Expert: Eileen Cronk - 7/12/2004

Question
I have been refinishing several different pieces of furniture that I found at auctions and I was wondering if you could tell me how to figure out what kind of wood different furniture is.  I can tell the oak, pine and mahogany apart. What about cherry?  I am re-doing a table and when we sanded the top the dust that we sand off has a reddish tint.  Would that mean it is cherry?  And how can you tell the difference between butternut and walnut in dressers?  Any advice?  Or the name of a good book?  Thanks in advance for your help.  Ruth

Answer
Hi Ruth
So nice to hear from you.
What an interesting question this is, and more so coming from a lady (Usually the men ask :-)
If I have the wood in front of me I can tell a lot of the different kinds, but certainly not all.
Like you I can tell oak, pine and mahogeny in most cases.
I am pretty good with cherry because I make a lot of things from cherry we harvested here on our property.
I suspect the table you are sanding and getting a reddish dust from is not cherry. I get this dust from walnut and mahogeny, not cherry.
Would you believe that cherry wood is not a darkly colored wood at all? Cherry gets dark as it ages or it absorbs a stain extremely well, but before that its light to medium light, and even has blond streaks through it.
Maple is also easy enough to identify. Its one of the hardest hardwoods and has practically no grain.
Birch is a nice wood to find in furniture because it refinishes so well. It seems softer than maple, but unlike maple, birch takes a stain beautifully.
Walnut and butternut are easily identified because walnut is a lovely chocolate brown right through, butternut is not. If you turn your dresser upside down, and take a small sample of the underside of the dresser top you should be able to tell if its walnut (use a utility knife to get a chunk)
Butternut is also softer than walnut.
I am sure there are numerous books out there Ruth, but a picture really is not going to do it. Just keep learning the way you are by experience.
And if you ever run accross a person who says they can identify any wood, don't believe it..its impossible.
Thank you for the great question
Regards
Eileen