Sciencemadness Discussion Board

detecting genus type from wood shavings

kranky - 26-1-2011 at 13:08

Is this possible?

any types of labs where i can send in a material and figure out what type of tree the sawdust came from?

thanks in advance

ScienceSquirrel - 26-1-2011 at 13:24

It should be possible for a good microscopy lab to do this.
Wood is very distinctive from tree to tree. If a lab has a good range of reference samples plus equipment to make slides it should be easy.

Sedit - 26-1-2011 at 13:31

Im almost 100% sure aside from microscopic analysis that if you performed an alcohol extraction on the wood and send a small sample to a company of the condensed resin that they would be able to give you an idea of the chemicals present IE, the type of tree it came from.

kranky - 26-1-2011 at 14:30

thanks, on a mission to find a lab now to send a sample to

watson.fawkes - 27-1-2011 at 08:16

Quote: Originally posted by kranky  
any types of labs where i can send in a material and figure out what type of tree the sawdust came from?
Read Identifying Wood, by R. Bruce Hoadley.