Gujarat(?) Post Office sorting box wood species mystery

[ThornhillMike]

Our seriously about-face renovation continues (i.e. the house is filling up with furniture finds faster than we're getting to grips with the work necessary) but hey it's fun and balances out the hard graft.
The latest find is a cupboard that allegedly came from a sub-post office in India. We have no provenance for this other than the shop owner does source a lot of her stuff from India. A quick Google verifies that many of the names on the pigeon-holes are indeed companies or institutions in Gujarat, India (just outside Mumbai).
Anyway, that aside, the unit is ridiculously heavy for what it is which led me to question what it's made from. Perhaps an impossible question online, but having sanded the top a little can anyone venture a guess as to what the wood might be?

 

[Toby Newell]

Our seriously about-face renovation continues (i.e. the house is filling up with furniture finds faster than we're getting to grips with the work necessary) but hey it's fun and balances out the hard graft.
The latest find is a cupboard that allegedly came from a sub-post office in India. We have no provenance for this other than the shop owner does source a lot of her stuff from India. A quick Google verifies that many of the names on the pigeon-holes are indeed companies or institutions in Gujarat, India (just outside Mumbai).
Anyway, that aside, the unit is ridiculously heavy for what it is which led me to question what it's made from. Perhaps an impossible question online, but having sanded the top a little can anyone venture a guess as to what the wood might be?

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Less rubbish photos please and more sanding. A lot of these Indian items are fake, so I would assume fake.

 

[Toby Newell]

Impossible to say with such poor image, grain looks like oak, it could be teak, doesn't look like shisham or mango wood which are also very popular. Oak only grows in the Himalayas and the contstruction is super basic so one would be surprised to import oak from Europe or from the Himalayas where it is mostly used locally.

Teak is the most common wood and the cathedral crown cut grain could be that. You really need to sand it back to the bare wood though and take better photos in better light, as I said, most items sold in the UK are fake aged so my trust that this is original starts off at around 0%.

 

[Toby Newell]

Put some P40 grit onto your amusingly under powered sander and get it back to in the white, ie sand off all the paint, stain and discolouration!

 

[ThornhillMike]

A classic Newell response; thanks Toby lol. I will endeavour to take some better photos and upgrade my sander. To its credit, all of the places catalogued on the pigeon holes do actually exist in Ahmedabad India. So either a very elaborate fake or vaguely genuine.

 

[Toby Newell]

A classic Newell response; thanks Toby lol. I will endeavour to take some better photos and upgrade my sander. To its credit, all of the places catalogued on the pigeon holes do actually exist in Ahmedabad India. So either a very elaborate fake or vaguely genuine.

Classic? Forget better photos atm, just sand more, the wood is still covered in dirt, paint and stain I cannot actually see what I amsupposed to be indentifying. Upgrade your sander? It is a woefully bad sander, possibly one of the worst on sale but it will do it's job of rotating a bit of abrasive just fine, no need to upgrade. Very elaborate? What? Painting names from a map? Hardly rocket science. Actually the faking and distressing of wood is a skill and Indians are very good at it, so I would agree the distressing is very elaborate. I would say the vast majority of Indian items sold over here are fake. It looks fake to me, wood and paint don't wear like that it's too perfect. It might be real, but nothing about the patination to me screams real.

 

[Toby Newell]

That's not to say badly made, wonky, distressed items don't have any charm, I don't necessarily dislike it, just if someone told me a story about it I would smile.

 

[Toby Newell]

Lol, reverse logic. Was your "quick google" to verify names particularly elaborate?

 

[Toby Newell]

And sanders, my only Dewalt sander bought in an emergency whilst doing the Marriott Grosvenor Square ballroom died after 20 minutes. Cordless sanders are useless, I would never use a sander without extraction. A better bet would be a Makita BO6030, I had several 25 years ago, they are cheaper now than then! Makita quality has fallen off a cliff but maybe those are ok? They look like the same design. Makita used to make the best sanders before Festool came along. The BO6030 would be twice as powerful and twice as smooth but more importantly is 150mm which is the industrial sander disc size, 125mm is hobbyist size so your abrasive choice is limited by around 95%.

