Drying Box Elder?

[PheasantHunter]

This is my first post.

I recently cut down a box elder tree that has good (not great) color (red streaks). I was told by a sawyer, that it needs to be dried quickly to maintain the red color. I roughed out several bowls and also cut some
3"x3"x12" blanks for peppermills/boxes. I coated the end grain with sealer. My question is anything else I need to do, besides be patient?

 

[Richard Baker]

Hi PH and welcome. Glad to have you here. Hope to see some pictures of your work.

Meanwhile, you seem to have done everything right so far. Never heard that about fast drying to maintain the color in box elder. Usually we are trying to slow the drying in order to minimize cracking and checking. Treat your rough outs the same as you would any other wood to avoid cracking.

Others may follow here with some better advice.

 

[waltben]

I don't think box elder has to be dried quickly to keep the red. I was given a medium sized log that had started to spalt, but had tremendous color when I made some flower vases out of it. The wood was too punky to do much else with it, but it certainly had color.

 

[Ken Grunke]

I've never heard that about Box Elder, but it's easy enough to quickly dry a small turning like a box or bowl by rough-turning it, then drying in a microwave.

A controlled experiment can be done with an evenly-colored chunk of which half is cut into strips to dry quickly by various methods (microwave, food dryer, kitchen oven, etc) and the other half end-sealed and left to dry whole for a year or more.

 

[john lucas]

Drying box elder fast or slow doesn't have anything to do with the color change. The color changes from exposure to UV light. I did a test about a month ago on some box elder because someone had said that bleaching box elder would make the color last. Nope, didn't work. I put a piece of dry box elder that was partially bleached and a piece of fresh cut box elder that was partially bleached. I made 2 slabs of each and put one slab of each in a box out of sunlight. I put the other 2 out in direct sun. After just 2 days the red was turning brown and losing it's color. The ones in the box still have the color after 2 months or so.
Dryed and finished and kept indoors out of the sun, either bleached or not bleached it lasts quite a few years and even then it fades very slowly. The only way I know of keeping the red for a long time is to air brush over it with fabric dyes which I believe is what Binh Pho does. Someone may have to verify that for me. I've tried that technique but my airbrush isn't very good and my airbrush skills are equally as bad so it has looked kind of fake. I'm still playing when I have the time. I love the look of bleached box elder with the red contrast.