Lignaterrae

This is palm wood. The structure, rather like compressed porcupine quills, is unique to all species of palm and it is utterly different to the wood of mainstream trees. The reddish-brown colour suggests it the wood of the Coconut palm, Cocus nucifera. Tricky to turn but the final result is dramatic

Confirmed, 100% Garrya elliptica, 'Silk Tassel Bush'

Superb timber, deserves to be better known. Great colour, variegated mid-green, yellow and pale brown with a thin white sapwood and the colours don't fade. Moderate density, easy to work, simple to dry, very little degrade. Its only minor demerits are the fairly large pith cavity (visible in the pics) and the bark oozes sticky white latex that gets everywhere. Oh, and a pity it doesn't grow to 60ft tall and 18" diameter...

Quarter saw as much of it as you can, even if the boards are narrow, it's really spectacular but flat sawn is dull as dishwater!

Are there any acorn cups on the ground? They are a good identifier being very hairy. As a timber Turkey oak has plenty of disadvantages; wide sapwood, poor drying characteristics and much lower rot resistance the Euro oak so not a good choice for outdoor use. Bonny tree though...

That is just too beautiful for words, makes the HobbitHouse images look boring! Never imagined it grew that large either. Man, sights like that make hard work worthwhile.

If you don't mind a hop over the Pennines, check out The_Wood_Yard - thewoodyardheywood.co.uk

A planer/thicknesser will change your woodworking life.

Biscuit jointer every time, superbly versatile tool.

Interesting question. An old manual I have on the mechanical properties of timbers gives the following classifications for Shock Resistance: Maple, Greenheart : High Oak, Sycamore : Low Beech, Hornbean, Robinia : Medium Ash : Medium Hickory : Very high Wouldn't trust Greenheart as it is very straight grained and very prone to splitting. It's so dense it would also add significantly to the weight of the tool. Sycamore the same, not enough resistance to splitting. Of the timbers you have, I'd go for Robinia, it seems to have the best combination of qualities for the job.

AAAARRGH, to die for !!!

The bark and young leaves certainly look like elm. A photo of the leaves when they are grown on some more will clinch it. Look at the base of the leaf where it meets the stalk, in elms the base is usually very lopsided and the leaf itself usually has a rough, coarse feel to it.

Looks like crotch-figured walnut, absolutely magnificent. Got any more you want rid of?!

Not even a proper burr

That's big ivy! I've used ivy stem myself. Interesting stuff rather than beautiful, it's a rather dirty white colour with a few scattered but quite large medullary rays. Rather soft, it turns easily and has a bad smell when green. This shouldn't be a surprise but articles made from it sell well in the few weeks before Christmas!

Aye, Maidenhead. I need an eye test. I'll have a look at how much Robinia there is but it will be at the weekend; unlit store and have to go to work, damn it, so daylight needed! Will PM you... Interesting website, thanks for the link Steve.

Trouble with E. globulus is that the tree isn't reliably hardy in the UK, tends to only stand a chance in coastal areas. Even so, some I know around Abersoch in North Wales were ruined in the exceptionally cold winters a few years ago. From my experience the timber from the common Cider Gum, E. gunnii, isn't particularly hard. Warps and twists like the devil as well and internal honeycomb shakes can turn good looking stuff into firewood!

Officially the hardest European timber is Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas, which is actually a dogwood, not a cherry), and a small block I have bears that out. Best of luck trying to source it! I have some good boards of 3" thick Robinia air dried 15 years bur Maidstone to Manchester sound like a problem...

Looks like Robinia would fit the bill nicely. All reports suggest it has exactly the same qualities of toughness as ash plus, for what it's worth in an axe shaft, excellent resistance to decay.

Might be a bit of a cheat, but the wettest surely has to be Bog Oak, straight out of the ground. Utterly saturated, I've half recollection of someone saying from fresh to dry a cubic foot gets rid of 3.5 gallons of water. Turning it in that condition must be like standing under a rotary shower. Otherwise, poplar and willow must be top candidates.

Got a very nice length of yew, dead straight, 4 inches diameter, very round in cross section and around 5 feet long. Been at the back of my workshop for 15 years. I'm in Manchester though...

Check out Hoghton Timber near Leyland, just up the M61. Great place, almost all native UK stuff. Take a torch, the store room is pretty poorly lit!

Yeah, eucalyptus is a terrible dryer. Exhibits just about all the drying defects there are - splitting, shrinkage, distortion, washboarding, honeycombing, ring shakes. In other words, the works!

Deffo a species of Maple (Acer spp.), the obvious lacy rays in one of the photos give it away. The timber itself isn't typical of maples though so it looks here as though it's a one-off heavily spalted/mineral stained example. Nigh impossible to ID most maples from the timber alone (bark and especally leaves are needed) but one can be ruled out - it ain't Sycamore, the bark is completely different.

Hi Steve, I've used this forum anonymously for a couple of years but this topic has finally encouraged me to register, so this is my first post! Although I work with wood, I am a serious wood collector and have used the Wood Database site for some years and hugely informative it is too. The end-grain microphotographs are absolutely indispensable for proper wood identification. Anyway, the purpose of this post is just to flag up a few of the temperate timbers I have going spare that may be of use to you. Normally I like to use the scientific names to save confusion but I suspect you'll know which these are anyway; Rowan (with coloured 'flower' heartwood) Camellia Dawn redwood (Metasequoia) Cider gum Cherry laurel Bay tree Robinia Maritime pine Caucasian wingnut Cork oak Magnolia (several species) Elder Paulownia Balkan hop-hornbeam Almond Barberry Plus many, many more tropical species. Any of these of use to you? Regards Dave