Maple (dis)coloration

[Paul Paukstelis]

Is there a known cause or explanation for this sort of discoloration in maple? I recovered this log as the healthy tree was being taken down, so it isn't spalling. It doesn't have the same look as ambrosia maple. Also, it isn't nearly as dark until after rough turning, suggesting some oxidation.

 

[John K Jordan]

Do you know the type of maple?

I haven't seen that specific coloration, but there can be a huge variation of coloration in individual trees of maple (and other species) depending factors like the minerals in the soil, disease, fungus, injury, or insect damage. The coloration can spread a long way in the tree. For an example, scroll down on this page and look at some of the variation in some of the maples (and depending on how much time you have, in other light-colored species!)

HobbitHouse Wood ID site

exotic wood ID site

hobbithouseinc.com

A quick browsing of a couple of the maple entries showed some dark coloration in "hard maple" and especially under the catch-all "misc. maple" entry.

Also, when sawing logs at my bandsaw mill, several times I found some unexpected dark coloration that turned out to have spread from metal that had been embedded in the tree - in one case I found a screwdriver, often nails/screws/staples, barbed wire near old farms, one time I dug out a railroad spike! (If I see something unusual I use a metal detector on subsequent cuts to try to keep from ruining a blade!) Also, I found some intense discoloration from lightning that had hit a tree at some point in it's growth. DIscoloration from any source can be in streaks, blotches and other forms. Not saying I suspect one of these in your wood, just some possibilities to consider. Note that the tree can look completely normal from the outside.

The coloration looks interesting!

Maybe someone with more experience than me has some better ideas.

JKJ

 

[Holmes Anderson]

Looks like Norway maple to me. Not discoloration, just normal color variation.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I don't know for a fact but it may be caused by freezing after the sap has started flowing in the spring. I have milled some locally harvested maple that had similar discoloration and it is not unusual to get a cold snap that will interrupt the flow. The spring of 24 my neighbor started to gather sap and then a freeze occured and it never ran well after that, which meant that we didn't get much syrup from him.

 

[Michael Anderson]

Honestly, that looks a lot like Sweetgum to me. Serum had the tendency to develop dark patches exactly like these after it had sat for a while. Especially the branches, which sometimes start out creamy tan colored, and develop soft brown streaks over time. The leaves of Sweetgum re often confused for Maple, and the bark can look similar. Here’s a Sweetgum bowl I tuned a while ago hatched the same “flame” discoloration. It was fairly uniform in color until it sat a while (pre-finish).

 

[Paul Paukstelis]

Honestly, that looks a lot like Sweetgum to me.

I agree it has some similar appearances. I've turned a fair bit of sweetgum and this is much more dense. As Holmes suggests, this could well be Norway maple.

 

[robo hippy]

When a tree starts to die, it can get all sorts of colorations. Some times just from minerals, some times because it is starting to rot. I would guess these color variations are just from an old tree.

robo hippy