Lucky find

[Dodgy Loner]

I've been in Athens for training all week, and on Tuesday we met at the State Botanical Gardens.  After we got off, I walked around the gardens for about an hour when I came up on a tree that had apparently died and been cut into firewood.  I noticed that the wood was very yellow, so I took a closer look to see what it was.  My suspicions were confirmed by a small tag on the stump.  But before I tell you, I want to know what your suspicions are

Here's some pictures.  I got just a few of the nicer-looking logs, mostly for turning bowls.


The "butt log", if you can call it that, was more than 12" in diameter and 19" long.  I decided I would make some nice boards for some special projects, so I took care to mark out exactly what I wanted out of it.


Sawing a log this small on the WoodMizer ain't easy, but the results were well-worth it.  I got a few wide flat-sawn boards, several quarter-sawn boards, and two thick, 3" turning blocks.


So, what do y'all think it is

[LeeB]

redbud? I really don't have a clue. Just a wild guess.

[Tom]

athenian bulldogus Holly

[Gary_C]

At first I thought you had found some cull pieces of Aspen pulp logs, but with the color I'd guess yellow poplar.

[LeeB]

I think Tom is on the right track. Dogwood?

[SwampDonkey]

Bark sure looks smooth and gray, like beech.  I wouldn't be surprised with that white sap, and yellowish heart and gray or brown streaks, that it was..........oh.......um........yellow wood perhaps.

My second guess would be yellow buckeye. Depending on whether that dark streak is stain or natural and if that tree was rather young and fast grown before the bark got scaly.

[Lanier_Lurker]

I was thinking beech myself, but that seems too easy.

I think Tom may be right.

American Holly?

[SwampDonkey]

Holly has ivory white heartwood, distinct of any NA hardwood. I think Dodgy's chunk is semi-ring or ring porous. I can see stump rings at least in the sapwood. Kinda eliminates buckeye to, unless those streaks are in the early wood.

[zopi]

Looks like beech to me...

[Gary_C]

Pawpaw

[SwampDonkey]

Hmmm

[SamB]

Looks alot like birch from my perspective? Probably not a common tree in the south, but maybe it's transplant

[SwampDonkey]

Good thing Dodgy found a label on the tree so he tell us after we guessed about every tree growing down there.

[Gary_C]

After cutting many hundreds of cords of Aspen pulp, I get used to the many different looks of what is generally refered to as "popple." There are three species normally included in the term popple and they are Quaking, Bigtooth, and Balm although normally the Balm is sold separately. They all have similiar appearances, yet vary so widely that sometimes the lower part of a Bigtooth can look just like a Red Oak.

Those pieces Dodgy has look just like some of the smooth bark, green tinged popple that I see. And even that stained greenish yellow wood could be seen on some aspen, but I knew it was not going to be that easy.

So my first guess of YP was just a wild guess and I could have thrown in Yellow Birch too.   
But now I'm sticking with Pawpaw. 

I was fairly certain the samples were in the Magnolia family but this brings up a question. The Magnolia, Poplar, and Birch families all have similiar appearances. Are they all related somehow or perhaps derived from one species many years ago? Could that why some of the popple family looks more like the magnolia family than the grey barked aspen family?   

[DanG]

I'll go with Magnolia for my W.A.G.

[Dodgy Loner]

Lots of good guesses, but SD nailed it with his first.  It's yellowwood.


Yellowwood is a well-named tree, as you can see, and one of the rarest native trees in Georgia.  I don't think I've ever seen it growing wild in Georgia, but I've seen in occasionally in the Smoky Mtns and in the Ozarks.  It's used occasionally as an ornamental, but this was the biggest specimen I've ever seen in cultivation.  It's a diffuse-porous wood, but the rings are still pretty prominent.  The pictures don't do it justice as to the actual color--it's the yellowest wood I've ever seen!

[Tom]

The bark looks a little like "Sweet Bay", if it's a magnolia, but the grain of the wood doesn't.  Most magnolias don't  have a real straight grain.  It looks like it grows with knobbies all in it so that a board, flat sawn, will look much like a topographical map.  I guess there could be some that have straight grain, but mine don't.

Holly is noted for being pure white.  I've seen some color in it, but it is rare.  Magnolia's have all kinds of colors in them from purple to red, to green and eventually turning brown.  Grandiflora, especially an old one, might look like you spilled a paint store in there.  

I see Dodgy Loner has identified it for us.  I never heard of Yellow Wood before.

Is that a date at the top of the tag?  Is "Bed 8" a nursery identification or an identification of where it was growing on the campus?

Is the name CLADRASTIS LUTE?
(Reminds me of a Rastus joke)

I'm going to post this anyway. Hate to waste all of that typing. 

[Gary_C]

Ya, but SD was just describing that wood not naming it. You see he called it yellow wood, not Yellowwood. Doesn't count.        

[SwampDonkey]

semi-ring to diffuse porous, like walnut.

Two ww's together isn't proper, if anything needs a "-" . 

Tom       Gary thought I was winded.

