Exotic Wood beech

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BEECH

Fagus spp.
Fagus spp. of the family Fagaceae, including at least the following, with some of the associated common names

F. crenata (Japanese, siebold's)
F. engleriana (Chinese)
F. grandifolia (American, Carolina, red, stone, white, winter)
F. longipetiolata (Chinese)
F. moesiaca (Yugoslavian)
F. multinervis (Korean)
F. orientalis (Eastern, oriental)
F. purpurea (purple)
F. sieboldii (Japanese)
F. sylvatica (aisatic, carpathian, copper, English, European, Japanese, Turkish, and MANY other country names)

According to wikipedia, there are only 10 Fagus species of beech, so I may have them all.

There are another set of species that used to be lumped in with the Fagus species but have been broken out (due to genetic differences) into a genera called Nothofagus and given their own family name as well (Nothofagaceae). This set of species has many "beech" common names because of the former association. I am not familiar enough with the two genera to say whether or not there is any easy way for the casual observer to distinguish between them.

my samples --- many of my veneer pics have too much red & need to be fixed. The planks have accurate color except as noted

both sides and both ends of a sample piece of beech (no subspecies specified)

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

European beech plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

Europenan beech plank and end grain

several views of some beech that Gerry Fey salvaged from an old building. He worked the wood and sent me these excellent pics of the results. I have confidence that the colors are quite accurate, as they are identical to some of the beech veneer that I have.

both sides and both ends of a sample piece of spalted beech

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

sample plank and end grain of a piece labled "American beech" --- the color correction put too much red in the pic; the wood is closer to slightly reddish light tan, not the orange shown here

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

A very interesting set of beech planks. These pics were sent to me by Andrew Greenwald who thought they were maple and asked my help in identifying them. After some consideration, I concluded pretty definitely that they are beech. The heavy streaks on the flat cut surfaces and to a lessor extent the strong rays visible in the end grain are both unlike anything Andrew or I have otherwise experienced in beech, but the rest of the surface characteristics are clearly beech and I did find at least one sample of beech that has rays that are similar, although not nearly as thick.

I have since discovered that this pattern is sometimes called "bear claw", for fairly obvious reasons.

planks

a closeup

some end grain shots

face and side grain of a plank with "bear claw" pattern. Submitted to me by Marc Prévost, whom I thank. Marc, like Andrew for the plank direct above this one, sent this in the belief that it is maple, but I am sure that it is beech.

end grain of the piece directly above

flat cut veneer

flat cut veneer and closeup

veneer, rift cut

quartersawn flaky veneer, with too much red tint in the pics

quartersawn flaky veneer --- this one goes all the way up to a second enlargement so you can really see these heavy flakes up close

quartersawn flaky veneer with a knothole, showing some interesting curly figure

steamed european veneer

steamed european flakey beech veneer --- the wood isn't quite as shiny as this picture makes it look

European veneer with brown streaks

European beech cluster burl veneer

web pics --- it seems unlikely that all of the colors are accurate

plank with wet and dry sections

planks

quartersawn planks with ray flakes

European "lace" planks. "Lace" appears to be a designation meaning quartersawn flaky with stong ray flakes

AH ... WELL ... no, actually what it means is that I'm careless --- this is not beech at all. As correspondant Jean Turner pointed out, it is actually sycamore.

I've left it here as a reminder to myself be more careful.

flaky veneer --- the color on these is way off --- the wood is tan, not green. See my own sample of flaky veneer for a better representation of the color.

turning blocks

bowl turning blank

veneer

quartersawn veneer

steamed veneer

rotary cut veneer --- grain shows up better on enlargement

white beech

American beech --- color seems totally unlikely

"unsteamed" veneer

curly veneer

veneer pictures with hilarious color !!! Every now and then I just HAVE to include one of these silly shots to show what you sometimes find on the Internet.