Wood ID?

[alex grams]

I had the chance to clear some trees from a friends grandfather's land in southern Oklahoma. He had some sizable Osage Orange trees we were able to tear down, but we saw another tree we took down to turn into blanks, and can't seem to identify it:

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Turning109_zpsb320f5a2.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Turning108_zpsa51a7423.jpg

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Turning103_zps19f5d70e.jpg

Here is one turned in a rough bowl blank:

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Turning113_zps8b0e9980.jpg


Here is a picture of some of the blanks we got:

http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt220/alexgrams/Turning100_zps92e27b58.jpg

The ones that are roughed to shape are in 12" diameters. The Osage Orange pieces standing on edge are about 14" tall and 8-10" thick. Between my brother and my father and I cutting for about 7 hours non stop, we have about 3x as many blanks total as you see in the picture. One of the Osage Trees we took down was about 35" diameter at the base. An impressive tree, and apparently scorpions nest in the cracks in them in the winter, we found one pocket of about half a dozen scorpions.

Our guess on the wood is hackberry. It certainly has a distinct smell when cutting and turning it. I guess the smell is natural to the spalting? I've never messed with live wood that had spalting in it, but assume by its nature that spalting would have an odor.

[Jerry Marcantel]

Alex, I'm know exactly what it is, even in Latin. It's called "Purdius Tuisthe Maximus". The common name is, "Pretty wood". hehehe. Don't really know, but it's beautiful stuff and worthy of a gloat.............. Jerry (in Tucson)

[Prashun Patel]

Nice!

I have some mystery wood that looks a little like that. Something tells me that pretty rough out you made will crack unless you take a lot of care to wax and bag it or dna soak it. It'd be a shame. Nice stuff.

Can't wait to see your osage turnings.

[Brian Brown]

Beautiful wood alex. I have no idea what it is, but who cares. It should make some really nice pieces. What I am really looking forward to is seeing you turn one of those with scorpions. I can just see those things come flying out at 2500 rpm. Didn't know scorpions could fly. You may have discovered a whole new species. I would store the wood out of your shop, and away from your house just in case. I would assume if the scorpions nest there, they lay their eggs nearby. The warm shop will be a perfect place for the eggs to hatch, then you would have lots of new turning friends. :D

[alex grams]

Brian, fortunately the scorpions were in the cracks of the trunk, so when we cut blanks we split along the natural cracks and cleaned out any dirt or debris, so I have little to no concern of any stow aways.

Prashun, the test bowl is soaking in DNA as we speak. I did a rough turning of one piece each of osage and the mystery wood and am going to soak and do some testing to see how it behaves. Even if it proves to be difficult with cracking, I don't think it will be quiet as bad as the red oak bowls I have been trying to figure out how to dry, I swear those things crack if you look at them wrong. I've done several of the oak bowls in a u shape profile, but they crack at the radius from the bottom of the bowl (side grain) to the sides (end grain). My next attempt on those will be to do some bowls in shapes that are either angled up sides, or larger radius. I think lessening the sharpness of the side grain/end grain transition will help.

I still have a lot of learning to do. I've not turned many bowls, and even less with learning to properly dry them. I've always been frugal in turning because I never had a decent inventory of blanks to experiment with, but I guess I no longer have that excuse.

[Joe Herrmann]

My guess would be poplar if it grows in your area.

[alex grams]

Hmm, hadn't thought of poplar. Never really seen any poplar around these parts. Another odd thing the wood did was it 'leaked/secreted' some black drops of water/sap when cut. The fresh cut wood is clear lines on the spalting, but as you can see, that black color soaked in to the wood once we sealed it with anchorseal and muddled the color.

The smell was something else though when cutting/turning.

The coloration certainly matches poplar you find, with the dark streaks at the heart. I wish it had some leaves on it so we could have gotten a better idea.

[Prashun Patel]

Ah oak, that most high maintenance of girlfriends...

I roughed out 6-7 two years ago, to have ONE stay whole on me.

Here's what I determined: you have to turn it fairly thin and extremely even (using calipers). Then bag it back with all the shavings from the rough turning. Bring the shavings and bowl out every couple days, and then re-bag. All my cracks usually develop within the first month. From then, they can sit waxed on a shelf for a while. The thing is, DRY oak is miserable to turn. Nowadays (as if I've been doing this forever) I only like oak for quartersawn turning. It's way more stable and looks great.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

The bark in the first two pictures remind me of Ailanthus, it has a lumpy outer and crumbly kind of inner bark, it is not very hard wood and it turns nicely, never had problems drying it, it does have a bit of a smell to it though when wet.
It is just a guess here going by what I can see in these pictures, I could very well be wrong :eek:

I have a couple of pictures but they are not very good showing the wood and bark, I thought I had better ones, but can't find them right now.

[Richard Jones]

Pretty sure it's NOT hackberry.........

[Arnold Dyer]

bark certainly looks like one of the red oaks. would need to do a little research to determine the oaks in your area. wood should be hard. i would guess that it was some what hollow inside and that is where the black water came from. Its not hackberry or yellow poplar fore sure.

[Jamie Donaldson]

My first guess would be some variety of ash?

[alex grams]

The tree trunk was solid. Was definitely not an oak. Pretty soft wood.

[Tim Leiter]

It looks like some of the Maple I've had. Are there any Maple trees down there?
Tim.

[Harry Robinette]

I think it's one of the Poplars,I had some with colors like that.

[Arnold Dyer]

The tree trunk was solid. Was definitely not an oak. Pretty soft wood.

The light rings toward the center in the first picture...are they somewhat porous?
Pretty soft where there was no spalting or rot?

[robert baccus]

Wood is definitely in the genus Bueatiful. Looks too ring-porous for maples or poplars---might be ash or elm???

[Leo Van Der Loo]

The tree trunk was solid. Was definitely not an oak. Pretty soft wood.

I will add the Ailanthus picture I have (could not fins a better one sorry) and one from a spalted Ailanthus bowl, color is yellow from the oil finish.

Have a look at the bark and also note the open early wood grain in the bowl, like I said it is quite soft wood but turns and finishes quite well.

255530 255531 255532

[Prashun Patel]

Side note: Man, Leo, I really love the form on #2 and the pattern on #3. I gotta remember to lift my bases up! Perfect...

[Tim Leiter]

Could it be Ash?
Tim.

[Sean Troy]

Looks like Sweetgum

[Karl Stowe]

The bark and wood looks similar to a Pecan I just milled up. Are there Pecan trees in that area? When milling it had a squished stink bug smell mixed with a pepper like smell. But there was no black sap like stuff that you had.

Karl

[alex grams]

Not a pecan. We have a lot of those and I am familiar with those trees. My best guess is a poplar of some sort. That matches the coloration and density I am seeing. When I get one dried and turned and finished I will post some pictures.