Dogwood

[Dave Roller]

I've had several dogwood trees die over the last ten years. I've let them stand until they are completely dry and am now taking them down. I've turned weed pots from these dead trees and the wood has a chocolate color almost all the way to the edge of the trunk. Not great-looking, but interesting. Very hard wood.

When I built my new garage/turning workshop this last winter, I had to take down a dogwood which had not died. Imagine my surprise when I split the trunk and saw wood nearly as white as holly! I turned a natural bowl from this dogwood the other day and did discover a tinge of color just under the bark, deeper that 1/8" in some places.

Did the disease that killed the dogwoods also cause the deep coloration? Is the tinge of color I see just under the bark in the living dogwood a precursor of the disese that killed the others? These are all "wild" dogwoods, and all had the same flower in the spring.

Does anyone know of any wood that would so completely change colors after having died and dried? (Sorry, couldn't resist those two!)

 

[Ed_McDonnell]

Hong Kong Orchid trees (Bauhinia blakeana) are somewhat like that. It's not turned very frequently down here, but I do some every now and then. When fresh it's a white wood. "Aged" wood starts to develop a caramel color demarcated by dark bands. The dark bands move as the caramel color takes over the white color so the caramel color must be a byproduct of whatever organism is in the dark bands processing whatever they find to process in the white wood.

Maybe something similar is going on in your dogwoods?

Ed

 

[hockenbery]

Natty,

Dogwood is favorite of mine. So smooth to turn. I have rarely found them larger than 10" diameter.
I have found that dead has a tenancy to get get a sickly gray or brown color.

The fresh cut wood is often has a small dark heart wood.
a lot of the dog wood I have gotten has a little tan or pink in it.
One dead tree I got had lots of spectacular black in in it, Probably related the half dozen buckshot I found in one section.

I have used the wood in pens, onament finials, boxes and threaded boxes.
Most dogwood will take a decent thread.

Happy Turning,
Al

 

[Dave Roller]

hockenbery wrote:


I have used the wood in pens, onament finials, boxes and threaded boxes

That's good information. I haven't gotten into boxes yet. I'll save some back for that. I assume you are using the "white" dogwood, not the diseased dogwood for the turnings mentioned above.

As of yet, I haven't found a way to make that "sickly" greyish brown color into something acceptable.

 

[Barbara Gill]

All the Dogwood I have turned up here in VA is sort of pink (not the pink Dogwood tree).

 

[Truffuls]

I adore spalted dogwood.

I was amazed at the colors I found in a dogwood that got knocked down. The closer to the base the more color I found; blues, purples, squiggly lines, deep pinks, amazing.

I've attached a shot of 3 of my pieces. you can see larger/more shots on my site.

Unfortunately, this tree was infested with a powder post beetle and I had to toss what I could in my freezer for 5 months, the rest got tossed out. I only got these 3 pieces out of it before it went too soft to work.

The piece in the middle "On the Brink" sold at the Instant Gallery in Richmond. I cried when it sold. I was very attached to it.