Once again, for clarification, I was asking for "ANY information to include value" on my piece. I wasn't just asking for an appraisal nor was I asking for comparisons or for the dose of smart *s* that was in that response. And now I got someone else who says they are "ticked" off at me because I responded to someone who came across as a smart *s* and didn't provide me any information that I had requested. I didn't see in any rules here that says that I should start all post with "I come in Peace". But for some reason I don't think that would have helped. Once again all I can say is WOW! This forum sure knows how to welcome people. This whole "antiques & collectibles" forum is something else. "Holyier than thou" forum seems more fitting. When I found this site I was impressed and was going spread the word, now can you guess the word I will have to spread about it? And for all the other stone throwers like lindac, go ahead and get it out of your system.

The powder that lost refers to is a dry release. I'm guessing you didn't get that. You can acid stain concrete. We had a friend who used to do this as his business. He had some left over stain, so we just acid stained our outdoor kitchen counter tops. It was a small area, so we used a sponge to apply the stain, and let it sit overnight. The next day we used a baking soda and water mixture and spread it over the counter tops, let it sit, and then washed it off. The baking soda mixture brings the ph back up to a normal level. The acid stains the concrete by a chemical reaction. The stains come in several different colors. Your concrete person should do a sample piece from your pour for you to look at for you to get a good idea of how it will look, but acid staining will give you more of a variation in color than if you had used stained concrete with a dry release over the top. You'll have lots of different shades of the color you choose, and it will be very random. You can only control it somewhat. I really like the look of our counter tops. I guess it just depends on the look you are going for. On the containers of stain, it said to let new concrete cure for 28 days, but we only waited 2 weeks. I'm not sure how much that matters. You have to have your concrete really clean before doing the stain. The concrete guy should take care of that. Hope this helps.

Oak and ash look very similar from a distance, both being ring-porous woods. Ash tends to have a whiter tone (unless you get some dark heartwood). Red oak tends to have reds, yellows, and often some blacks in it (I was once told there were 35 different color gradings for red oak). White oak tends to be browner. But all that said, any wood can have all the color bleached out of it. The way I tell is to look for medullary rays. Ash has none, red oak shorter ones and white oak longer ones. What medullary rays look like depends upon the orientation of the wood as cut from the log, as the rays go radially. Plainsawn will show just short lines, quarter or rift sawn will show large figure.

agree with everyone above. its likely whiteoak with either a natural finish or a very light stain. without a closer picture of the wood its hard to be certain.