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Identifying worked wood

Grain, tool marks, and joints.

Waterlogged wood preserves tool marks, joints, and species-diagnostic grain. Drying it uncontrolled will destroy it — a piece that survived a thousand years wet can be ruined in a weekend on a radiator. Keep it wet, wrapped, and cool until a conservator takes over.

Record species (a conservator or wood anatomist can confirm from a sliver), the conversion — how the timber was split or sawn from the log — and any joinery: pegs, mortices, laps.

Tool marks are the treasure: axe and adze facets, saw strokes, auger holes, even the sharpening flaws of an individual blade can survive in the surface.

Photograph wet wood immediately, with a scale — it may never look this good again. Dry-land wooden survivals (furniture, treen) instead show wear, patina, and repairs; record those honestly too.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on materials

Copper alloy or bronze? — Why cataloguers say “copper alloy”.

Identifying copper alloy — Copper, bronze, and brass — telling them apart.

Identifying silver — Tarnish, hallmarks, and the ring test.

Identifying gold — Why gold looks untouched after centuries.

Identifying iron — Corrosion, lamination, and magnetism.

Identifying lead and pewter — Soft, heavy, and dull gray.

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