Evergreen root ball

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Like Dick above mentioned, this is a piece of Yew, NOT Juniper aka Eastern Red Cedar.

And yes all parts of the Yew are poisonous, except the soft meat of the fruit on the female plant, so do not eat the wood , wood dust is not healthy of any wood, so wear a mask.

I have turned a bunch of Yew,and have pictures of it, but can’t find one of the freshly turned wood, the colors are really different from Juniper aka Easter Red Cedar when fresh.

Juniper is a vivid purplish red color that will become a dull brown, I will add the picture of a piece fresh and as it is now, the Yew is a more orange color when fresh and turns a dark color as you can see in the picture of these pieces.

Juniper.jpg Juniper now.jpg

Yew pieces
Yew turnings.jpg Yew root burl and top.jpg

The Yew I polished and finished with Carnauba wax.

[Bill Boehme]

I also vote for juniper of some sort. There is no mistaking the cedar/juniper smell. The white balance is off which complicates ID ... that's obvious by looking at the color cast of the chuck. After I adjusted the white balance, the color of the wood looks even more like juniper. There are several native juniper species. However, I wouldn't know yew from Adam (bad pun) so I think you can let your nose tell you whether it is yew or juniper assuming that yew doesn't have the same smell.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I also vote for juniper of some sort. There is no mistaking the cedar/juniper smell. The white balance is off which complicates ID ... that's obvious by looking at the color cast of the chuck. After I adjusted the white balance, the color of the wood looks even more like juniper. There are several native juniper species. However, I wouldn't know yew from Adam (bad pun) so I think you can let your nose tell you whether it is yew or juniper assuming that yew doesn't have the same smell.

Care to show the picture with the balanced white Bill ??

I tried if changing the colors it got anywhere close to the common Juniper tree, but could not.

Looking at this picture seeing the white sapwood, the purplish colors of the root area and the more orange color of the rest of the wood, I still say it is Yew and not Juniper, compare the two.

Root ball 1.jpg Juniper.jpg

[Bill Jobe]

Leo, as usual, some incredible pieces.
There was no dust when I rough it out, it was so full of water I was soaked in no time.
Bill, are you referring to a sheep? I've never met Adan, but pretty sure I could pick him out with the 2 side by side.
Stan, is that where they got the term "yewl tide"

It's Bill's fault. He got me started.

[Bill Jobe]

Using an editing program called Be funky, this is the result of hitting "Beautify" and "Smart Sharp".

Bill, how did you correct the white balance?

[Bill Boehme]

I still think that the "scratch and sniff" test will answer the question. If it smells like Granny's blanket chest then it must be cedar or juniper unless it is a yew chest.

Per Leo's request, here is my attempt at color correcting the image. I looked for something close to white or gray and made a guess that the headstock might be a Jet which is sort of white. So I used the eyedropper in Photoshop Camera Raw and did some sampling and came up with the results shown below. I did a before and after to compare my results with the original. Maybe this looks exactly like yew ought to look, but I wouldn't know yew if one fell on me. But, it sorta looks like Texas Juniper. What do yew think?

Root ball and chuc_beforeandafter.jpg

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I still think that the "scratch and sniff" test will answer the question. If it smells like Granny's blanket chest then it must be cedar or juniper unless it is a yew chest.

Per Leo's request, here is my attempt at color correcting the image. I looked for something close to white or gray and made a guess that the headstock might be a Jet which is sort of white. So I used the eyedropper in Photoshop and did some sampling and came up with the results shown below. I did a before and after to compare my results with the original. Maybe this looks exactly like yew ought to look, but I wouldn't know yew if one fell on me. But, it sorta looks like Texas Juniper. What do yew think?

Root ball and chuc_beforeandafter.jpg

Looks exactly like Yew Bill, thank you,

I found two pictures from Yew pieces turned that are more representative of the fresh color, though there are not wet like the OP ones.

Yew and Holly.jpg Yew weed pot.jpgRoot ball 1.jpg

and the Juniper one.
Juniper.jpg Root ball 1.jpg

[Bill Boehme]

I guess that yew would know. I have some pieces of Texas Juniper which folks around here call cedar, but it is a number of years old so it is sort of drab looking now. Texas juniper is hard and heavy unlike eastern red cedar and years ago it was commonly used for fence posts. Some of the posts that are around a century old are still there, but steel posts are now used for barbed wire fences.

Does the color in the edited version seem right to you?

[Bill Jobe]

Bringing this thread back up with an unusual update.
About a week ago I decided I was done roughing and I took the piece out of plastic and wrapped it in many layers of newspaper.
Tonight I noticed the paper was very damp so I unwrapped it to re-re-wrap it with dry. To my astonishment......this.
What do you make of it?
Other than crop the pics are not edited. They were taken with my phone, but I'm thinking about unwrapping it again and shooting it with my SLR.

[John K Jordan]

Bringing this thread back up with an unusual update.
About a week ago I decided I was done roughing and I took the piece out of plastic and wrapped it in many layers of newspaper.
Tonight I noticed the paper was very damp so I unwrapped it to re-re-wrap it with dry. To my astonishment......this.
What do you make of it?
Other than crop the pics are not edited. They were taken with my phone, but I'm thinking about unwrapping it again and shooting it with my SLR.

I see no photos. Perhaps they are just slow to make it to the thread.

JKJ

[Bill Jobe]

And the pics....

[Bill Jobe]

And down inside...

[Bill Jobe]

The color change all took place over the last week or so.

[Bill Jobe]

One more....

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Your wood is rotting away (fungus on and in it) wrapping wet wood using plastic is a bad idea, as you keep the moisture in and on the surface, layers of newspaper wrapped around it do pretty much the same.

Using a brown paper bag as I have been recommending for years and years, does not do this, it lets the wood dry slowly, but not prevent it like Plastic or multiple layers of newspaper or even packed in wood shavings.