Seeing as you have splashed the cash I would stick with the sander and spend any upgrade money on improved abrasives, they do the work, poor sanders just take longer. Seeing as your dust extraction will be almost zero with the bag, try some Festool granat, they come in 125mm too and are a very strong ceramic grain. With 150mm you can also use 3M, Sia and Norton. They are pretty much the four best abrasive makers for ROS and DA sanders.

Your cruddy white discs are probably low grade brown Alox, compared to Festool granat ceramic the performace uplift is probably around 3 to 5x so much greater than a new sander.

 

[ThornhillMike]

Sadly Toby not all of us have 300 years experience in working with wooden floors, or have extracted a gazillion nails/screws/sharp pointy things, or can afford industrial kit to help us, or have a plethora of dust extraction tools. Some of us are mere mortals that are gamely trying to put our houses back together with some honesty and care. Your advice is always sound, if a little abrasive (see what I did there). Quite why anyone would fake an Indian sorting cupboard for a few quid is beyond me, but at least I now know what to buy myself for Christmas...

 

[Toby Newell]

Sadly Toby not all of us have 300 years experience in working with wooden floors, or have extracted a gazillion nails/screws/sharp pointy things, or can afford industrial kit to help us, or have a plethora of dust extraction tools. Some of us are mere mortals that are gamely trying to put our houses back together with some honesty and care. Your advice is always sound, if a little abrasive (see what I did there). Quite why anyone would fake an Indian sorting cupboard for a few quid is beyond me, but at least I now know what to buy myself for Christmas...

Sorry, you asked for help identifying a wood, I can help better if I can see the wood! The bare dewalt sander costs the same as a Makita BO6030. You can use a Henry and Duct tape as an extractor. Wood dust is carcinogenic, I would say dust extraction is essential. I have given you free help and advice. I already suggested using better quality abrasives over buying another sander. As regards whether your item is fake or not, the antiques trade is full of fakes, most of the sellers are either ignorant or duplicitous, the vast majority of Indian furniture in the UK is faked. Faking is a very skilled craft and the Indians do it to a very high standard which is impressive in itself, this item could be honest but looks fake to me, they take worthless items and embellish them to add value, very clever and skilled, unfortunately the UK seller gets most of the uplift. The only thing that matters is if you like it. You were asking to identify it, I was trying to help. Most rudimentary items in India are made from local woods, mostly teak, shisham (North Indian rosewood) or mango wood, oak is rarely used. East Indian rosewood (Sonokeling) is highly prized and very rarely used.

I wouldn't get upset about it!

 

[Toby Newell]

Just sand more off and I can maybe identify it. The grain looks like oak but teak would be more realistic, shisham and mango wood do not have that grain pattern so my initial money is on teak, I bet it weighs a ton.

 

[Toby Newell]

It may have been a sorting unit at one point but is unlikely to have been painted like that in use, it would of come with a desk too. The painting looks fake, these things are done to add value. And elaborate is a relative term, make a $40 unit of which most of the cost of is the timber (often recycled) and paint and make it more romantic by adding history and some western sellers in USA or UK will sell it for $500 or $1,000 or more, the greatest cost is the shipping and the storing of the item.

 

[Matt Green]

@ThornhillMike Sand the end grain and I'll have a go



Oak/Pine/Elm

 

[Toby Newell]

@ThornhillMike Sand the end grain and I'll have a go


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Oak/Pine/Elm

Orrr, just sand the top properly. You can normally see quarter grain flecks if its oak. It's supposed to be Indian, it looks Indian or South East Asian, therefore unlikely to be pine, oak or elm. Shisham and mango have very striking figures and coarse grain, it initially looks more like teak, need to sand all the stain off first.

 

[Toby Newell]

Should look nice with a sanded top.

 

[Toby Newell]

@ThornhillMike Sand the end grain and I'll have a go


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Oak/Pine/Elm

Always amazed that the grain is so fine you cannot see it in pine, maple, beech etc. Didn't know the vessels ran at right angles in the late wood! Amazing. Obvious when you think about it when you see the crown cut grain following the early wood lines. I didn't stop to think. Do the sideways vessels distribute nutrients outwards to the sapwood then and the vertical earlywood vessels transport to the upper limbs and leaves?