What kind of Wood is This Please

[Marvin Jones]

About 11 years ago, I found this tree on the street in front of a house that the owners were on vacation in Europe according to the neighbors. The neighbors did not know what kind of wood this was and though I gathered up most of the wood, it ruined before I could rough it in as we were working 16 hour days during a 'turnaround' as we call repairing equipment.
The few bowls that I did rough in were, to me, some of the prettiest wood I've ever had. It is a light hardwood, easy to turn. At the time, I was a follower of Mike Mahoney and sent him a picture of this wood, of course not realizing he probably was getting thousands of emails a day, I never got a response.
The closest wood that I have seen is Ambrosia Maple, but would like to know for sure would drive a hundred miles or so to get more. Anyone feel they know this wood?

 

[robo hippy]

Well, it doesn't have the worm holes that I associate with the ambrosia maple. It would be easier to tell if I could see it in person. Take it to the club meeting and ask. The interesting part of this piece is the color lines going through it. Some follow the growth rings, and some are vertical. Usually that is some infection of some sort and the streaks are the tree trying to protect itself.

robo hippy

 

[Marvin Jones]

I sold all of the bowls I made of this wood, so regret not knowing what I had and doing more to protect the logs, if my foot would reach my posterior I would kick myself every time I think about this...

 

[Aaron Harris]

Marvin-It looks a lot like a sweetgum bowl I just turned from a neighbor's tree. They are everywhere around here-kind of a nuisance, really, with the gumballs they drop everywhere (Upstate SC).Sweetgum Bowl

And yeah, real easy to turn, and took a super-nice finish just like yours.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Oh great, I've turned down a bunch of sweet gum, I've tried spitting it for firewood years ago, only once, probably why I turn it down now. I'll get some next time, be so great if that what it was!

 

[Joe Kaufman]

West coast it is known as Liquid Amber. Once it starts to spalt with colors, it can turn to mush within 2-3 months. The green hues tend to fade towards brown in a couple of years.

 

[Marvin Jones]

West coast it is known as Liquid Amber. Once it starts to spalt with colors, it can turn to mush within 2-3 months. The green hues tend to fade towards brown in a couple of years.

View attachment 43069

West coast it is known as Liquid Amber. Once it starts to spalt with colors, it can turn to mush within 2-3 months. The green hues tend to fade towards brown in a couple of years.

View attachment 43069

Joe, that is as close as I've seen to match my bowl...
Aaron, guess what I found!
The Liquid Amber (Liquidambar styraciflua), also known as the American Sweet Gum is a brilliant, water wise, deciduous tree often grown for their amazing show ...
Thanks a million guys, just made my day!!!!

 

[Karl Loeblein]

Also known as ’poor mans walnut’, but I disagree with that sentiment. Sweet gum is one of my favorite turning woods for it’s color and smooth finish.

 

[Marvin Jones]

I always thought it had to have been some exotic tree being in the posh neighborhood it was in (country club estates) and to look like it does when finished. I've been asked a bunch of times if I wanted some sweet gum but usually some of the wood I harvest gets into the firewood pile and sweet gum as I remembered last time I tried, twisted and turned and stuck the axe and wedge. I've never tried it with the hydraulic splitter I have now. Just tickled to know a tree so common is one of my favorite woods. Looking forward to getting some more...

 

[Joe Kaufman]

From my experience in Southern CA, there is probably <20% chance of finding useable figured Liquid Amber in this area. A few years ago, the condo complex next to us removed all (50+) large LA trees due to size interfering with the condo units. I'm retired and checked when I heard chainsaws, so had my pick. The bowl in the photo came from those trees. It did take CA glue application to harden the punky areas.
Two months ago, I took down a 20" LA tree in our front yard in sections that I could rough turn into bowl blanks the same day. Sections of the top 5-6 feet looked like a large butterfly but when it dried the center crumbled with fingernail pressure. I had topped the tree a few times. The rest of the wood was white like maple. The blanks that I immediately covered with Tree Saver (PVA glue) stayed fairly white. Some were put in garbage cans and kept covered except for a couple of hours in the early morning and traces of the characteristic brown/orange streaks developed after a few days.

 

[Marvin Jones]

I must have caught mine just right, it was in great shape and the color was in it when it was fresh cut. In my home town, there are gum trees on every corner, my yard at our old house is always covered in gumballs that shoot out like bullets when we mow from the neighbors huge tree...I'll be watching for someone offering one, your bowl is absolutely stunning.

 

[Randy Anderson]

Like Karl, I like sweet gum and turn a lot of it. Here in west TN it is very very plentiful. My property is covered in them and of course the ground is covered in their round seed balls which are a real nuisance. Sometimes it will have really dark heartwood and light sapwood and as Karl says it can be a poor mans walnut substitute. Not all of them have the dark/light contrast. Not sure why. It ages really well, develops great spalting lines and coloring like in Joe's picture but, once it starts to spalt it has a very short shelf life and will get punky quickly. Still good to turn if you can manage the punky areas. I have a lot of it cut up out back and try to keep an eye on it. Sometimes I miss the window but, there's plenty more around.

 

[Marvin Jones]

I've heard that it burns well but is difficult to split, will see if my splitter can handle it as some of the wood I harvest ends up as fuel. I found some plastic wrap in cases very cheap and bought a couple. I have a trailer load of pecan that I wrapped wet because I can't rough in as the my lathe is waiting on motor bearings that have been traveling around for two weeks in the mail...they were in Memphis a week ago then went back to Detroit, now they are back in Memphis. The seller and the post office are pointing fingers at each other. Could just go buy new ones but these are SKF and were reasonable, hope they are not counterfeit.....just read China is selling some.
The point of this is if the plastic wrap stops the drying out for a week or two especially being cooler now, that may be a way to prolong the time frame of roughing in green wood. Even as rapidly as I'm hearing sweet gum get punky, fresh cut should last wrapped wet for a couple of weeks in the shade and not mildew.