On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 05:28:49 -0500, Tom Watson
wrote:

The point of the exercise, which seems to have been missed, is that
most people can't tell the difference between cherry and poplar, if
they are both finished using the same toner.

You can't tell rosewood from spruce, if you use the right sort of tar.
I've seen the G-T secretaries in Boston MoFA and they're nowhere near
the same cherryade colour as these pieces were on my monitor.

I too thought #1 was cherry or cherry ply - the narrowness of the ring
booundaries. I don't think I'd have been so fooled on a larger
specimen though. The overall look of timber is as much due to the
macroscopic shape of the sliced rings as it is to the close-up
appearance.