Upcycling to display cabinet/bookcase

Bought 2 of these some months ago and really need to get them cleaned up and in use. I'll try to post the original pictures of them later (literally out of farm shed). They were sold to me as corner pieces hence the missing leg. Looking at them closer I think they had a sideboard between the 2 off them. Anyhow I need help identifying the wood type to see if I can get some more for the rear leg. Shown here they were scraped down with 95% of varnish removed and then quickly sanded for a final clean.

Inside they have dowel size holes and some dowels for installing shelves. If this all works out they will be model for me to build more later.

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keep up the good work! love the hospital bed idea - brilliant

Looks like Pacific Maple to me.

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Originally Posted by markinoz

keep up the good work! love the hospital bed idea - brilliant

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Original intention was to reduce stress on the hack by having workfaces at the height I needed.
With 2 off them (both electric) now and so many things on wheels it is making it so much easier to pack the shed and then unpack to work on multiple things.
I got frustrated with having to stop just because I painted something or couldn't find things as they remained hidden.

I agree with Arron that it looks like Pacific Maple (PM). However, the items must date from 1920 to 1940 I would have thought, and I don't know if PM was being imported/used then. I remember it from the 1960's but that just gives away my age! Since PM is so called because it looks like Maple perhaps they are a real maple? I'm not familiar enough with those to be sure, and the only US Hard Maple I have used was so highly fiddle-back figured that it would be difficult to compare with a piece with plain figure. However, there were enough similarities that I suspect that they are a North American Maple. From the photographs it looks too open-pored to be Queensland Maple.

Pacific maple is another name for meranti. Sometimes passed off as mahogany also. Nothing to do with Canadian/US maple at all.
Regards
John

https://www.google.com/search?q=mera...w=1081&bih=504

Thanks John,

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. That's a bad mistake for a botanist to make.

While the North American maples are not closely taxonomically related I didn't mean to imply that. It is just that timbers' common names often derive from superficial similarities rather than taxonomic relationship. For example, the Australian sheoaks are a strictly southern hemisphere plant family Casuarinaceae whereas the true oaks are a northern hemisphere family Fagaceae. There is no close relationship except that both families have very large medullary rays so the timber can, to some extent, appear similar (as can that of members of the Proteaceae).

In the same way I am presuming that Pacific Maple was so called because of a perceived similarity to the appearance to the timbers of North American maples, and further presuming that is the reason for the name of the completely taxonomically unrelated, Queensland Maple. When I say presuming, I mean that I am inferring from general botanical knowledge rather than being an expert on those plant families, so happy to be corrected.

The difference between Pacific Maple and the North American maples (rock maple and soft maple) timberwise couldn’t really be greater. Do a quick google on ‘rock maple timber’ and click on images and you’ll see that.

Exactly why early 20th century timber merchants chose the word ‘maple’ to market the Shorea genus, or what species of maple they thought it resembled is unclear. I can’t see any resemblance in timber or leaf or flower or habit.

I always assumed maple was chosen because to most people it just meant ‘cheap, soft timber that doesn’t really fit into any other category’.

Another thing. I’ve always thought the lighter Shorea timber was called Lauan and came from the swampy lowland areas which were exploited first, while the darker red stuff was called Meranti. I can’t seem to find any evidence of that googling now, but most of he older meranti is light, so perhaps the habitat thing was correct even if my understanding of nomenclature was wrong.

Cheers
Arron

Aha, just noticed that Shorea species have an egg shaped winged seed, just like the Acer maples from Europe and USA.

Cheers
Arron

The names of timber can be very confusing as some have many names for the same timber and some timbers can be lumped together into a common name. Meranti being one of those that can come from about 5 species. That said it is often under rated by woodworkers. If you can select the good boards from the stack there is some quite attractive wood there. It is also very stable with little movement. I made a fireplace mantle from it about ten years back and to date no noticeable movement at all.
Regards
John

I must admit I enjoy going through stacks of wood and finding beautiful grained pieces.

I think I had started to become very snobby with wood types and then I just started appreciated pieces for the grain that I see.
I still don't like accepted furniture made in Asia and shipped here as I feel this was how we allowed a great Australian industry to be killed off.

After reading your postings here I am beginning to understand why at times I just can't see different pieces of wood come from the same wood name and now I understand.
So when I look at some grain to need to think about how the tree was cut, where it may have been grown, age, damage it may have grown with but more challenging is the finish covering it. No wonder I still make more wrong guesses than right. I guess I'll just have to keep guessing :)

Thank you for the great posts and information.