-
Beware of Counterfeit Woodturning Tools (click here for details) -
Johnathan Silwones is starting a new AAW chapter, Southern Alleghenies Woodturners, in Johnstown, PA. (click here for details) -
Congratulations to Keven Jesequel for "Big Leaf Maple" being selected as Turning of the Week for April 15, 2024 (click here for details) -
Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.
Wood ID help, please..
- Thread starter Glenn McCullough
- Start date
Just a SWAG, but maybe pecan?
I was thinking ash, but the bark doesn't quite look right. Some of those growth rings look like they could be ring shake which means that it could separate along those rings as you turn or a year or three after you turn it. This is fairly common with ash.
robo hippy
robo hippy
possibly oak.....although what type of oak good ?? ?? Need some leaves could possibly tell what type....bunch of
another vote for ash.
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2021
- Messages
- 1,219
- Likes
- 1,053
- Location
- Roulette, PA
- Website
- www.reallyruralwoodworks.com
I doubt very much it is Ash.. I turn a lot of it, and have a lot of it still (bark on) awaiting turning, not to mention a dozen dead ash trees of varying sizes still standing in my back yard.. Grain looks ring porous, like ash and oak, but the bark is wayy off from being Ash... plus, sapwood don't look quite right for ash... I'd tend to suspect the first SWAG guess for Pecan might be closer.. as it looks an awful lot just like a piece I was looking at online a couple hours ago...
Not Ash, it has a whole different bark, I do believe it is Ailanthus, I have turned some a few times, the grain does look like it, it has a thin early growth with large open pores, also the bark is like that when the tree is larger, I got a few pictures but this dried rough turned bowl shows the grain best.
Attachments
Looks like catalpa to me. Does it have a spicy smell?
Catalpa is darker wood when in raw blocks, it also does not have the thin early growth with the large open pores.
Just a shot in the dark because id-ing wood is very new to me.
The bark reminds me of cottonwood but I have never seen the grain of cottonwood.
The bark reminds me of cottonwood but I have never seen the grain of cottonwood.
Here is the Cottonwood bark (a large one) the leaves you see are from Manitoba maple (Acer negundo)
Cotton wood is a Poplar species, the wood is usually very plain looking, two pictures here from some not very nice Poplar wood, bowl is about 13" or a bit larger.
A) there are different species of ash and this may not be the one that grows in your neck of the woods (or mine)
B) there are numerous tiny bug holes on the outer surface, so this piece is not entirely sound and unaltered from it's usual state
C) As Al mentioned, the bark does look something like cottonwood. For a while, I harvested cottonwood bark in an attempt to make fly rod grips (made beautiful but too fragile grips) and found the same appearance in older trees where the bark had rubbed against other trees. The wood itself is clearly not cottonwood, but the bark as shown may have lost the rough, gray surface it had originally, leaving it with the current appearance and adding to the mystery
D) I have seen ash that has lost the white-brown contrast between sap and heart wood, and developed the gray appearance typical of catalpa (which this is also pretty clearly not, at least not northern catalpa)
As we've learned in the past, identifying wood by pictures, without leaves and other tree identifying items, is a real challenge. Where's Rob when you need him?
Whether it's ash or not, load it up and turn it into something nice.
B) there are numerous tiny bug holes on the outer surface, so this piece is not entirely sound and unaltered from it's usual state
C) As Al mentioned, the bark does look something like cottonwood. For a while, I harvested cottonwood bark in an attempt to make fly rod grips (made beautiful but too fragile grips) and found the same appearance in older trees where the bark had rubbed against other trees. The wood itself is clearly not cottonwood, but the bark as shown may have lost the rough, gray surface it had originally, leaving it with the current appearance and adding to the mystery
D) I have seen ash that has lost the white-brown contrast between sap and heart wood, and developed the gray appearance typical of catalpa (which this is also pretty clearly not, at least not northern catalpa)
As we've learned in the past, identifying wood by pictures, without leaves and other tree identifying items, is a real challenge. Where's Rob when you need him?
