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Construction Zone: building, remodeling, additions: What Kind of Wood is This?

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Forum: Construction Zone: building, remodeling, additionsReplies: 27, Views: 457
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Kelli
L.A. (Canoga Park), CA
(Zone 10a)

September 15, 2006
05:41 PM

Post #2727334

Is it possible to tell what kind of wood these cabinets are? The wood is veneer and the cabinets are original to the house, which was built in 1964 - in case that helps. (There is no reason why I need to know what they are and I don't plan on changing them. I'm just curious.)

Thumbnail by Kelli
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Kelli
L.A. (Canoga Park), CA
(Zone 10a)

September 15, 2006
05:42 PM

Post #2727341

Here is a closeup of the grain.

Thumbnail by Kelli
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pepper23
KC Metro area, MO
(Zone 5b)

September 15, 2006
09:20 PM

Post #2727887

My first thought was oak but the grain pattern is wrong. I will have to mull on it for awhile. My dad is a carpenter and would know but is currently redoing our roof. Nice cabinets though. WOuldn't mind having them for myself. lol
escambiaguy
Atmore, AL
(Zone 8b)

September 16, 2006
02:21 PM

Post #2729692

I would look at some birch plywood and see if the pattern matches. It was commonly used (still is) for cabinet doors. The cabinets in these older houses were built so much much rugged than they are today. It's a shame people are tearing them out.
claypa
West Pottsgrove, PA
(Zone 6b)

September 16, 2006
02:52 PM

Post #2729774

It looks like birch,but it's not. In the second photo you can clearly see the pores in the grain, birch is very close grained and smooth. It is oak. The door fronts are rotary sawn, would have to be veneer or thin plywood with a veneer. The frame is oak, too. It was probably kind of highly figured to start with, and the rotary sawing accentuates it.
Rotary sawn wood is like a giant roll of paper towel, except it's a log.
That plywood isn't hard to find, I think the amount of figuring is unusual, though, which is why it got used for those styly cabs. Enjoy
NSBgardener
New Smyrna Beach, FL
(Zone 9b)

November 24, 2006
06:06 PM

Post #2941461

The solid wood rail and stile are oak as well as the veneered doors. The grain pattern is from the technique used to create the veneer. It was sliced off in a rotary manor with the log mounted like a roll of paper towels and a blade peeling off the layers creating the pattern seen often on birch and other plywoods.

Bill
CountryGardens
Lewisville, MN
(Zone 4a)

November 28, 2006
01:30 AM

Post #2949722

Very pretty cabinets. Definitely oak. It's hard to find nice oak plywood. We use it for the cabinet boxes & shelves. Doors are mostly made of solid oak in raised panel styles. Trees were bigger 40 years ago, so bigger logs made nicer patterns.
Here's some doors we made for a house built in 1969. These cabinets had terrible plywood doors, nothing like what you have. Yours would have been handmade, not factory.
Bernie

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CountryGardens
Lewisville, MN
(Zone 4a)

November 28, 2006
01:31 AM

Post #2949723

Other side of kitchen.

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pepper23
KC Metro area, MO
(Zone 5b)

November 28, 2006
08:30 PM

Post #2951799

Nice cabinets Bernie. Can I have them? lol. We have really dark, stinky cabinets. Have no idea what the smell is but it has been there since we bought this place 10 yrs ago.
eweed
Everson, WA
(Zone 8a)

November 29, 2006
01:52 PM

Post #2953525

I do believe that the cabinets are ash. Looks just like mine built in 1971 not much oak used around here untill the return to light woods in the eighties. At least thats the way it was here then.

Anyway without really seing the small grain detail it could be oak but I think the grain is just to wild to be oak my vote is ash and I am sticking to it lol. Ernie
KSGrazier

November 29, 2006
02:03 PM

Post #2953546

I vote oak, as well. Sorry, Ernie. What sells me on the oak is the pore formation at the grain, seen in the close-up. Classic of oak.
pepper23
KC Metro area, MO
(Zone 5b)

November 29, 2006
10:04 PM

Post #2954800

Sorry Ernie. I too still agree that it is oak. You are still outvoted on here. lol
eweed
Everson, WA
(Zone 8a)

November 29, 2006
11:20 PM

Post #2954975

Well my cabinets are ash and so is the paneling on the fireplace wall and my mantle so my vote stays the same. Who ever owns these cabinets will have to be the judge lol. Ernie
Kelli
L.A. (Canoga Park), CA
(Zone 10a)

November 30, 2006
04:35 PM

Post #2956806

It turns out that the cabinets that I showed you happen to have the waviest grain of all. These are more typical - bold but not super wavy...

