Chestnut is a wood that is no longer common throughout the United States due to blight that nearly wiped out the trees. According to The University of Tennessee, chestnuts were common until the early 20th century and they were used to build houses. Chestnuts are not as common nowadays and the identification of chestnut in building structures like beams is difficult as a result. Due to the rarity of chestnut, it is a desirable wood.
Instructions
1. Check the pores of the wood. Like oak, chestnuts have the large cells that run parallel to the bark of the tree to create rings in the wood that look like large pores. This is one of the main distinguishing factors of chestnuts.
2. Check for rays in the wood. Rays are cells that look like lines cutting through the porous rings. Chestnut rays cannot be seen without a microscope while other woods, such as maple, have rays that can be easily seen without a microscope.
3. Examine the end-grain structure through a hand lens that magnifies to 10 times what can be seen with the naked eye. The end grain shows the appearance of the wood more clearly than other sections and can make identification easier. Look for obvious, rounded pores in the wood. End grain shows porous wood easier than other sections of the wood.
4. Look for cross section cuts in the wood. The term "wormy chestnut" describes chestnuts that had died by blight and were cut after worms had gotten to them. Chestnut beams that have cross section cuts or worm holes in them are wormy chestnuts.
5. Weigh the wood and compare it to oak, if you can. According to The American Chestnut Foundation, the weight of chestnut wood is almost two thirds the weight of oak, due to the molecular makeup of the wood.
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