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Magnolia and furniture

Started by brdmkr, August 22, 2007, 12:24:55 PM

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brdmkr

I just sawed my first southern magnolia.   The wood is some of the prettiest I have seen.  It is really light in color, almost white, with very fine but distnct grain.  However, when I start trying to envision what it would look like as a table top, bed, cabinet, etc. I just can't make it 'look' right in my mind.  I know that turkey calls are made out of magnolia, and I have seen some of those, but I have not seen any furniture made of magnolia.  I'd be particularly interested in something that has not been stained. 

I could see magnolia being used a great deal as an inlay wood, but I have never really done much with inlays.  Anyway, if you have something made from magnolia, how about a look see??
Lucas 618  Mahindra 4110, FEL and pallet forks, some cant hooks, and a dose of want-to

Tom

Brdmkr
don't look so closely.  The beauty of Magnolia is not just the orientation of the grain, but that the image looks like a topographical map when flat sawed.

There is a furniture maker in Callahan who deals almost exclusively in Magnolia bedroom furniture.  It is creamy colored and the panels are sedately and openly ornate.  I know of nothing else that presents this type of figure.  Age has caught him and he doesn't build like he used to, but he has pieces all over the USA.  The suites don't go cheap. :)

Dodgy Loner

I'm a bit surprised it didn't have any heartwood in it.  Magnolia heartwood is a yellowish-green color, just like yellow-poplar.  I suspect that the magnolia will age to a beige color, but if it stays light then you might consider finishing the furniture with blonde shellac or linseed oil to add a bit of color, if it suits your taste.  If you want to keep the white color, try a clear water-based polyurethene.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Fla._Deadheader


  Florida Magnolia we sawed, had Black streaks for heartwood  ::) ??? ??? ???
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Dodgy Loner

That's not too surprising.  Poplar and magnolia are very similar woods (they're considered to be indistinguishable without a microscope), and I've seen poplar with purplish-black heartwood, too.  I'm not sure what causes it, but it's pretty interesting-looking. 
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

brdmkr

Tom, a topo map describes it pretty well.  It is really a beautiful wood.  In fact, I could see cutting pieces, sanding, finishing, and hanging on the wall as art!  I just can't visualize furniture.  I will say it is a unique wood.  I'll try to post some pics once I get the camera hooked back up.
Lucas 618  Mahindra 4110, FEL and pallet forks, some cant hooks, and a dose of want-to

WDH

It is that double band of marginal parenchyma that does it :D.  A quaint magnolia characteristic.

Brdmkr, no pics ??? :-[.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

brdmkr

I'm having some trouble with my docking station, but I got pics.   They'll get posted.
Lucas 618  Mahindra 4110, FEL and pallet forks, some cant hooks, and a dose of want-to

WDH

Just for old times sake (if you can), post a close-up of the end grain after shaving it clean with a razor blade so we can see the arrangement of the growth rings on the cross section. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

getoverit

I sawed up some magnolia during the winter and at this point I dont know what to di with it. I'm particularly interested in what you do with yours so that I'll have some ideas on what to do with mine. It preally is pretty wood.... should be good for something!
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

Part_Timer

WDH between you and Loner I think when we post a thread we should just mail the two of you a hand full of shavings for the microscope. ;)   Just funnin ya a bit.  I'm still at work and needed a diversion for a minute.  Sorry but tag your it. :)
Peterson 8" ATS.
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

WDH

Your right, PT.  I am afflicted........Just think, I traveled 1000 miles just to see an elm board :D.

One of the good things that this Forum has done for me (one of many :)) is to make me dredge up all that stuff that I was supposed to know or did know in the distant past.  I find this to be one heck of a learning environment.