[SwampDonkey]

Species latin name must have two conflicting authorities I see? The wood tech and dendro also call it C. kentukea. I looked at the micrograph example and the end grain looks like walnut. It's definitely not ring porous, but with a narrow band of large pores (two rows), that disperse and stay large for half the ring before decreasing in size by the time they reach the end of the ring. That's why the rings are so distinct. Semi-difuse. You can give argument for each type when you see the end grain.

[tyb525]

Shoulda cut a bowl blank outta it  I think they sell for quite a bit.

Edit: Finally learned to read and saw that he saved some logs for just that. 

[Gary_C]

Obviously I have never seen nor heard of Yellowwood before, and probably neither has SD.     But the pictures of YW show very fine vertical serations in the bark while that sample in the picture shows predominately horizontal markings. How do they make the determinations of species for sure? 

[SwampDonkey]

Well if wood only, end grain with microscope looking at stuff with weird names I was always asked to draw with some imagination , color, weight, smell. Otherwise, flowers, buds.


No, I never had it in my hand. But, I've seen it right here in my wood tech and dendro texts. Actually, I might even have seen it in wood tech lab, been a long time ago.

[Gary_C]

I guess what I am trying to ask is do you or have you ever made a mistake?   

[SwampDonkey]

Me? yes! Especially if I don't have the piece of wood in my hand. And if it's not native, I just concede defeat. Most often I may have to consult my "wood bible" for those American woods. Helps tremendously to have experience with the wood species in log or sawn form of course. As far as a NB wood sample, it would be hard to trip me up unless it was 'doctored up'. I probably wouldn't be right 100 % of the time though, that would be a bold assertion.

One thing for certain is I never called a balm-of-gilead, a red oak.

[metalspinner]

Dodgy,
I hope you left a business card with the head grounds keeper! 

That's neat that you found such a unique species in such a large size.   Can't wait to see some projects come from your find!

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, that will be an interesting project to see. I had an old friend that was creative with things like staghorn sumac, pin cherry, and stump wood like your very own stump, but often curly maple or tiger stripe maple instead.  Tiger stripe was in hard maple.

[Dodgy Loner]

The wood from this tree seems diffuse-porous, but I didn't look at it too closely.  The pores don't vary in size much at all.  I learned it as Cladastris kentuckea as well, but I've heard both names before.  Lutea is an outdated name.

If I lived a little closer to Athens, I would definitely be trying to get some more wood from the bot. gardens.  The diversity of trees and shrubs out there is outstanding, but I doubt they'd be willing to hold onto the wood for a month before I have a chance to come and get it

I've rough-turned one bowl so far.  Been too busy on the Woodmizer this weekend to work on any more.   I did end up with a nice pile of pretty shavings though

[WDH]

That was quite a lucky find.  Lucky to have a new sawmill, too .

[Dodgy Loner]

Lucky, indeed.  I've been having fun the last two weekends .  We've sawed three white oak logs, several sweetgums for stickers and beams to stack lumber on, and a whole bunch of SYP 2x4s and 2x6s for the sawmill shed.  I only got pictures of the yellowwood, though, since I figure y'all already know what everything else looks like .

[SwampDonkey]

That was quite a lucky find.  Lucky to have a new sawmill, too .

I was gonna say...... 

[DanG]

If I lived a little closer to Athens, I would definitely be trying to get some more wood from the bot. gardens. 

Now hold the cottonpickin' phone for just a minute!  WDH's comment referring to your new sawmill got me to thinkin'.  I'll bet you're gonna be in Athens a lot more than once a month!

[Don K]

Any pics of a sawmill is worth looking at. There are very few LT15's on here and I'm sure I wouldn't mind seeing a pic of what ya'll are doing. If you post em we will look.

Don

[SwampDonkey]

If I was to buy a mill, it would be a LT15. I'd make a saw shed at the woodlot and saw for my needs.  My needs aren't too demanding, they are out numbered by the wants. A fellow can dream.

[rocksnstumps]

My battered old copy of "Knowing Your Trees" c1947 has the name as American Yellowwood (yep, them W's are together) with the additional info - Cladrastis lutea (Michaux f.) K. Koch. Maybe the info is a bit dated, but thought I'd throw it in. Other common names were gopher wood and virgilia. Heartwood is a bright clear yellow when freshly cut which on exposure changes to light brown or yellow streaked with brown. An interesting note is that it was occassionaly used for gunstocks. 

[SwampDonkey]

My battered old copy of "Knowing Your Trees" c1947 has the name as American Yellowwood (yep, them W's are together)

I know, but I had to bother Gary. 

[Dodgy Loner]

We were too busy sawing to bother with pictures, Don K (I know, poor excuse).  I'll be sure to post some pictures next time I'm down there.  It probably won't be a month from now, DanG .  The only LT15 I've ever used was WDH's machine, and I must say they've made some great improvements in the last few years.  Raising and lowering the head and clamping the logs are both much easier than they used to be.  We are very happy with the mill.  And my dad's only tried to saw one dog so far .

[WDH]

Raising and lowering the head and clamping the logs are both much easier than they used to be. 

What do you mean used to be .  I will trade you mine for yours .