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A Service to Definitively Identify Wood??

C

Charles Johnson

Joined
Dec 8, 2010
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Location
Western North Carolina
OK, this is an off-the-wall thought and it's catalyzed by the 11/29/2021 post entitled "California native Walnut?" with its recent replies: Think of the many, MANY time we have all seen -- and asked -- the question, "What kind of wood is this?". Further, and to the point that Mr Hicks says he received some liquidambar, but thought it was sweet gum or red gum, how many times have we failed to agree on the type of wood because we learned different regional names for the same species? So . . .

. . . does any know of a DNA testing service that identifies wood? You know, we send a toothpick-sized sample and a check for (fill in the blank) bucks and they send back a report with complete identification. This seems like a no-brainer. If we can send in a cheek swab to get our ancestry going back six generations and find out that 9% of our heritage is Ukrainian -- and do the same thing for our dogs -- how hard can it be to dive deep into a wood sample?

Anyone know of such a service? Anyone want to start one?
 
Sure you can do it labs exist for just those reasons. Mostly for timber industry, import/export, tracking endangered species, etc. Send in your sample with a check for $500 -$1000 and you can have a report that will ID it to species, if the genera is one for which they have data.
 
There is a gov. service that will ID your wood sample, though only the species, like Elm or Maple etc, but not the type like Sugar Maple or American Elm.

That's where you do need to get flower and leafs and bark and etc to get closer, hard to do with a not so get picture of a piece of wood.
 
The US Forest Service, Forest Products Lab in Madison Wisconsin will identify two samples a year for no charge. Visit their website for a form to submit with your sample and size of sample requirements.

Forest Products Laboratory - USDA Forest Service

Web site for the United States Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. Part of Forest Service Research & Development, serving the United States and the world.
www.fpl.fs.fed.us www.fpl.fs.fed.us
 
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Charles Johnson said:
OK, this is an off-the-wall thought and it's catalyzed by the 11/29/2021 post entitled "California native Walnut?" with its recent replies: Think of the many, MANY time we have all seen -- and asked -- the question, "What kind of wood is this?". Further, and to the point that Mr Hicks says he received some liquidambar, but thought it was sweet gum or red gum, how many times have we failed to agree on the type of wood because we learned different regional names for the same species? So . . .

. . . does any know of a DNA testing service that identifies wood? You know, we send a toothpick-sized sample and a check for (fill in the blank) bucks and they send back a report with complete identification. This seems like a no-brainer. If we can send in a cheek swab to get our ancestry going back six generations and find out that 9% of our heritage is Ukrainian -- and do the same thing for our dogs -- how hard can it be to dive deep into a wood sample?

Anyone know of such a service? Anyone want to start one?
Click to expand...
The university of madison wisconsin used to be one of the worlds leading experts with identifying wood- and at one time had the worlds largest data base of wood species-they offered the service of identifying up to 10 pieces of wood per year for US residents for free-I did an interview with them about 20 years ago- they were the "experts" at solving the Lindberg baby kidnapping (the wood used in the ladder came from a neighboring garage if i remember correctly) Not sure if this service is still available as its been about 10-15 years since i have used it- I had about 20 pieces id'd from around the world that i acquired from a veneer mill scraps- man did i get some beautiful wood that came through as shipping containers-they even could identify certain woods that were grown from a redwood plantation - Might be worth a google search to see if its still available- I can did up info if needed
 
Hmm, I think there is a phone app for identifying trees, but you need leaf and bark. I also use smell some times, but trees can have 2 different smells. One when the wood is still good, and another if the tree is starting to rot, and it tends to smell sour, or like the aftermath of a horse stall.... some times, even like the cat box.

robo hippy
 
Lou Jacobs said:
The US Forest Service, Forest Products Lab in Madison Wisconsin will identify two samples a year for no charge. Visit their website for a form to submit with your sample and size of sample requirements.

Forest Products Laboratory - USDA Forest Service

Web site for the United States Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. Part of Forest Service Research & Development, serving the United States and the world.
www.fpl.fs.fed.us www.fpl.fs.fed.us
Click to expand...
Hi all - wondering if anyone has used the USFSP Lab in Madison recently, or heard maybe they don't do the testing anymore? The "link" to the web-site is broken and when I Googled their website I couldn't find any information related to ID'ing wood samples.
 
John Dillon said:
Thanks Lou - working for me now. Head-scratcher...............:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
taking a closer look at the "link" you posted, I see it going to the "fed.us" domain, while the correct website goes to "usda.gov" domain. the ".us" domain is NOT a US government website! So I'd hope you do have good antivirus and malware blockers. (That is why I pay close attention to the actual domain in the link even from google searches. with so many new domains like that, and other similar spoof domains, it's all too easy for those unaware to get caught up by it.)
 
Brian Gustin said:
taking a closer look at the "link" you posted, I see it going to the "fed.us" domain, while the correct website goes to "usda.gov" domain. the ".us" domain is NOT a US government website! So I'd hope you do have good antivirus and malware blockers. (That is why I pay close attention to the actual domain in the link even from google searches. with so many new domains like that, and other similar spoof domains, it's all too easy for those unaware to get caught up by it.)
Click to expand...
I didn’t post anything. I just asked a question.
 
John Dillon said:
Hi all - wondering if anyone has used the USFSP Lab in Madison recently, or heard maybe they don't do the testing anymore? The "link" to the web-site is broken and when I Googled their website I couldn't find any information related to ID'ing wood samples.
Click to expand...
That is very helpful, thank you for sending the link.
 
John Dillon said:
I didn’t post anything. I just asked a question.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I just wanted to point out that the link was "fed.us" which isn't a US Gov't domain , and if you click it (or anyone else that comes by and clicks it) you could easily catch a browser based virus, malware, etc (or worse) because whoever has control of the domain can inject any sort of attacks that could infect your computer (or cell phone) , scan your computer for unprotected data, etc, etc. So as I noted, I'd hope you keep your antivirus stuff and security settings up to date. (BTW I said "posted" since even though it was just quoting someone else's post, it's still a post..) Just call it a paranoia of mine being a former web-security programmer analyst...
 
The fed.us domains are just an older version of government websites that were retired about 10 or 12 years ago. I'm not sure why but most government websites changed their domains around that time. For example City of Austin went from Austin.tx.us to Austin.gov same with state of TX and many other states and cities as well as U.S. government agencies.
 
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