With that porous grain, it certainly is NOT any pine nor fir. I cannot see
any rays so I would have to agree that it probably is ash. Today's wood will
not have that tight grain seen in the photo, must have been some virgin
forest that it was cut from in 1891, weren't they all virgin forests back
then? .

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
. net...
In article , Don Wiss
wrote:
I have an 1891 row house in Brooklyn. One of my newel post finials is
missing. But neighbors with identical houses still have theirs. So a
friend
of mine that is adept with a lathe has offered to make me a new one. We
have photographed and measured it. But what is the wood? A fellow that I
once was going to hire to make it said white oak. Then my friend thought
it
was Douglas fir. But a friend of his that comes from Eastern Canada says
it
is definitely yellow pine, and pointed out several features that are
inconsistent with Douglas fir. Now the only pine in my house is the
floors.
And the wainscoting near the finial is oak. My friend says oak is easier
to
turn. What do you guys think it is? [Warning, this was not reduced in
size,
so it is 441MB.]

http://donwiss.com/finial.jpg

They're all wrong. It's ash.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.