Ginko Tree - Any good?

[Jim Evans]

My Aunt has a very large ginkgo tree in her backyard the that the power company is going to cut down soon. I would like to get some of the logs but I don't know if ginkgo is a desirable wood for turners. Has anyone had any experience with this tree?

thanks

[Russ Sears]

All I know about Gingko is that you don't want a female tree in your yard. They bear a small, round fruit that smells like... well.... forgive me but it smells like dog poop mixed with vomit. I'm not sure if the wood carries that odor or not but if so, you would figure it out pretty quickly!

[Gary Herrmann]

No personal experience turning it, but I've heard it can be very stringy. The little one in my front yard won't yield much worthwhile for another 50 or 60 years.

[Terry Quiram]

I had a chance to get some Gingko a few weeks ago and I want to say I was very pleasently supprised. It is a pretty stable wood and it turned like a dream. My buddy favors it for carving designs in his bowls. You have to use it fairly quickly as it spalts pretty fast. I wish I had gotten more.

[Jim Evans]

Thanks for the info - looks like I will be turning some Ginkgo pretty soon.
I think my Aunt would love a bowl from the tree. She's 85 and her mother and father lived in the house before her. Something from the tree would be fun to give her.

[Nathan Hawkes]

All I know about Gingko is that you don't want a female tree in your yard. They bear a small, round fruit that smells like... well.... forgive me but it smells like dog poop mixed with vomit. I'm not sure if the wood carries that odor or not but if so, you would figure it out pretty quickly!




:D:D

That's a pretty accurate description of what the fruit smell like!!!!!
The University of Virginia has a lot of these trees planted on the grounds, which, I was told, were a gift from either Japan or China (can't remember). It has been suggested that the trees were given as some kind of very long-term practical joke, because they don't fruit for many many years, and the smell is pretty incredible. They bear the fruit for only a short time during the year, and are otherwise quite attractive, so whether they were given in jest one may never know....

[John Timberlake]

I have only turned one vessel from Ginko. It turned nicely, finished well and had a good grain. Only problem is that I had trouble remembering what wood it was for a while.

[Dick Strauss]

"Stinko Ginkgo" is what we used to call them. Enough said!

You should turn all that you can get. There is almost no such thing as bad wood if it is free (unless it is rotten)!

FYI-Ginkgos are revered in the buddhist faith and the species is supposed to be a couple hundred million years old.

[jeff ferguson]

I recently turned a couple large Ginko trees from the University of Missouri Campus, and the wood was intersting. Very easy to cut. It is extremely heavy when green and then dries to lighter than pine. I double-turned the pieces and they dried very quickly and barely warped at all. I would recommend double-turning hollow forms as well because the wood will not dry from friction of the sandpaper. The wood is very soft and does not have much color or grain. The wood has a slightly sweet smell without a hint of the fruit scent.
The real advantage of the wood is that it sells well. There are a lot of people who have some connection with the wood and will buy Ginko pieces befre all other woods.
Good luck,
Jeff