Wood id help please

[Bill Bolen]

I could use a bit of wood id help with this unknown wood. It has a thin bark and when cut the odor is very faint but kind of musty or mold like. Not as strong as the smell of basswood though. When first cut the heartwood seemed yellow but as it dried, while turning, the color looked more like the poplar one gets from the Borg. This is Missouri wood. I goggled thin barked wood from Missouri but none of the choices (yellowwood, American Beech or Papaw) seemed to fit the bill. The tree was sectioned off in the local wood dump. Appeared to be about 40’ to 60’ when standing and was very straight. Seems to split off with a Y crotch about 15’ from the base. No small limbs with visible leaves were present though. I’m kind of leaning towards one of the Poplar’s, maybe yellow, but don’t really know. Thanks for any help…Bill…

[Bill Bolen]

a few more shots.

[Steve Vaughan]

Bill, the tree doesn't look like it, but the bowls sure look like my roughed-out honey locust.

[Bill Bolen]

Thanks Steve but I've turned quite a bit of honey Locust and this is for sure not the same..

[Brian Effinger]

I wonder if it some sort of elm. The quartered piece has some of the flecking that is in elm, and the grain is looks open in the bowls.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

What you have there is Ailanthus, AKA Tree of Heaven or Chinese Sumac, kind of smelly when wet not very hard, but a nice wood to turn otherwise ;-))

Here are a couple of pieces I've made from Ailanthus
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[kenneth walker]

Its yellowwood

[John Shuk]

I agree with Leo

[Nathan Hawkes]

Ailanthus! The reason you didn't find it on a web search is b/c it is not native to the U.S. at all. It will grow ANYWHERE however, including the cracks in sidewalks, poor soil, even gutters. They are really annoying in many instances and will take over the edges of pastures if not bush-hogged regularly.

[Bill Bolen]

I know its not Elm Brian. No "wet dog" smell and the bark is much to thin. Leo,the grain in my rough out certainly looks like your photo. This wood is a bit stringy also. Is tree of heaven slightly stringy also? Sure turns nice though. Just as a ps...the cat loves the smell left on my T shirt from those long wet curlies. She hasn't shown this much affection in years. Rubbing all over me. I think the wife got jealous,,, she is looking for the shavings pile to rub some on herself.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Bill there's a couple of things that tell me it is Ailanthus, and you can see that in my turnings as well, the last rings before the light colored sapwood is more yellow than the rest of the heartwood, your second picture shows it well, than the bark is a dead-ringer also, the bark reminds me a bit of Beech bark, and it will become much thicker as the tree gets older/bigger, the wood color and grain all add to the total, yes it is a bit like turning Willow or Elm for being stringy, but less so I think, I have a couple of pictures of dry rough turned Ailanthus, and it shows some fuss on the pieces.

I was cutting up a piece just today that I had still sitting around from a very large log, it is curly and the bark was thick covering the wavy wood, (didn't notice any smell, only when I held it close to my nose did I get a whiff of it, I never like the smell much ;-)), that log was well over 3 feet in diameter and one solid straight trunk of at least 20 feet before the first big limb, the bottom end was full of shake like a spiderweb, but the top end was solid and I got some nice chunks from it.

I had turned some Ailanthus before, and was happy to find the large log, too bad it was like that and that only the top was usable to me .

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[Bill Bolen]

Thanks for the ID Leo, Ailanthus it is. Although I will use tree of heaven for a label on finished pieces!!...Bill..