House is 120 year old victorian in greater Boston area, kitchen is in original location according to blueprints. Yeah, we figured it had to be pine too. But the large grain striations do not have the high contrast you get with pine, or even oak. Maybe just because it's older, it doesn't look/feel like modern woods I'm comparing it to, even though it's the same species. After I uncovered it, I went around my house feeling around on the oak floors. They were screened and poly'd before we moved in, but I can definitely feel a lot of grain and texture. The kitchen floor, on the other hand, is as smooth as a baby's bottom. You can see the grain but not feel it. Really surprised me. That's what got me posting here. The house was designed to have a ballroom on the third floor. It really is a beautiful space; 3/4 of the 3rd floor is one room, and then 1/4 is a servant's room (not now, sadly, I don't have any servants.) Rumor was there was a mahogany floor up there. So, we closed on the house, and ran up with our tools and started spelunking. Holy cow: carpet, 1/2 plywood, linoleum, more plywood--and face-nailed pine boards. We tried in 4 places--no mahogany. Some rumor. On the second floor, all of the bedroom doors open into the center of the room, instead of towards the nearest side wall. It's very awkward. We are gradually reversing them, but when the carpenter came to hang the door, he couldn't believe they had always been hung backward from the original construction of the house. He looked at the jamb, figured from the mortises that it was indeed original, and finally had to admit that all the doors had been hung the wrong way. When I was a kid, we stayed at a hotel where the lights flipped backward and the hot and cold water were reversed. My father said that the workers had been treated unfairly during the construction, and done these things in retaliation. I always think about this when I swing open a door, step back, and walk around it to get out of a room. Who got cheesed when my house was built, and why? (and more chillingly, what else did they do?) So now this kitchen floor: did they switch the specs for the ballroom and kitchen flooring? It would explain why one is nicer than expected, and the other is made out of servant's area materials. I understand that it's impossible to identify most wood species from a picture. A carpenter had to cut across an extra trim piece just to figure out the species of the trim throughout our house. His guess: mahogany. Turned out to be: really nicely stained poplar. That was a happy moment for me, because I can add matching trim wherever I want to very cheaply. Mahogany would have broken the bank. But I digress. What I was trying to say is, I appreciate all the speculation and theories, especially Worthy's bit about birch and density; I don't know how I would have found that out on my own. Thank you all.

Cherry really does darken signifiacntly over time. Some of the newer finishes can slow the process by absorbing the UV that is required to create the reactions for the darkening. The deep wine red can occur relatively quickly in shellac (often franch polished) finishes, slightly longer under nitrocweullose lacquer, and who knows how long under polyurethane (solvent or water based). In any case, signifiacnt direct sun exposure is required. Most cherry darkens slightly after only a few weeks in the sun without a finish. I can easily get the color desired, but make no warranty that it is not fugitive under sunlight. It is possible to stain sapwood to match hardwood, and I do it occasionally when I need large section wood and my normal wide lumber sources cannot meet the need (24 to 30 inch planks). When carefully done you can only tell by stripping the finish.

Definitely do not use poplar. My older Kraftmaid kitchen from 6-7 years ago were painted poplar. The screws and hinges were always loose and pulling out within 3 years of regular use. Kraftmaid does not even use poplar anymore due to the complaints. Now they use maple. Maple is probably the most commonly used wood for painted finish and gives a great finish.

EAM44: I think you may be right. Maybe alder. The stripe sort of look makes me think that they aren't maple. Could they be hickory? This post was edited by olivesmom on Tue, Sep 10, 13 at 2:13