# Forum Contacts & Links Timber, Tools & Hardware Suppliers  1982 house trim & cabinet doors Pacific Maple/Agliaia? Queensland Maple? Meranti?

## dolphinberserk

Need help identifying wood!
See the attached photos of base/skirting and case/door trim and the original (I believe) wardrobe doors from our 1982 pole home.  These type of wardrobe doors I have seen in 1980's houses/reno's all over Australia, so I am very curious about this. 
Are these Pacific Maple/Aglaia? Queensland Maple? Meranti?    
The back side of the trim (presumed factory finish, no coating) is show.  The wardrobe doors are coated with some 1980's "Estapol" type stuff oil-based polyurethane? or water-based poly with a subtle stain added. 
I was presuming 'Pacific Maple' because my dad and a bunch of others have loosely referred to 'Pacific Maple' since the 1980's.  But ....Bootle's book (Wood in Australia) defines Pacific Maple as Aglaia spp from PNG, with the comment 'Seldom seen in Australia' that suggests otherwise.  Maybe when saying Pacific Maple everyone has really been talking about Meranti? Or something else?    Or is it possible the trim in our Queensland house is actually Queensland Maple? 
I need to know because I have a fair amount of this that I'd like to repurpose.

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## dolphinberserk



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## David.Elliott

Meranti, Pacific Maple, Durian.. all pretty much the same..  Been renamed to try and avoid the tracking of rainforest timber use...is what I understand.

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## dolphinberserk

So it is probably more likely to be Shorea spp, randomly taken from Borneo or Phillipines, rather than Aglaia?

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## Arron

> So it is probably more likely to be Shorea spp, randomly taken from Borneo or Phillipines, rather than Aglaia?

  Yes. One of the many species of Dipterocarp in the massive genus Shorea. Called interchangeably Pacific maple, meranti or (less commonly now) luan.  
Queensland maple is a more attractive, finer grained timber and much more expensive - definitely not what you are showing there. 
Meranti makes up 90% of the trim timber we see in NSW, so I expect is the same in QLD. 
Never heard of Aglaia for sale in Aus, unless by another name.

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