvement. I live just outside of Nashville TN – to put it regionally. I’ve never seen these at Home Depot, however.
BTW – I’m new to the forum – first post. Been a fan of Mr. Sellers for a long time. I’m an avid hand tool woodworker and am trying to learn true artistry while working with my hands.
Pictures
Planed wood flat and end grain closeup.
I will tonight. I just thought to post it but I’m at work right now. I’ll upload a few hi-res images.
In the meantime, browse through this:
I’d start with the cedars, hemlocks, and pines.
The cypresses are also a remote possibility.
Possibly the firs and Douglas fir, but they are generally harder than pine.
Well, I have not been able to figure out how to upload a photo to this forum – not sure it is possible. Hopefully it will let me embed this link so you can see the photos. I’ve got 5 photos – 3 show the end grain on different pieces of the unknown red wood. One shows a contrast between the red wood color and the white pine behind it. The last shows the side grain with a knot. You can also see the tear out from where I was planing. Skewed, freshly sharpened, translucently thin shavings – I ended up using a card scraper and finally sand paper. I’ve painted it white anyway. Frustrating.
Referencing the wood DB – it looks like tamarack or hemlock. The end grain, to me, looks more like tamarack. The descriptions of how difficult both are to work with via hand tools mean it could be either. If anyone can tell for certain, my curiosity is piqued. The big take away from this is – I won’t use this for a furniture project again.
I agree on wood from big box stores. I tried super hard to use it, buying both select oak and pine as well as “whitewood.” Often I would start a cut and…the wood would EXPLODE. Like in pieces. Some times turning to dust as well. Only a circular saw would cut it, even then chipping/bowout occurred. That said, Lowe’s seems to be a bit better on average than Home Depot for wood quality. The pine (New Zealand,) and the oak (USA,) is a good value for the money. Often though, I wait for a sale at Woodcraft or Rocklers. The local lumber yards here are useless. Require large purchases and mainly carry plywood, MDF and “construction grade” southern knotty pine.
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