Hmm...strange purple wood

[Maltozombie]

Hey there guys, been gone from here for a while but i ran across something that i found very interesting,
and i thought you all would be able to shed some light on this maybe...

I believe this is Cherry? it came from the same woods right by my house, i live in middle tennessee
and just LOOK how purple this is. it's really odd. and i'm just wondering if there was a purpleheart tree growing in my backyard  :laughing7:
thanks for any opinions on what i have here guys.

 

[NonsenseTele]

Purpleheart growls on South America, not sure if it growls on North...

 

[bagman67]

Some cedars have purple heartwood like that.  What does it smell like?  Is it a soft wood? 

As Nando points out, purpleheart is a tropical species.  I'd be surprised if the temperature and rainfall patterns in middle Tennessee would support its growth.

Bagman

 

[tangent]

Looks like it could be a variant of cedar, likely atlantic cedar or eastern white cedar

Both of those are native to your area and have that kind of light pinkish heartwood, the heartwood of purpleheart is much darker

BTW, different variants of cedar have very different smells, ie atlantic/virginia cedar smells quite different from texas cedar or canadian blood cedar,  so it could be cedar even if it does not smell like what you expect cedar to smell like, whatever that is..

 

[bagman67]

Here is a shot of a red cedar trunk cross section from the grounds of Enon Hall in Lancaster County, Virginia:

Seems like the right climate there for what you're seeing.

 

[Maltozombie]

I'm gonna go with Bagman here and say it's cedar, it smells pretty much like it, i had just never seen cedar this color , guess i was smelling partly with my eyes :icon_biggrin:
it was quite an anomaly to me, now i've just got the task of figuring out what to do with it.  :icon_scratch:

 

[JimBeed]

is it fingerboard length? if so, smooth that hunk of wood!  :laughing7:

 

[Maltozombie]

it's EXACTLY fingerboard length! lol, i was thinking a neck, but it has small split at one end that would make that pretty much impossible, but a fingerboard, i think i can do  :headbang:
i'm pretty excited about this now, need to read up more on fretting and putting a fingerboard on a neck.