Thumbnail by Kelli
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Kelli
L.A. (Canoga Park), CA
(Zone 10a)

November 30, 2006
04:36 PM

Post #2956809

...and these are fine-grained.

Thumbnail by Kelli
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Kelli
L.A. (Canoga Park), CA
(Zone 10a)

November 30, 2006
04:38 PM

Post #2956815

I thought this was interesting. It it the edge of a door and shows how the different sheets of veneer pieces come together. (Color is a little off.)

Thumbnail by Kelli
Click the image for an enlarged view.

pepper23
KC Metro area, MO
(Zone 5b)

November 30, 2006
08:14 PM

Post #2957422

oak still.
CountryGardens
Lewisville, MN
(Zone 4a)

March 24, 2008
10:31 PM

Post #4705835

Anybody still watching this ? I now have a web site.
http://www.berniescabinets.com/1.html
Kelli
L.A. (Canoga Park), CA
(Zone 10a)

March 24, 2008
10:49 PM

Post #4705936

I'm still watching. (Nice cabinets!)

Last year we had to get a new microwave and when we took out the old microwave, inside the cabinet was written "walnut". Is there any kind of walnut that looks like this?
ecrane3
Dublin, CA
(Zone 9a)

March 24, 2008
11:03 PM

Post #4706014

Maybe they meant walnut colored stain? I really think your cabinets are oak.
jkochan
Chandler, AZ
(Zone 9b)

March 25, 2008
03:03 PM

Post #4708451

White oak wood with a yellow oak stain.
Gymgirl
SE Houston (Hobby), TX
(Zone 9a)

July 26, 2008
07:34 PM

Post #5324506

Definitely oak. I bought a fixer-upper and had a handiman woodworker build my new cabinets in the garage. Definitely oak...
cabinetman
Iliff, CO

December 04, 2008
02:32 PM

Post #5858535

The wood is white ash and the doors are 3/4 lumber core plywood with a corner molding on the door edges to hide the core of the plywood. Ash was very popular in the 70s. I have been in the custom cabinet business for over 40 yrs. Oak and ash have a very similar grain but ash has more figure in it than oak.

Thumbnail by cabinetman
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Kelli
L.A. (Canoga Park), CA
(Zone 10a)

December 04, 2008
02:40 PM

Post #5858560

Ash with a golden stain or varnish, or is that the natural color of ash? Ash is interesting because there is a remote chance that it could have come from NW PA, not far from where my grandparents had a cabin. That was my favorite place on earth back in the days of yore. There was a sawmill up there that processed ash, though I think most of it went for baseball bats.
cabinetman
Iliff, CO

December 04, 2008
02:53 PM

Post #5858606

I would say it has a lite brown stain and then varnished. All finishes yellow with age from being exposed to light. You might take off a door and look under the hinge. If the cabinets were finished after the doors were put on you will see the original color of the wood. If they were finished before the doors you will see the original color of the stain. Also look at the back of the doors where they were not exposed to light and you will notice the difference in colors from the front. Also the back of the face frame is probably not finished. Or look up inside the base cabinet finished ends.
Photographer
Moxee, WA
(Zone 4a)

December 20, 2008
03:42 PM

Post #5912509

Kelli,

You have some fine cabinetry. Ash or whatever it is ... is plenty attractive and works like new. So many are prone to toss out their current cabinets whenever they remodel. The cost of new cabinetry is so much ... I personally question the value of burning $5-10k worth of cabinets in a home to replace them with $15 worth of new. This is the mantra so many real estate people cram down the consumers throats. To me ... those choices look poor ... like $25k down the drain.

My motto ... "if it ain't broke ... don't fix it." Kelly

This message was edited Jan 20, 2009 9:04 AM
CountryGardens
Lewisville, MN
(Zone 4a)

December 20, 2008
05:26 PM

Post #5912743

Gee, am I not charging enough for cabinets. Most kitchens are running $6 to $9 thousand that we have done.

Here's a recent one.

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CountryGardens
Lewisville, MN
(Zone 4a)

December 20, 2008
05:28 PM

Post #5912746

Other side.

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