Mystery wood NE bowl pix

[Joe Fisher]

So a friend tells me, "Hey Joe, I drove by a place where it looked like people just dump logs. It had lots of bumpy wood; I know you like that."

And so I checked it out, and lo and behold, about a 50' long dumping ground of logs! As I got there, some guy was unloading his truck, so I loaded mine up. I'll be checking back there often, I can tell you that ;)

Anyway, I got 3 kinds of wood. First is this mystery wood (it's been suggested over on WoodNet that it's Silver Maple):

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Turning/other_unknown.jpg

I made this bowl from it (sorry for the crappy pix - the finish isn't even dry on it, but I wanted to throw some pix up). About 7" across, about 1/4" thick:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Turning/mystery_bowl1.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Turning/mystery_bowl2.jpg

Second is this giant log of something:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Turning/flaky_unknown.jpg

Looks very similar to the first one, but has flaky bark.

Then there were a bunch of logs that I thought were red oak. So I put a few aside to play with, and started splitting the rest up for firewood. After splitting a few logs without paying much attention to what I was doing, I realized to my horror that it was Osage Orange!!! The wood is a GORGEOUS orange inside. I can't wait to get turnin' with it. I went back today, but the rest was all gone :(

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Turning/osage.jpg

So any guesses on the other two woods are welcome. I'll post up pix of the bowl after the Danish oil dries and I get it Beall buffed.

-Joe

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

First Pix does not look liks Silver Maple. I have several on my property. The bark doesn't stack like that, but splits off in large sections and remains thin.

Wet Osage Orange turns GREAT.............Dry it's HARD, but good lookin'.

Bruce

[Cody Colston]

That's a great score no matter what kind of wood.

The last two logs shown don't look like Osage Orange to me. Bois d' Arc as it's called here is a bright yellow with a tiny bit of white sap wood. It eventually turns a golden color with oxidation and sunlight exposure.

The "Orange" moniker refers to the large green fruit it produces (not edible) and not the color.

But, regardless of what it is, you still made a good haul. Congrats.

[Joe Fisher]

The "Orange" moniker refers to the large green fruit it produces (not edible) and not the color.
It looks almost precisely like an osage orange bowstave I bought a while ago. The sapwood is thicker though, as you say.

The interior is a strong yellow/orange color, again very similar to the osage stave I'm using for comparison. I'll try to get a better picture of the interior later.

-Joe

[Ernie Nyvall]

Nice work on the bowl Joe.

That first log and in the bowl form looks like elm to me.

Ernie

[Joe Fisher]

Here are some more pictures of the wood I thought was osage. I'm fairly sure now that it's not, but I don't know what it is.

The tearout was pretty severe, bad enough that I couldn't get it clean on the outside, even with a fresh edge and Bill's "nuclear weapon" cut. You can see how clean the rest of the surface is; that's straight from the gouge (thanks, Mr. G!). While doing the cut, long slivers of wood were flaking out of the face grain, making it impossible to get a clean surface. I bagged it to see if it'll behave differently when dry.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Turning/maybe_osage1.jpg (http://photobucket.com)

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Turning/maybe_osage2.jpg (http://photobucket.com)

-Joe

[Brad Hart]

That isn't osage orange but you are actually close. It is morraine locust which is a hybrid of honey locust and osage orange and was one of the first pattened plants. This is a wood that will split badly if left to its own and most of the time has some serious cracks in it when you fell it from windshake because it is so hard. This also means any large turnable pieces are hard to come by, but with as hard and heavy as the stuff is you don't want to turn anything very large out of it. Furthermore a good tung oil finish will give you a bright yellow finish on the sapwood and will keep the orange color in the heartwood. Of course with anything other than oil the orange will quickly fairly quickly go brown, which isn't bad but if I am going to to go through the trouble and hurt after a day of turning it by god I want to keep the orange color.

[Joe Fisher]

That isn't osage orange but you are actually close. It is morraine locust which is a hybrid of honey locust and osage orange and was one of the first pattened plants. This is a wood that will split badly if left to its own and most of the time has some serious cracks in it when you fell it from windshake because it is so hard. This also means any large turnable pieces are hard to come by, but with as hard and heavy as the stuff is you don't want to turn anything very large out of it. Furthermore a good tung oil finish will give you a bright yellow finish on the sapwood and will keep the orange color in the heartwood. Of course with anything other than oil the orange will quickly fairly quickly go brown, which isn't bad but if I am going to to go through the trouble and hurt after a day of turning it by god I want to keep the orange color.
Brad,

Thanks for the info! I guess I got lucky; this stuff was very freshly cut, and logs up to about 14" diameter were perfect with no checks. I immediately slabbed and sealed them.

-Joe