Can anyone identify this wood? The finished wood in the background of the lower pic is walnut and oak for color comparison, plus a black folder. It is not as hard or heavy as oak or walnut, nor as soft and light as cedar. There is no distinctive odor I can detect as cedar, oak or walnut has. Shavings from the planer are cinnamon color. Butternut perhaps? It is part of a batch of rough cut lumber I bought from the sons of a local woodworker that had passed, so it would be something local to southwest Va.

Butternut is soft enough to dent with a fingernail.

Alder.

I believe Monster Toms is right that its alder. Alder typically has a lot of knots. When we used alder for cabinents, even open knots were okay, as long as you could only see through them at an angle. I'm not fond of alder because of the knots and softness.

Keith

Never heard of alder growing in the east. I will have to plane a larger piece to look for knots.

Not all alder is “knotty”. I would also agree with the alder…

Green alder grows in the Midwest, but I don't know if the wood looks the same as Western alders, such as red alder.

Keith

usda lists smooth alder as being all through the east coast

We have alder cabinets in the house and it does look very much like the wood in our cabinets.

Thanks folks.

Alder or maybe birch

If it's red birch, it will smell very good if scratched or cut, like something you would drink or eat.

Keith

Hard to tell from small piece & pic but looks like cherry.

Cherry

If it’s cherry it’ll be hard as iron. Alder will be much softer. They’re a similar color when dry

I does look like cherry to me.

'If it’s cherry it’ll be hard as iron" Cherry is 950 on the Janka scale. You don't get to woods that are normally considered hard until about 1200 or so

My first thought was cherry. The black cherry that grow here in the northeast are not particularly hard, it's in the lower third of the Janka scale.

I see Ric beat me to it.

I live in what’s considered a boreal forest, cherry is as hard as I gets here, we have about 95% coniferous trees (soft woods with needles)

Black cherry is probably twice as hard as most conifers but not nearly as hard as other domestic hardwoods in this area like oak, hickory, ash, etc.