• 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 Paul May for "Checkerboard (ver 3.0)" being selected as Turning of the Week for March 25, 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.

Mystery wood

Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Messages
689
Likes
955
Location
Shingletown CA
I won 5 chunks of wood at our local (Olympia WA) aaw meeting. I bought 5 raffle tickets and won 5 pieces. Anyway, turned this one and I don't know what the wood is. I was guessing myrtle, but I'm not sure.
IMG_6116.JPG
IMG_6114.JPG
 
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
935
Likes
241
Location
Newberg, OR: 20mi SW of Portland: AAW #21058
Did they have an odor when turning? Myrtle smells kinda spicy to me.
Can you post a closeup pics of the side grain of the top bowl? Maybe an inch or two to either side of the area where the inside highlight is would be a good place to choose.
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2010
Messages
3,058
Likes
900
Location
Cleveland, Tennessee
I was given some blue pine a while back. Mold or something causes blue streaks. So... was it a soft wood?
 
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Messages
5,436
Likes
2,792
Location
Eugene, OR
Well, for sure, not myrtle/California bay laurel.... I do turn a lot of that. Smell can be one identification factor, and myrtle can have a sweet spicy smell, or can smell like a horse stall... Woods with growth rings that large can be several different ones. Tree of Heaven looks like that, and has tiny pin holes through it, and the only pieces of it I turned had a kind of bitter scent to it. Magnolia can look like that, and what I have turned of it had kind of a turpentine scent to it. It doesn't look like ash, which can be light in color like that. Sweet gum possibly. Not sure...

robo hippy
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
Messages
2,326
Likes
1,105
Location
Nebraska
The spaulting or beetle stain can also be a clue to the type of wood. Certain species of woods will readily take certain types of fungal spaulting and the same for beetle infestation into specific types of wood. Pine trees are currently under attack by infestation of beetles causing blue stains in the wood where the beetles burrow into the tree. Once the beetles run out of pine trees they may transition to a different type of tree in the region.
 
Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Messages
689
Likes
955
Location
Shingletown CA
I'm pretty sure it isn't pine, as there is no sap or pitch smell. The mystery continues! It was relatively hard, but soft enough to get some tear out with the gouge; I could not dent the wood with my thumbnail. I'm guessing this wood is from the Northwest. Specifically, the Olympia Wa area, as that's where the meetings are.
 
Joined
May 4, 2010
Messages
2,432
Likes
1,850
Location
Bozeman, MT
The growth rings are wide, which could be a wild tree in your area, but elsewhere it would suggest a landscaping specimen. Could that be a big leaf or some other variety of maple that doesn't look exactly like it's supposed to?
 
Back
Top