# Need help ID this wood



## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

I traded the use of my engine lift for a pile of wood. I made a really good deal. Now I want to know what I have. LOL The bark looks a little like pine but is softer. The looks of the wood looks like ceder, But smells like eucalyptus. After sending a board through the planer It becomes very aromatic. I am reposting this this in the right forum. I didnt get any hits in the general forum.

Attached Thumbnails


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Handyman said:


> The looks of the wood looks like ceder


It looks like eastern red cedar to me too


----------



## dirtclod (May 7, 2008)

Kinda looks like cedar to me also. The smell of ERC is distinct. Grab a small branch or whittle a chip off a standing tree and compare the smell. Old cedar logs will get a musty smell mixed in with the cedar smell. But as long as there's still intact heartwood it will still have that distinct smell. 

Got any clearer pictures taken after it was planed?


----------



## Kirk Allen (Nov 7, 2006)

Juniperus virginiana (Eastern Redcedar, Red Cedar, Eastern Juniper, Red Juniper, Pencil Cedar) 

OR

Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae

The pic looks like Eastern Red Cedar but having never cut any cypress, which is very common in the south, I would say its one or the other. I know the bark on both are very similar.


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I can't tell what the color is like from the pic. Put a sander to it and give it a good sniff. ERC will turn pink and/or red and/or purple and smell like a Lane Jewelry box from Stuckey's. Cyprus stinks. It has a nasty smell when you machine it, not a pleasing aromatic smell at all; termites love it though. It's an irritant to many people and they end up avoiding working with it so wear a mask if it turns out to be cypress. 

If it has bark "like pine but softer" then you can rule out ERC or Cypress, which as mentioned are quite similar but nothing like any pine bark I have ever seen. 

I can nearly roll in poison oak and hardly get a rash but I hate working with Cyprus. Get a small splinter that you are unaware of and just wait for a few hours. That sucker will fester up like a blister in no time. 

Let us know the verdict when you figure it out.


----------

