Box Elder gloat/SMC Meetup

[alex carey]

Brian Novotny and I have been talking about picking up wood together, finally today we did it. He found out about some box elder at a couples house, it was on the curb and they were happy to get rid of it. We took it back to his house and did some of the cutting there, we split it in half and then I was on my way. As usual the Creekers are even nicer in person. We had a good time and got some great wood, Ill turn some of it in the next few days and see whats inside.

You can see that one crotch piece isn't fully connected. Should make a really cool bowl.

The pictures don't do any of the grain justice, it looked really nice in person.

alex

EDIT: the crotch piece is about 16" in diameter, kind of gives you an idea of everything else.

[Jeff Nicol]

Brian Novotny and I have been talking about picking up wood together, finally today we did it. He found out about some box elder at a couples house, it was on the curb and they were happy to get rid of it. We took it back to his house and did some of the cutting there, we split it in half and then I was on my way. As usual the Creekers are even nicer in person. We had a good time and got some great wood, Ill turn some of it in the next few days and see whats inside.

You can see that one crotch piece isn't fully connected. Should make a really cool bowl.

The pictures don't do any of the grain justice, it looked really nice in person.

alex

EDIT: the crotch piece is about 16" in diameter, kind of gives you an idea of everything else.
Alex, Are you sure it is box elder? Does not look like any that I have seen. The bark is very different from any I have and he grain and color of the wood does not look at all like box elder. I don't mean that it has no red in it but that it is a lot more amber or golden and the grain is very pronounced. The box elder I get is very white in the sapwood and a little darker in the center. Not sure what it is but it could be! No matter it is a nice pile of wood!

Here is what we get around here: http://www.mapleinfo.org/htm/boxm.cfm


Jeff

[Brian Novotny]

I think it's blue elder......lf that's box elder, I'm not sure if they're the same......

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5957/img000536.th.jpg



http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9264/img000539.th.jpg



http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6817/img000540.th.jpg

[Steve Schlumpf]

Congrats on the SMC meeting and all the wood - no matter what kind it is! Looking forward to seeing some turnings from both of you real soon!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A Creeker gathering is great and free wood makes it as good as it can get!

[Brian Novotny]

Alex is a really smart, nice guy, with a big future ahead of him. Without even trying I didn't even scare him off!!!:D

[Brian Novotny]

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4835/img000549.th.jpg

Here are the leaves, the only thing missing is the bright blue berries. The "tiger stripes" in the wood has me thrown off......maybe an infection? like flamed box elder.

question......is the elder tree what we call "box elder"?

[Richard Madison]

Brian,
Can you post larger picture of the leaves?

[alex carey]

ooops, i meant to write blue elder, brian and I had talked about this, i took the pictures last night so I'll post a few more that are better.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Alex Blue Elder is a shrub, and has a big soft pith in the center, not related to Acer Negundo (AKA Box Elder in the US and Manitoba Maple in Canada).

I'm also in agreement with Jeff that what you have there isn't "Box Elder" but not certain what you do have there, a better close-up of the leaves would help some to ID it.

[alex carey]

hmmmm, guess ill just have to turn a piece today and find out.

[Brian Novotny]

Yeah, whatever it is is much nicer than box elder, I've really never seen all of this "tiger stripe" figure before, but, man, it's really nice. heres a better pic of the leaves and some more of the wood.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/1051/img000563.th.jpg

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3871/img000553.th.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8487/img000557g.th.jpg

[Brian Novotny]

I think since there's no defined heartwoood or sapwood, what we have is a result of some kind of disease, infection, or possibly steroids.

[Jeff Nicol]

Alex and Brian, Here is what I think your tree is by the pictures of the leaves. Not sure but the leaves look darn close! Check it out

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hear.org/starr/images/full/starr-070313-5613.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hear.org/starr/plants/images/image/%3Fq%3D070313-5613&usg=__zWCLhca1hN0izwncEOK8zF3rSn8=&h=2816&w=2112&sz=2530&hl=en&start=13&um=1&tbnid=2V8ISA0aLefw6M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcalifornia%2Bpepper%2Btree%2Bleaves%2 6hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGIK_en%26um%3D1

Jeff

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I don't know what kind of pictures you are posting, but they show at about a 1 inch size on my computer screen, I can't tell anything from them :confused:.
But I doubt it is California Pepper tree, as the bark is quite different from what you posted earlier, I will add a picture from that so you can compare :(

[alex carey]

Out of that piece I roughed out a bowl and a platter. They were too wet to finish today, im gonna leave it overnight and see how vulnerable to cracking it is.

There is a better picture of the bark. This piece was quite plain compared to the rest of it. I wanted to test how much it cracks so i used this piece.

Any thoughts as to whether its this elder stuff?

[Brian Novotny]

Alex and Brian, Here is what I think your tree is by the pictures of the leaves. Not sure but the leaves look darn close! Check it out

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hear.org/starr/images/full/starr-070313-5613.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hear.org/starr/plants/images/image/%3Fq%3D070313-5613&usg=__zWCLhca1hN0izwncEOK8zF3rSn8=&h=2816&w=2112&sz=2530&hl=en&start=13&um=1&tbnid=2V8ISA0aLefw6M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcalifornia%2Bpepper%2Btree%2Bleaves%2 6hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGIK_en%26um%3D1

Jeff


Looking at the fact of the very close similarity of the leaves, having "berries", and the look of the wood, I would say it is closely related to the california pepper tree. It has blue berries, and different bark, but that's not uncommon even between closely related trees. and bark can differ greatly between a young tree and an old tree. That bark actually isn't that far off. After looking at more pictures, it's definitely a pepper tree, because of the blue berries, I'm content calling it "blue pepper". There's really no doubt in my mind now that it's some kind of pepper tree. Thanks.

[Christopher Fletcher]

There are usually two types of pepper here in CA. Brazilian and California. Brazil Pepper has oval shaped pinnate leaves.

This is California Pepper:
http://www.backyardnature.net/q/schinus.jpg

California Pepper has long, slender pinnate leaves. Older California Pepper trees are stuffed with burls on the trunk and limbs. They grow to about 12-36' tall and up to 18" around. Though the one Jarrod McGehee and I found was closer to 48" around.

[Jarrod McGehee]

It's probably black pepper because the pepper that I have has wayyyy different bark than the stuff you've got. it could be related though. and the grain on my stuff is pretty wild but has more red and brown in it than what you've got.