Turning wood from Empress Tree (Paulownia)

[Bob Opsitos]

Anyone ever turn any of this stuff? I got a 5 foot log about 7" in diameter from a friend at work who is cutting some of them down on his property. From the end grain it looks fairly course grained. Some sites have compared it to ash.

Seen the blurbage on the net about the wonderment of the tree and seen at least one bench made here on the Creek, but no turnings.

Thanks
Bob

[Ralph Lindberg]

Tear-out is an issue, it's also open grained. It's quite soft and light also. But, with care, it does turn well.
Tree wise, it's quite fast growing, it can put on 15 ft a year (in the early years).
Tell you buddy it also will sprout from the roots (I lost one to a dog, I now have several in that area)

[Barbara Gill]

Paulownia is a very stable wood. I have cut one down and turned a finished bowl all in the same day. There was almost no distortion. As was mentioned the wood is soft; keep the tools sharp. It makes very nice salad bowls both large and small. The wood is very attractive. It is one wood that you do not have to cut the pith out of. In fact, leaving the finger size pith hole in the bowl is a neat feature.

[Kurt Whitley]

I think the Empress tree is actually categorized as a grass (the hole where a pith should be is one clue). I've turned a couple of ornaments out of it and used Chestnut brand dyes on them. They took the dyes nicely and I still have (2 years later) some of the wood with no hint of checking.
As mentioned above it is soft and tear-out can be a bit of a problem.

[Ralph Lindberg]

I think the Empress tree is actually categorized as a grass (the hole where a pith should be is one clue). ....

Ah, no
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulownia
http://www.paulownia.org/

[Dave Carey]

The Washington Post ran an article on paulownia on May 17 (page B3). Unfortunately I don't have a link but it's worth a read. Started with the story of a truck with a trailer and a wood chipper that pulled up in front of a church in Fairfax, VA, put out safety cones and proceeded to cut down a 60 foot paulownia tree with a 30 inch diameter at the base from the church's memorial garden. Everyone assumed they were legit; they weren't.

Elsewhere (maybe on Sawmill Creek!) that the wood can be stringy and caustic (affecting your saw, etc. ) Would love to try some!

[Barbara Gill]

Elsewhere (maybe on Sawmill Creek!) that the wood can be stringy and caustic (affecting your saw, etc. ) Would love to try some![/QUOTE]

I have sawn a lot of Paulownia and turned a fair amount. It is not at all caustic.

[Ralph Lindberg]

The Washington Post ran an article on paulownia on May 17 (page B3). Unfortunately I don't have a link but it's worth a read. Started with the story of a truck with a trailer and a wood chipper that pulled up in front of a church in Fairfax, VA, put out safety cones and proceeded to cut down a 60 foot paulownia tree with a 30 inch diameter at the base from the church's memorial garden. Everyone assumed they were legit; they weren't..

Not unknown. A mature Paulownia can wholesale for from $1K, and up and much more then that imported to Japan.
The same is true for many other woods. Figured Big Leaf Maple is in such demand that these trees are cut down illegally, often.
Transport of certain species (Maple, Alder, Ceder, etc), with out the proper permits/paperwork is prohibited in Washington State(the law was a good idea, but it's a little over blown, I could not have brought the Alder and Big Leaf Maple back from a friends, even though it was clearly cut as firewood under this law)

[TYLER WOOD]

Dang if only I knew 18 months ago. I helped a friend tear one out of his yard, took it to the dump (this was pre-abysseration). It looked good, but logs are not much use to a flatlander at the time. CURSES inserted here as I realize how much turning wood I threw away!

[Dave Carey]

Barbara - glad to hear it's not caustic; can't remember where I read that.

Also can't find a link to the Washington Post article so here it is. Was a piece in the column entitled John Kelly's Washington.

Trafficking in Hot Trees
I don't think Unitarians believe in hell, so the members of Mount Vernon Unitarian Church are denied the satisfaction of hoping that the people who stole their tree will burn in the hellfire of eternal damnation.

It was March 2, a Friday, when a truck towing a trailer and carrying a wood chipper pulled up in broad daylight to a street behind the Fairfax County church. At least four men got out. They set up traffic cones and went about their business, methodically cutting down a 60-foot paulownia tree that towered over a memorial garden by the side of the sanctuary. When they were done, they loaded the wood onto their trailer and drove off.

Plenty of people saw them, but everyone assumed the thieves had a legitimate reason to be there. Nearby maples and hollies were untouched. Only the paulownia - boasting a trunk 30 inches in diameter - was taken.

"We miss it," said Alvin Macomber, the 79-year-old chairman of the church's grounds committee, who showed me the scene of the crime yesterday.

After I mentioned paulownia trees in a recent column, I was inundated with mail on the subject. It fell into two categories:
1. The paulownia is a noxious, alien invader.
2. The paulownia drives men mad with desire.

Jessica Strother, an urban forester with Fairfax Count, said the paulownia can grow in the most unforgiving of soils and is wickedly opportunistic. "It is a problem in that it invades natural areas and out-competes native plants and native trees for space," she said.

To foresters such as Jessica, Paulownia tomentosa is nothing better than a woody snakehead - which is interesting because the other school considers it the most noble of trees, capable of producing not only beautiful purple blossoms but a handsome wood.

About the wood: Believe what you read on the Web and you'd think the only things paulownia wood can't do are cure cancer and convert a 7-10 split. It's lightweight, yet strong. It's light in color and takes stain well. It's fire-resistant, dries easily and doesn't split. It's a dessert topping and a floor wax....

Paulownia wood is supposedly prized in japan, where it's used for ornamental boxes and musical instruments. It's said that when a girl is born in Japan, a paulownia tree is planted, and when she marries it's cut down and made into her dowry chest.

Which sounds like a bunch of baloney to me.

Where exactly - in an island nation so desperate for space that people live in apartments the size of my garden shed - are all these trees being planted?

But there is enough of a perception that someone pays top dollar for this wood to inspire tree-nappers to risk jail to possess it.

"There's a black market," said David Drexler, proprietor of PaulowniaTrees.com, a Georgia company that sells paulownia seedlings to people who want to make money legally.

David said there are wood yards and sawmills that don't ask questions when someone pulls up with a load of pilfered paulownia.

He spends a lot of his time convincing customers that much of what they've heard about paulownia isn't true. These are the sort of people who in the past may have invested in ostrich farms or chinchilla ranches, dreamers and schemers who want to get in on the ground floor of a good thing. Yes, David tells them, the wood is good, but few trees have the tight grain the Japanese supposedly pay the big bucks for.

Plantation-grown trees are harvested after about 10 years. "You can't grow an old-growth tree in 10 years," David said. "I get asked that: 'How can I grow a tree with 50 rings in it?" Well, it takes 50 years."

Who wants to wait 50 years? Said David: "Everybody wants to get rich quick."

I suppose there's nothing quicker than stealing.

Alvin said that the Fairfax police officers didn't seem all that interested in their missing tree. He said an officer questioned whether a crime had even taken place. If the church didn't plant the tree to make money, then perhaps it wasn't really theft.

But most of us plant trees not to make money but to make shade. We do it for the blossoms and the leaves. We do it to be reminded that we're connected to the Earth. We do it to watch something grow that will outlast us.

If there's any justice, the next time the thieving band of rustlers tries to cut down a tree, the tree will fight back. A big branch falling about 60 feet ought to do the trick.