Wood ID please.

[Smithkp]

A coworker asked if I would cut a beam up for him and brought it over yesterday. All he knows is that they were used to bolt transformers to and ship them. He said they could set a transformer in a field on these beams and they wouldn't rot.

What I know. Wood is very hard and my saw spit out red dust when cutting. I planed them down to get a look at the grain and checked my blades afterwards to ensure none were chipped or broke. It sounded like the planer was going to explode when I was running them through. Other than that, they are just really beautiful boards and he has a barn full of these beams.

ETA: He said someone told him the wood was from South America??



 

 

[WDH]

Yes.  I believe that it is tropical.  Not sure of the species.

[lxskllr]

Reminds me of cocobolo, but I'm not that familiar with tropical wood. Try that, or investigate the blackwood family, like rosewood.

Cocobolo - Wikipedia

[Smithkp]

Bullet wood seems to be the consensus here. But after seeing a picture of quartersawn Sapele....could be either but the use for bullet wood makes sense. Whatever it is, I have a lot of it.

[DelawhereJoe]

Could be ipe color looks similar.

[Don P]

I was thinking the same thing but for id we call all the unknown wood from down south "jungle wood", seems like there are a dozen look alikes for each. Bruce Hoadley's wood ID book does go into some tropical woods.

[loganworks2]

Ipe will sink if put in water it is so dense. I have built several boat swim platforms from it 25 years ago and they are still in use .

[KEC]

Possibly, Mahogany, it shows up as dunnage/pallets with freight. I think that Mahogany is used as flooring in semi-trailer vans.

[Hodja]

Looks like Cumaru (Brazilian Teak).  Ipe (Brazilian Walnut) would have a slightly green tint.  Both Cumaru and Ipe are dense and water resilient.