Wood identity

[pencheff]

Until last week I thought that the free turning wood fairy visited everyone else on this forum except me. After a year and a half of searching and biding my time I finally hit the free-wood-jackpot. My dry spell is over.

In the bargain section of our local paper I found and ad for "Free Wild Cherry wood - Burn or turn" so I knew the person offering was a woodturner. I called, told the poster I was a turner too and he set some aside for me. This Saturday when I visited to pick up the wood Doug and I hit it off and he started giving me other chunks from his considerable cache. "It'll rot before I get to it" was his explanation. Besides the Wild Cherry he gave me sections of Maple, Apple and Sycamore. I have yet to dig into that pile.

Three days before that I had picked up six trunk sections ~ 20" in diameter x 24" long that I found on our local FreeCycle advertised as "unsplit Poplar firewood." The tree had been cut down in June so some natural spalting had already begun. When I started rendering the sections into turning blanks I was extremely surprised and pleased to see this. Doesn't look like Poplar to me. The color and patterns are magnificent. What is it?

 

[jjb]

Boxelder

It is "boxelder"

 

[tdrice]

"jjb" is right it is Box Elder which is a species of maple. The red color is from a bacterial infection. I have read both that it does and does not harm the tree. I recently cut burls off two Box Elders that had the deepest stain I have seen and both trees seemed to be perfectly healthy.

 

[almather]

I have had a few pieces of Box Elder and will shortly be getting some more. I have heard that the color will fade over time? Is this true? Can anything be done to prevent or slow the fading, if it does fade?

Thanks.

Al

 

[Mark Mandell]

Unfortunately, the red stain stain will go to tan with exposure to UV. You can slow it down with UV-blocking finish, but fade it will nonetheless.

 

[pencheff]

"jjb" is right it is Box Elder which is a species of maple. The red color is from a bacterial infection. I have read both that it does and does not harm the tree. I recently cut burls off two Box Elders that had the deepest stain I have seen and both trees seemed to be perfectly healthy.

Well then... ahem. YAHOO! Pardon me for gloating but I have a LOT of this already cut into blanks, anchor-sealed and stored on the shelves in the shop to dry :cool2:

So now that I know what the species is does it come with any special warnings, instructions or caveats? Sorry to hear the color will fade over time, that's too bad. But it sure is purty now!

The wife has been asking for a big sald bowl. If this is a species of maple and maple is purportedly ideal for food contact items can I deduce that Box Elder can be used to make a big salad bowl?

 

[Mark Mandell]

Greg,

You'll have no problem with the wood itself, however the borers' little holes and galleries that you see (same as Ambrosia beetles) have left you with a small problem in that they will have to be filled or the bowl will leak. I use epoxy to which I add black pigment to provide a nice contrast, but you should apply a bit of shellac around each hole to prevent the resin from staining the wood.

Box Elder is a very soft maple; cuts beautifully when wet but tends to tear out easily when dry so you'll need to keep your tools sharp. I have several trees that I'm working from.

Have fun.

ps: Mine doesn't stink so maybe Dietrich needs to get that stash of old gym socks out of his shop.

 

[Claude]

How lucky you are!
Enjoy it!

 

[dkulze]

Congrats on the find. Using UV resistant eurythane oil in multiple coats and then keeping it out of the sun will go a long ways towards stabilizing the color. Heavy sun exposure will brown it eventually, though, so any piece you make should come with the recommendation to keep out of direct sunlight.

For salad bowls, I'd say it isn't the best wood. It's much softer and more porous than most maple and so will discolor quickly from soaking up stuff, even if you seal it well. I personally stick to stuff like cherry, ash, and hard maple for my salad bowls. Now fruit bowl.....

Finally, the only problems I have with it are that it smells like old gym socks, it tears out easilly, and the dust gives me sinisitis. This last one is kinda wierd, since aromatic cedar, walnut, and exotics don't cause a problem. Exposure, I guess.

Dietrich