Grapefruit Wood Surprise - PICS

[Steve Mathews]

A friend asked me to cut up a couple of dead grapefruit trees he had in his yard. According to him they had been dead for at least a year and most had already rotted out at the base. He used most of it for firewood but I kept a couple of pieces to see what the wood looked like inside. To my surprise after cutting into one of the logs it was heavily spalted but not severely cracked. I made one small bowl out of one piece and cut a couple of small slabs out of the others. Here are some photos of the finished bowl, one of the slabs and the other uncut log. I might try making my first small box from the slabs.

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[Ed Davidson]

Great catch on the wood...well worth the effort. My experience is that all fruit-woods make for good turning.

[Wes Henson]

Nice! Good find.
I love that fruit wood when you can keep it from splitting or chipping.

[Sid Matheny]

That is a real good catch and it is the first grapefruit wood I have ever seen. The bowl is a beauty!

[Stan Calow]

Thanks for this report. I have often wondered what citrus tree wood looked like and this is the first time I've seen it used for woodworking.

[Steve Mathews]

It wasn't my intention to suggest all grapefruit wood appears as shown in the photos above. In fact, I recall mentioning the wood earlier on this forum before working with it and the comments received were that it is generally bland and lacking figure similar to boxwood. I think what makes this wood so interesting is due to the heavy spalting. I worked with some ambrosia maple earlier and the color/figuring is even more intense. The timing is appropriate as I'm currently reading Spalted Wood by Sara C. Robinson Et al. I would like to someday take advantage of some of the techniques described in the book spalting wood somewhat artificially.

[Thomas Canfield]

Grapefruit wood is not easily found. I picked up a piece about 10+ years back on trip to Hawaii and was pleased with the finish turned piece. Definitely would use it again if any found.

[Robert Marshall]

Look just like spalted maple: color, grain, etc. Nice work!