I have a piece that was sold as oak, but it doesn’t look like the oak I’m used to seeing. I’m in western Europe and trying to narrow down the species without relying on color alone. Could it be ash, or something else?
Could this actually be oak, or am I looking at ash?
Asked by m1ro
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Oak still seems plausible. European oak species such as sessile oak or pedunculate oak are reasonable possibilities, and a piece can look different depending on how it was cut or finished. The guesses in this discussion leaned more toward oak than ash, but they weren’t unanimous.
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I wouldn’t call it ash from a quick visual impression. Grain can be misleading, especially if the wood is stained. A clear, unfinished view of the face and end grain would make comparison much more useful than color by itself.
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There were also guesses of maple and cottonwood, so I’d keep the identification tentative. Species common in one region may be less likely in another, and a photo-based guess is not the same as a confirmed identification.
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