Whether it's ash or not, load it up and turn it into something nice.
Turn it and call it dogged wood. When someone asks what that is you can respond "dogged if I know" 
.
.Northern Catalpa does have course early grain. Even a couple of the blocks in your picture look like course early grain. As does the 10x picture in this link. https://www.wood-database.com/catalpa/
It's not Catalpa what the picture of the OP shows, I still believe it to be Ailanthus AKA Tree of Heaven.
If the wood is from your region, you can usually start with a list of trees that grow in your region and compare the bark of the tree to pictures of the trees in your region.
You will eliminate most of the tree species in that elimination round, compare the wood grain and color in the next elimination round, this should leave you with a hand full
of potential species to choose from. The seeds and leaves of the tree are very helpful in identifying a log if it is known.
You will eliminate most of the tree species in that elimination round, compare the wood grain and color in the next elimination round, this should leave you with a hand full
of potential species to choose from. The seeds and leaves of the tree are very helpful in identifying a log if it is known.
Here is the finished bowl if that helps...
Attachments
First pic almost looks like Osage Orange. Deep Amber color will darken with sunlight (and time/months) to more brownish/amber. Catalpa that I've turned has a more greenish hue, but second and third photos remind me somewhat of Catalpa. Photo lighting can be deceiving. Bowl looks great in any case.
Rob is celebrating birthday....
Happy Birthday Rob
Happy Birthday Rob
Hmm, now I am wondering if it is black locust. Tree of Heaven and Catalpa are both pretty soft. The locust is harder than woodpecker lips...... It does tend to have that color, and the bark is correct, or at least close...
robo hippy
robo hippy
From the Ailanthus trees I've cut, that must be the most shaded and starved Ailanthus tree in the world. Most of them have growth rings of at least 1/2". They grow like weeds. I still stand by my identification. Whatever the OP decides it is, it looks to have powder post beetle in the bark.
It sure looks like Ailanthus still, here two pictures of one fo my bowls turned of it, have turned a bunch of Ailanthus.
Reed, Black Locust over here has a quite different Bark and the wood is also different, yes Ailanthus is not a hard wood, but harder than Catalpa and it turns nicely, and yes Black Locust is pretty hard for sure, but still turns and finishes well for me
The flowers smell very nice, almost too much from close by.
Oak
I think Leo makes a good case for ailanthus. But the bottom line is without a hand lens and good dichotomous key, it is pretty difficult to make a certain identification. Sort of like asking a doctor to diagnose an illness over the phone.
Only turned a couple of pieces of alianthus, and I turned it thin and I could see pin holes in the growth rings.
I do have a big black locust just outside my shop, 24+ inches at chest height and covered with burls. Ain't going to cut it down in my life time. Getting ready to bloom. Never noticed any scent from it though.
robo hippy
I do have a big black locust just outside my shop, 24+ inches at chest height and covered with burls. Ain't going to cut it down in my life time. Getting ready to bloom. Never noticed any scent from it though.
robo hippy
Reed maybe you do not have a Black Locust, maybe an Acacia tree ??
The sweet smell from a tree loaded with the trusses of flowers is almost overpowering, see this Picture and the load of flowers it can have, closeup of the flowers also with info.
Well, pretty sure it is a black locust, and pretty much confirmed by an arborist friend. When I was a vendor at the local Saturday Market, there were a couple of trees that had very similar bark, flowers, and leaves behind where my booth was. It would flower a month or so after the black locust were done. Don't know specifically what kind of trees they were though. My locust is yet to bloom this year. Have to pay attention to it. We are almost to grass pollen season. They grow 100,000 acres of grass for seed here in the valley and we get green dust devils when the pollen is in full bloom, and I get hay fever. I am able to survive by 'better living through chemistry'....
robo hippy
robo hippy
John Jordan
In Memorium
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
- Messages
- 506
- Likes
- 965
- Location
- Cane Ridge (Nashville), TN
- Website
- www.johnjordanwoodturning.com
That's exactly what black locust bark in the southeast US looks like-smells too. LOL