What is it?

[Keystone]

It's hard to tell. Could be one of the Elm's or White Oak. Clean it up a bit, that should pop the grain enough to tell. The weight could be from moister.

FYI. The hardness of a wood isn't what makes it a hardwood or soft wood. Southern Yellow Pine is a softwood that is very dense and hard. Balsam is light and soft, and is a hardwood.

[arcticfox46]

Hardwood (decideous trees) is determined to be hardwood because the tree drops the leaves in winter.

Softwood trees (evergreens) do not.

[Howard849]

Guys,

Thanks for the hardwood/softwood lesson. Who would have thunk it was that way.

You know, my hair is falling out through every season... it makes my head like deadwood.

Howard

[Gecko]

One other wood that they use to make pallets out of was Mahogany. I remember as a kid my dad cutting up pallets that sheet steel came in on and using it for firewood. :)

[jimknapp]

This one looks like genuine mahogany to me.

[Cody Colston]

When I was in Belem, Brazil, I saw a bunch of "lumberyards" that had this reddish colored hardwood...tons of it. I never did learn what it was called but I also saw it used in all the offices and Hotels I entered in Brazil. Sorry, not much help.

Cody

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

[dcarter636]

Cody, do suppose that reddish wood was Jatoba, AKA Brazilian Cherry? Our bank has a Jatoba floor, inexpensive, nice looking, hard stuff.

[venus_inc]

Not to be a hippie-tree-hugger, conspiracy-theorist or anything, but I read somewhere that what they call "jatoba" or Brazilian Cherry-and Mahogany-are really the same thing. Supposedly, in an effort to keep exporting mahogany, which is an endangered hard wood, they have marketed it under a different name.

? But that could be a lot of malarky, who knows.

[dcarter636]

That would be pure malarky Venus, Jatoba is a much harder wood that wears steel tool edges. The feed rates for Jatoba on my machines are more comparable to hard maple. Very unlike Mahogany except after planing when it does kinda look like reddish stained Mahogany.

I impulsively grabbed a few boards of the stuff when Sears Trostel had a parking lot sale. After planing and squaring those boards we realized this stuff has nothing in common with Cherry wood either, I'm still trying to decide what to do with it.

[Howard849]

Does anyone have an idea what species wood this is? It's a hardwood, not soft at all and heavy. I "borrowed" it from work, they get it as part of a pallet for some very heavy items.

Howard