Life In 19x19

Hi, I’m new to the forum here, and just acquired a long coveted floor board. I’m trying to figure out what it is made of.

It’s at least 25 years old, clearly an itame cut with the semicircles facing up, and has raised black lines, not etched or painted. There are no manufacturer marks that I can see anywhere. It’s more of a tannish-brownish tone, like light caramel. I tried pulling out a leg and there is no smell I can discern. It makes a soft click sound (very pleasing!) and feels softer in impact than when I play on the hardwood table board I have. There are no cracks but one leg wobbles so it may be slightly warped.

I think it is Katsura wood but wanted to confirm this. I’m attaching a few pics.

Thanks!

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It is really hard to be definite about what kind of wood it is just from pictures. However, going by the most common woods, it would most likely be either spruce or katsura. The end grain seems to be kiura and katsura boards are almost always kiura cut while spruce is mostly masame cut. So I will vote for katsura.

shouldn't be too hard to develop an image recognition algorithm that classifies images according to type of wood. i guess you could call it alphagrain.

I think it is Katsura

That is my assessment as well, especially with the lack of cinnamon smell.

The board is Itame-Kiura, so that almost guarantees that it won't be Shin-Kaya (Spruce) which is manufactured now (and especially 25 years ago) in almost exclusively Masame, also Shin-Kaya has a much stronger grain.

Katsura has a pleasant tannish color, sometimes in two hues (lighter and darker) depending on how the tree grew. There will be no smell and the grain will be light, noticeable, but not in conflict with the wood's color like it is with Shin Kaya.

The board looks as though it might have a light coating of clay. I'd have to see better, brighter, picture of where the playing surface meets the side grain to be sure.

For the wobble, that is probably due to a small warp. Kiura has a a tendency to warp the playing surface a bit if left to dry too long. If you put a folded piece of paper under the problem leg that should stabilize it.

Anyway, congratulations on getting a board

Kirby wrote:I guess you could call it alphagrain.

As much as that *would* be a cool name, it would also be incorrect. Such an algorithm wouldn't use our favourite hybrid of reinforcement learning and tree-search.

It would more correctly be dubbed either "deep grain" or "grain net".

Me? I'd call it "deep wood".