Wood Id - suggestions

[Jim Seyfried]

Picked this piece of wood off the top of a friends woodpile and have on idea of what it is. The color in the pictures is fairly accurate it is quite yellow. Before I turned it the ends were dark and I thought it was walnut. I think it might have a lot of tannin in it. It is from a Michigan tree, anyone have any idea what kind of wood it is?

I turned this on Monday; I also sanded and put Danish oil on it. It is about 12" long and 1/4" thick and has distorted some as it dries. I sanded to 400 grit, I'll give it some more time to dry and finish sanding, re-oil and buff it. I had a demo and class with Rudy Lopez and a winged crotch bowl was one of the projects. This one didn't look good with a natural edge on the bowl so I trimmed it down. I'm not that pleased with the curve on the top half of the bowl and perhaps I should have the wing a bit higher on the bowl. I have the other half of this piece and it would work with a natural edge. Any suggestions for the other half would be appreciated.

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[Thom Sturgill]

Ah some Mystery Michigan Wood! Never turned any that I know, but then its a mystery!:D Sorry, I can't help you there.:rolleyes:

Nice piece Jim. You do generally see the flat higher or the bowl shorter, but this works for me. Be sure to post pictures of the other half when you get it done.

[Marc Tuunanen]

Mulberry maybe?.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Picked this piece of wood off the top of a friends woodpile and have on idea of what it is. The color in the pictures is fairly accurate it is quite yellow. Before I turned it the ends were dark and I thought it was walnut. I think it might have a lot of tannin in it. It is from a Michigan tree, anyone have any idea what kind of wood it is?

I turned this on Monday; I also sanded and put Danish oil on it. It is about 12" long and 1/4" thick and has distorted some as it dries. I sanded to 400 grit, I'll give it some more time to dry and finish sanding, re-oil and buff it. I had a demo and class with Rudy Lopez and a winged crotch bowl was one of the projects. This one didn't look good with a natural edge on the bowl so I trimmed it down. I'm not that pleased with the curve on the top half of the bowl and perhaps I should have the wing a bit higher on the bowl. I have the other half of this piece and it would work with a natural edge. Any suggestions for the other half would be appreciated.

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I think it could be Buckthorn, it does look like that, I have turned only a couple of pieces of it, as it is usually a smaller shrub, but can grow to a small tree, I know a couple that are tree size and I turned a burl of a smaller one, the wood is typical black on the outside without the bark on it, colors range a bit from yellow to reddish, anyway the best I can do for you.

The piece looks like a bowl floating in the waves, quite nice, hope it won’t split on you :)

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/buckthorn.htm

I have turned lots of Mulberry and this wood just doesn’t look like Mulberry to me, the grain and coloration is off to be Mulberry, as is the sapwood color looks, here a couple of pictures of Mulberry pieces I’ve turned
The early wood to late wood in the grain is different, anyway IMO it isn’t Mulberry :) 302429

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[William Bachtel]

Mulberry. Right on hobbithouseinc.com Very good site.

[Bob Hamilton]

I would agree with mulberry. Mulberry is brilliant yellow when fresh cut and mellows to a reddish brown over a few years. I found some short log sections of unknown species at our local municipal compost site and brought them home. The ends of the logs had a dark colored heartwood with a white ring of sapwood, similar to walnut but the heartwood was more red than walnut. When I trimmed the ends before applying Anchorseal the sawdust was bright yellow and I knew at once it was mulberry since I had turned mulberry from a purchased blank in the past. I live about 35 miles from Port Huron, Mich. so I imagine what is local here would also be local in Mich.

This is a Mulberry bowl from a purchased blank: http://www.bobhamswwing.com/justpics/2009/June/100_9950-640.jpg



Take care
Bob

[David Gilbert]

I don't know anything about buckhorn but have turned mulberry several times. Your crotch bowl is yellow but not yellow enough for fresh mulberry. It also appears to be too fine grained for mulberry. I like your bowl and imagine that you were kind of nervous while you turned it. These sorts of bowl force you to pay very close attention.

Cheers,
David

[Cliff Hill]

My guess is Osage Orange. When turned the shavings are bright yellow. Osage is also a common tree in Michigan.
PS -- If it is Osage you need to try to get a few more pieces. The end grain when turned, polished and aged is stunning!

Cliff

[John Thorson]

I second the Osage Orange vote. Bright yellow when turned but exposed to the sun the ends would be dark.

[mike ash]

I can't see much of the bark, but I might suggest Russian Olive. If it had a strong fragrance, then I'd bet on Russian Olive.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

can you post a picture of fresh cut endgrain?

[David Heathcote]

Identifying wood species is not easy at the best of times.

Trying to do it from a single photo, without any closeups which clearly show if it's open pored or closed, and without any description of the kind of shavings it gave off, or how dense/hard/soft/heavy/light it seems, or any odor or lack of odor, or much of any other details at all is next to impossible unless it's a real distinctive species which is almost never mistaken for anything else.

Take the bowls in Leo's comment above, for example. OK, he says they're mulberry and I believe him, but judging just from the photos alone they could be a lot of things. For example we have elm around here in Colorado that's so similar in appearance to several of those pieces, especially the one on the far right, that I'd have bet five bucks that's what it could easily be. Bob's mulberry bowl looks very much like some of our local elms too.

If this all looks like a fancy way to say I have no idea what kind of wood Jim's asking about, I guess I'm busted, 'cos I don't know.
I may well not know even with much more information too, 'cos it doesn't look familiar to me, but from just those photos I bet even Bruce Hoadley would have problems being certain.

I am curious about the tannin content thing though—is that because it picked up stains from contact with iron or something?

[Jim Seyfried]

Here is a picture of the end grain and bark, it was cut about a week ago. I took it with an iPhone and my pole barn has florescent lights. I took the picture this afternoon to compare on the HobbitHouse site; cool site I bookmarked it. However, I'm still not sure. The reason I thought about tannin content is, the end of the log was very dark and then showed up yellow when I trimmed the end off. The ends could turn dark for other reasons, but that is what it made me think of.

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[Shawn Pachlhofer]

A good (close, in focus) shot of the end grain would be very helpful, but based on the photos - I'm thinking osage orange like others have said.

it's about the right color for fresh cut, has white-ish sap wood

how green is the wood? was there a sticky white-ish sap that oozed out from just under the bark?

OO will turn brown with exposure to UV light

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Here is a picture of the end grain and bark, it was cut about a week ago. I took it with an iPhone and my pole barn has florescent lights. I took the picture this afternoon to compare on the HobbitHouse site; cool site I bookmarked it. However, I'm still not sure. The reason I thought about tannin content is, the end of the log was very dark and then showed up yellow when I trimmed the end off. The ends could turn dark for other reasons, but that is what it made me think of.

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Here is Osage Orange and you can see that looks totally different, I have bark pictures also from my Osage Orange that I have turned.
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