Help ID this wood (mid 1800's spinning wheel part)

[Ryan Mooney]

A fellow spinning wheel enthusiast has been restoring a mid 1800's wheel we believe is from the mid 1800s probably north eastern US origin based on some construction details. One of the pieces was well past saving structurally so it was sacrificed for the greater source of knowledge and we have a couple of cross sections of if.

The flecking is distinctive, the growth rings are HUGE (and it's not ring porous), it's relatively hard (although age might play some role in that..), and pretty fine grained. Note that the finish or stain that was on it almost didn't penetrate at all either and did so very evenly..

Any theories?

 

[Dan Noren]

if it is heavy, could be white oak. if they were using local hardwoods, red oak, red maple, sugar maple, beech, and birch are good guesses too.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Seems to dense for oak and no ring pores?

Beech was one possibility floated.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

On first glance, it looks like some type of maple to me.

 

[Don Baer]

I vote for beach...

 

[Leo Voisine]

I have some wood that looks like that.

Quarter sawn.

Forgot the name - Sycamore??
Really hard and dense

NOT sassafras

 

[Darren Wright]

Sycamore does have a lot of fleck when quarter sawn, "American Lacewood" as it's referred to.

 

[Jay Caughron]

Its Beech.

 

[Jim DeLaney]

Its Beech.

Yep!

 

[Paul Douglass]

I started with sycamore, but I do not consider it heavy. Beech,, I could agree, I have just started using it and love it so could go non-Rino and agree.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Beech it probably is! I've passed on the news. Thanks all.

That was one of the top guesses over there as well, with also a few votes for sycamore and possibly some sort of hornbeam or hophornbeam but Beach being common and a good match seems most likely.

 

[Mike Stafford]

It's beech to me....

 

[Ed Thomas]

I wonder if it could be one of those woods which "bugged" out over the years due to disease or infestations.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

Beech

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Beech

Boy I wish..,

Goes back to looking at real estate listings in HI...

I wonder if it could be one of those woods which "bugged" out over the years due to disease or infestations.

Maybe, but I thought the grain on Am Chestnut was more striated and less flecked... These are all woods I've rarely seen or used . Although I DO have a couple nice beech slabs they're european and steamed and therefore a bit more even in grain...

 

[Leo Voisine]

Kinda looks like Sycamore to me

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

I vote for beach...
View attachment 123442

I second it.