mystery wood

[ahoiberg]

so, driving down the street to lunch other day, darting my eyes around for any wood i could add to my growing pile and i spotted a woodturners gold mine.

a crew was preparing to tear down a house and there was like 8 trees cut down in the yard, so naturally i stopped and investigated. well, no one was around, so i decided to take a log and see what i could do with it.

despite all my horticulture classes in college, i can't figure out what type of tree this is... anyone else have any idea?

close up: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w12/ahoiberg/Turnings/IMG_2351.jpg

regular: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w12/ahoiberg/Turnings/IMG_2350.jpg

 

[Rob Wallace]

Need MUCH more information/characteristics.

Andrew Hoiberg wrote: so, driving down the street to lunch other day, darting my eyes around for any wood i could add to my growing pile and i spotted a woodturners gold mine.

a crew was preparing to tear down a house and there was like 8 trees cut down in the yard, so naturally i stopped and investigated. well, no one was around, so i decided to take a log and see what i could do with it.

despite all my horticulture classes in college, i can't figure out what type of tree this is... anyone else have any idea?

Andrew:

Neither of the images you present provides (at least for me) enough characteristics of the wood to go on for an ID. It would be good to see some end and side grain up close, rather than simply a mass of "unremarkable bark". Having some idea of whether the wood is ring or diffuse porous, color & cell sizes of early wood or latewood, difference in color of sapwood, parenchymal rays, etc. would be very helpful aids to identification or recognition.

Assuming there is some color fidelity in the images, is that a pinkish or purplish hue in the cross section? Some description of the wood could also be more helpful. At the moment I couldn't fathom even an educated guess given the scant information about the piece you're trying to identify.

Rob Wallace

 

[ahoiberg]

i just figured maybe we'd have a human Dirr manual on hand that could I.D. it from a simple picture...

i'll go out and study it a bit further and try and work up a better description and get a few other photos of the endgrain and such.

i don't think there's any pink or purple in it, it must've been some weird light in my garage or something.

rob, that's a fine town you're living in... i'm from Ames.

 

[George Guadiane]

i just figured maybe we'd have a human Dirr manual on hand that could I.D. it from a simple picture...

i'll go out and study it a bit further and try and work up a better description and get a few other photos of the endgrain and such.

i don't think there's any pink or purple in it, it must've been some weird light in my garage or something.

rob, that's a fine town you're living in... i'm from Ames.

Turn something out of it, then we can see the wood grain too. Besides, if' you really want to "investigate," you might as well find out about the turning characteristics. That way you can add even more information.

 

[Rob Wallace]

i just figured maybe we'd have a human Dirr manual on hand that could I.D. it from a simple picture...

i'll go out and study it a bit further and try and work up a better description and get a few other photos of the endgrain and such.

Andrew:

I'm looking forward to trying to help ID the wood for you...let us see as much about it as possible...

rob, that's a fine town you're living in... i'm from Ames.

Small world indeed! I assume you're from the Eric and Karen H. "group", then it's REALLY a small world - Karen was my daughter's 5th grade teacher, and I have served on university committees with Eric. Next time you are visiting them, let me know in advance and I will be happy to show you my shop/turning studio and some of my work. They are literally are just around the corner in my neighborhood - about a minute walk from my front door.

Interesting that the AAW forum is able to connect people from the same place with similar interests but from different times.....Yes - Ames is a great place to live.....!!

Rob Wallace

 

[dkulze]

Hi Andrew,

The trick will be if it is a native or an imported ornamental. If native, you can rule out most species pretty quick. It's not oak (from what I can see), willow, or any pine derivative. Also doesn't look like an elm, a birch, or an aspen. Not an ash. May be maple. May be cherry (though the bark looks wrong). Depending on smell, may be beech (if it smells like beechnut chewing gum). May be a sycamore derivative.

If it's an import, could be absolutely anything.

end grain and a cut of side grain run across the jointer would be very helpful, as would be any leaves (check the ground for last year's).

