Help! Name that wood.

[Coast_Ukulele]

I’m sure many of us have some wood in our stash that we forgot to label properly or are just not 100% sure what the heck it is. let’s help each other figure out these mysteries. apologies if there is already a thread for this.

i’ll go first! got this jumbo guitar sized set at the LMI open warehouse event today in the amazing $5 a pound super sale rooms. everything there was mostly just in misc unlabeled piles and i thought this wood looked really fun. i of course forgot to ask what it was when i checked out. any clues?



it has some acacia vibes but for the extremely low price i paid i just don’t want to assume at all this is koa. they did have some koa sets there but mostly smaller soprano sizes mismatches.

 

[sequoia]

It looks vaguely familiar, but I'm not going to guess on the name. Acacia species... maybe, maybe not. Here is a great article from the Wood-database about naming woods. It's a shady business (ha!).

HALO WOODS (AND SHADY NAMING PRACTICES)​

by Eric Meier
Let’s face it: wood is a commercial commodity. It’s the foundation of many different industries (construction, furniture, flooring, guitars and musical instruments, etc.). As such, it makes sense to put a product into as positive a light as possible. But sometimes, in an effort to sell the products, lines are crossed—or at the very least, we tread into some decidedly gray areas....

Halo Woods (and Shady Naming Practices) | The Wood Database

www.wood-database.com

 

[Pegasus Guitars]

There are builders here who probably have seen more koa than me, but I've seen a lot and would be hard pressed to say that is not koa.Maybe was in the cheap bin due to defects or the sap wood. You're lucky to be in the vicinity of a scrap bin like that!-Bob

 

[JJohansen]

Sure looks like koa.

 

[Island Jim]

How about Acacia, it does not need to come from Hawaii.

 

[kkimura]

Spalted cherry?

 

[Benros]

I would also guess thats a kind of acacia.

 

[Brett S.]

I would at this point just make up a name for it for fun.

Maybe it was discounted because a less than perfect bookmatch?

 

[spongeuke]

check with Mike
https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/index.php?members/michael-smith.30707/
He has a lot of experience with local acacia. Also he is just down the road.

 

[Michael Smith]

You scored!! Looks like koa, or Australian Blackwood, or black acacia. All can look very similar and overlap in looks. very closely related in the acacia family.

 

[Coast_Ukulele]

You scored!! Looks like koa, or Australian Blackwood, or black acacia. All can look very similar and overlap in looks. very closely related in the acacia family.

oh amazing. i do see that lmi carries black acacia head plates, so i wonder if this was a guitar set that didn’t have any matching sides. or koa! it’s easily big enough for a tenor top, back, and sides!

 

[sequoia]

Whatever it is, it's going to make a nice looking uke and that's the important thing.

 

[pcf]

i vote koa

 

[ProfChris]

I'd call it Acacia Incognita