Check out this wild wood!

[Randy Hoch]

Hey Gang,

Who can help ID this wood? It's a conifer for sure - with the dark staining from a pine beetle presumably. It came off a mixed pile from a tree service. Therefore it's not necessarily an indigenous central Montana tree like Douglas Fir or Ponderosa Pine. It could be an in-town, nursery grown tree.

Anyway, I about flipped when I uncovered this treasure. It turned like a dream and the colors and grain defy description. I tried to capture this on the photos but it's way better in the hand. 7.25x2.75 MWOP @ buff

This is the first piece reversed with my new vacuum system!! Thanks due to Steve Schlump and Tom Steyer. What a pleasure! Comments welcomed and appreciated.

Randy

[alex carey]

im not really sure what wood but it sure is intense.

[Dave Halter]

That's beautiful! You can't beat what Mother Nature produces.

Dave

[Greg Just]

Not sure what the wood is, but the bowl is beautiful. Nice job

[David Christopher]

that is really cool. dont know what it is but i like it

[Bernie Weishapl]

Randy great looking bowl and some beautiful wood.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wow - beautiful bowl Randy! Amazing grain and colors! No idea of what it is - just hope you were able to get a barn full of the stuff!

So, what do you think of using a vac system for reverse turning? Pretty slick huh?

Nice work! Hope to see some more turnings out of this wood real soon!

[Danny Thompson]

Watermelon-wood

[Jim Kountz]

Thats some of the strangest but cool looking woods Ive ever seen, great job with it!!

[lynn smith]

Hey Randy, nice bowl.
Is the wood sappy or resinous?
Looks almost like pine that has oxidized.

[Randy Hoch]

Hey Randy, nice bowl.
Is the wood sappy or resinous?
Looks almost like pine that has oxidized.

Lynn,

I plead ignorance - not really knowing the difference. I'm going to guess resinous because of no stickiness. The smell was wonderful. I just thought it was "blue pine" in the log because of the radial staining from the from the bark towards the pith. The staining was always slate colored, even freshly turned and unfinished. The photo probably doesn't do the orange color justice. It really is bright. It reminds me of some Cook Island pine turnings I saw in Lahaina a few days ago while on vacation in Maui.

Regards,

Randy

[Peter Luch]

Almost looks like spalted cook pine.

[Jeff Nicol]

Randy, What you have there is most likely White pine, it could be red pine but the grain and the way the knots are leads me to White pine. I turn it all the time and it does have the most wonderful smell to it! The pines will get the blue mold in it quite quickly if it lays on the ground to long or has a lot of sap in it when it was cut down. If I saw white pine logs into lumber in the summer that were fresh cut, I will leave them all separate in the sun and air to let the outside layer of moisture dry. Then I will brush off any sawdust that is stuck on to make sure there are no extra wet areas to breed the mold. Most people don't like it in the lumber but for turning it is perfect! Some times I get some that has a vibrant pink in with the blue mold and that is really nice!

Great bowl and it really shows off the colors well!

Jeff

[charlie knighton]

very nice, was it green when you turned it or dry???

[Jack Mincey]

I would have to say it is just very pretty wood. :) Very nice bowl and use of the wood.
Jack

[curtis rosche]

Norfolk Island Pine

[Jack Giovo]

I don't know what kind of wood that you have turned but you hit the what to do with the wood when you get it - that is a very nice job it looks great:D

Jack

[phil harold]

must be wonder wood,
because you wonder what it is
:D


nice bowl!

[Wayne Bower]

That is some beautiful wood all right. Sometimes the I dont know wood is the prettiest.

[Dan Hilbelink]

Not sure what you have there but you can send a piece to the forest product lab in Madison WI. I attached the address of the page that talks about the process and procedure. You can just search Forest Products Lab as well and they have a menu item that lists wood id. My dad has done this several times including some pieces I brought back from Africa. nice bowl you have there.
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/WoodID/idfact.html

[ron hossack]

Seeing where you are located I'm going to guess that it is spalted blue pine ... I have a few nice pieces of this wood and the colors are like that.

111956

[Curt Fuller]

That's pretty wood and a pretty bowl. I've turned a few pieces of ponderosa pine that had a similar look but not quite as wild.

[Randy Hoch]

very nice, was it green when you turned it or dry???
Charlie,
It was single turned to finished thickness green - therefore it is warped but not much. I positioned the bowl to hide the warpage in the photo but you can see a bit in the first photo. Most of my bowls are twice turned. I'm starting to ask myself why as I haven't the slightest bias against ovals. In David Ellsworth's new book he mentions that most production turners single-turned utility bowls and let em warp back in the day. Round bowls are more of a recent preference relatively speaking.

Randy

[Randy Hoch]

Not sure what you have there but you can send a piece to the forest product lab in Madison WI. I attached the address of the page that talks about the process and procedure. You can just search Forest Products Lab as well and they have a menu item that lists wood id. My dad has done this several times including some pieces I brought back from Africa. nice bowl you have there.
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/WoodID/idfact.html
Dan,
Thanks for the link and tip. I'll definitely keep it and maybe use it for this if I can get any more pieces of it. I'm trying to remember what the bark looked like:confused:

Randy

[Randy Hoch]

That's pretty wood and a pretty bowl. I've turned a few pieces of ponderosa pine that had a similar look but not quite as wild.
Curt,
I think that you are correct suggesting Ponderosa Pine. The previous post by Ron Hossack also guessed Blue Pine which is just the infected Ponderosa. Next time I get to the pile, I'll be a little less cavalier about identification while the pieces still have bark, etc.

Randy

[Mark Norman]

Ponderosa pine is abundant here in the Sierras. I have been looking at a few trees with ill intent;)

[Jeff Nicol]

Randy, I guess I was so intent on the wood I forgot to use my own question to get it right! Being that you live where you live, Ponderosa pine it is! Here in WI the white pine looks just like that, so I ran with it. No matter which pine it is they almost always will get the mold in them when they die and are not cut into lumber pretty quickly. But for us turners we want the wild colors to get it there and make the wild colors!

Have a great day,

Jeff