 

[Mr. Don]

You really should have made a VERY serious attempt to find the legal owner of the property!!! I think the excuse that there was nobody around so you took it anyway still makes you a thief. (unless my Dad brought me up wrong!!!) :mad:

 

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Looks a bit like some sweetgum I have but can't be sure. Take it out to Crown Hill off of Wadsworth and drive through the cemetery I'm sure you find some trees like it there if memory serves me right.

so, driving down the street to lunch other day, darting my eyes around for any wood i could add to my growing pile and i spotted a woodturners gold mine.

a crew was preparing to tear down a house and there was like 8 trees cut down in the yard, so naturally i stopped and investigated. well, no one was around, so i decided to take a log and see what i could do with it.

despite all my horticulture classes in college, i can't figure out what type of tree this is... anyone else have any idea?

close up: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w12/ahoiberg/Turnings/IMG_2351.jpg

regular: http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w12/ahoiberg/Turnings/IMG_2350.jpg

 

[John Nicholas]

Tree Identification

Try this website from the Univ. of Virginia.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/wwwmain.html

John

 

[ahoiberg]

You really should have made a VERY serious attempt to find the legal owner of the property!!! I think the excuse that there was nobody around so you took it anyway still makes you a thief. (unless my Dad brought me up wrong!!!) :mad:

actually, i did knock on the door, look around, etc. the first time there to no avail. i just didn't see the need to add in all the details of the story.

and since it's been brought up, i went there the next day on my way to lunch because there was someone working outside the house. i went up and talked with him, ended up chatting with the fella for most of my lunch break and he was very appreciative of my helping him dispose of some of the wood. he was just wishing i had a larger truck to take more and i was wishing i didn't have so much stuff in my truck bed so i couldn't take more before the crew came to remove the rest of it. like i said, there was a TON of wood out there, plenty for everyone. i told him i'm turn him a bowl or something once i improved my skills a little. he didn't know what kind of trees they were either and most of the brush had been cleaned up so there wasn't any leaves to make an ID with, plus i hadn't really thought of that until someone posted the idea.

and rob, yep, eric and karen are my folks, told them i talked to you on here and they wanted me to pass along a 'hello'! i'll be sure to let you know the next time i'm in town... i'm actually preparing to apply for grad school there.

anyway, sorry for the long post, thanks much everyone for taking a peek and trying to help me ID this log. i'll take a look at that website and see if i can make any sort of a match and once i cut it up i'll get some more in depth pictures of it!

cheers.

 

[Garmar]

What ya got to say now, Mr. Don? Speak a little to quickly did ya?

 

[Gretch Flo]

small world

Looks a bit like some sweetgum I have but can't be sure. Take it out to Crown Hill off of Wadsworth and drive through the cemetery I'm sure you find some trees like it there if memory serves me right.

Speaking of coincidences, I assume Christopher, that Spring, Texas is small. My brother , Christopher Flo, retired Michigan st police detective, and knife maker, had wintered in Spring the last couple of years til he moved in Jan to Ingram. Gretch

 

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Speaking of coincidences, I assume Christopher, that Spring, Texas is small. My brother , Christopher Flo, retired Michigan st police detective, and knife maker, had wintered in Spring the last couple of years til he moved in Jan to Ingram. Gretch

Spring is a city of about 36,000 I have been here for 15 years.

 

[william holland]

wood idenification

It looks like white cedar wood and the bark and limb fit the type. If so, it is a tough wood to work with as it chipps out while turning and takes alot of sanding.

 

[ahoiberg]

i think i got this one figured out.

i believe it's an Ailanthus Altissima (Tree of Heaven)

these trees usually grow as a weed along alleyways and such but sometimes get past the cutdown phase and end up as full grown trees. it's a native of China and was brought to the US as a tree for fast establishment and its ability to grow in polluted soils and generally difficult situations.

i had never seen one this big, but today while in the car with my boss, who remembers our tree class really well, we stopped because i recognized the bark and i couldn't ID the tree. but again, it was a huge one and he was quite sure about it being a tree of heaven.

i've read that the wood is really hard to dry but once dried can get quite hard and has a grain similar to maple when properly cured. i guess once it gets cut into blanks, i'll have to turn it quickly and try out the alcohol soaking method. i'm still awaiting my chuck so i'll keep you guys posted once i get a piece rough turned.

does anyone possibly have any experience with this wood???

thanks for all the help/suggestions.