Rare or Unrare

[Peter Hawkins]

Hi everyone, I'm new to turning about 15 months now, and certainly new to your woods having come from England and am retired here now, I have some cedar elm which i know is common, this was growing above a fault in the ground where there were large iron and manganese deposits, these minerals have coloured the wood very markedly, the very dark wood was about 4" in from the sapwood, and the lighter wood was the heartwood, there are also flecks of purple mixed in which is manganese. is this uncommon or is it common, I enclose a pic ,
regards peter

 

[Charlie Knighton]

elm

it is very attractive, i have just days more turning time than you so i can not tell you if it is common or uncommon

 

[n7bsn]

I just finished a piece of Red Alder with similar coloring

 

[Richard Baker]

Welcome

Peter,
Welcome to the U.S. and welcome to this forum! Can't answer your wood question, but what you have done with it is beautiful.

 

[MichaelMouse]

I'd say that primary mineral staining is probably not the reason for the variation. No matter if you have an abundant source of a mineral, it has to be in a form which is suitably soluble, non-toxic, and still able to bind with the cellulose.

I once bought some hard maple from a kiln operation because I needed it for an immediate job. The maple was literally grown on hematite, and had been logged preparatory to open-pit mining. It had a pleasant pink tinge to it which disappeared when the wood was planed, because it was merely iron dust. I have to admit, I was somewhat disappointed.

I'd say the source of your color is probably biological. The tree picked up some bacteria or fungi which left traces of their meal in the form of colored waste. This waste may contain a mineral which the tree would not have concentrated on its own, thus the word "probably."

 

[Peter Hawkins]

thanks

thank you for the comments about the wood, I have taken a piece to a local botanical college they are going to look at it for me, but the *** doctor there said it is almost certainly mineral uptake from the ground especially in a limestone filter hole, he thinks there is copper also and it happened some 10/15 years ago, anyway thank you again everybody, regards peter hawkins

 

[MichaelMouse]

thank you for the comments about the wood, I have taken a piece to a local botanical college they are going to look at it for me, but the *** doctor there said it is almost certainly mineral uptake from the ground especially in a limestone filter hole, he thinks there is copper also and it happened some 10/15 years ago, anyway thank you again everybody, regards peter hawkins

Copper sulfate is used in septic systems to kill trees and roots, and in reflecting pools to kill algae.

Heavy metals are barely soluble in high pH water as you'd find in limestone bedrock. Why people without water softeners don't have as much lead leaching out of their soldered pipes.

Still, it'd be nice to know.

 

[Peter Hawkins]

thanks.

Will let you know as soon as they come back to me, there are some native indians near the site they also seem to say the same about the mineral thing, I'm totally ignorant about this so am getting pretty confused,: feel like taking the wood back lol, regards peter

 

[Peter Hawkins]

info

Just a bit more information about the coloured wood, it came out of a very old churchyard and was next to an old cemetry, it measured about 6ft across the width, it had approx 5 inches of sapwood and 1 inch of bark then this dark browny/ red wood which varied from 7 1nches up to 12 inches in width and went around the entire circumference of the tree,within the sapwood band, then inside this was the heartwood, the flecks of purple were in the darker wood and the lighter heartwood, no decay was evident anywhere in the main trunk regards peter