I have never sawn any magnolia, and it has been eons since I have seen any magnolia lumber.  But the Brdmkr is soon to remedy that ;D.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Fla._Deadheader


  I doubt that there is much Magnolia lumber out there. The stuff we sawed, was sold quickly after we got it home. Rare stuff, especially that with the black streaks, jumps right into guys pickups.  ::) 8) :D :D

  IF I remember correctly, it tried to twist and bow on us. We had a 3" thick piece that was placed on the pile, then, cement blocks. It dried quickly,in Fl and was out the door within a month, not completely dried  ::) ::)
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

brdmkr

Quote from: WDH on August 23, 2007, 09:01:14 AM
Your right, PT.  I am afflicted........Just think, I traveled 1000 miles just to see an elm board :D.

One of the good things that this Forum has done for me (one of many :)) is to make me dredge up all that stuff that I was supposed to know or did know in the distant past.  I find this to be one heck of a learning environment.

I have never sawn any magnolia, and it has been eons since I have seen any magnolia lumber.  But the Brdmkr is soon to remedy that ;D.

The pressure is on to get the camera station working! 

I'll actually have to take some pics of the boards.  The current pics on the camera are of the log and an interesting figure I saw when I sawed ;)
Lucas 618  Mahindra 4110, FEL and pallet forks, some cant hooks, and a dose of want-to

Dodgy Loner

Quote from: WDH on August 22, 2007, 10:08:50 PM
It is that double band of marginal parenchyma that does it :D.  A quaint magnolia characteristic.

Brdmkr, no pics ??? :-[.

WDH, remember when you tried to show me the double band of marginal parenchyma a few years back from that little magnolia in your back yard?  It wasn't there, for some reason.  You can reliably separate magnolia from poplar microscopically by observing the intervessel pits on the radial section.  Poplar has oval intervessel pits 6-12 microns in diameter, while magnolia has linear intervessel pits 12-50 microns in diameter. :P
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Part_Timer

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Y'all are a hoot
Peterson 8" ATS.
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

WDH

Hey, most people would not know an oval intervessel pit if they met one in the road...... :-\
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

DanG

I have a few Magnolia boards in the shed.  I think I'll drag a couple out and run them through the planer.  They're about as dry as they're gonna get, having been there for about 3 years.  I know they're Magnolia because they came from a Magnolia tree I cut down.  It had Magnolia bark, too.  All that "intervessel" stuff is just the pits.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

OneWithWood

Gee boys, technically isn't a tulip poplar a magnolia?
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Part_Timer

We have all kinds of intervessel pits on the road, they haven't graded it in the last month or so. ;)
Peterson 8" ATS.
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Dodgy Loner

Quote from: WDH on August 23, 2007, 11:24:45 PM
Hey, most people would not know an oval intervessel pit if they met one in the road...... :-\

Or a double band of marginal parenchyma ::) :D.

Quote from: OneWithWood on August 24, 2007, 09:38:24 AM
Gee boys, technically isn't a tulip poplar a magnolia?

Not exactly.  The Liriodendron (yellow-poplar) genus and the Magnolia genus are in the magnolia family (Magnoliaceae), so they are closely related, but that does not mean that yellow-poplars are magnolias.  For example, all flowering plants - from corn to oaks to dandelions to palm trees - are in the magnolia division (Magnoliophyta).  All dicots - which is nearly all flowering plants except grasses and palm trees - are in the magnolia class (Magnoliopsida).  Going further down the line, you also have the magnolia subclass (Magnoliidae), the magnolia order (Magnoliales), and finally the magnolia family and genus.  Hence, all plants are related to magnolias, although some (like yellow-poplar) are more closely related than others.  To actually be considered a magnolia, though, a plant must fall into the magnolia genus, and all other botanical designations are irrelevant.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

flip

HUH smiley_headscratch

Is that kind like whips are snips so if some snips are snoodles then some snoodles are whips??
Timberking B-20, Hydraulics make me board quick

getoverit

Quote from: flip on August 27, 2007, 05:42:35 PM
HUH smiley_headscratch

Is that kind like whips are snips so if some snips are snoodles then some snoodles are whips??

but the whips are not near as pretty as magnolias :D
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

WDH

Quote from: Dodgy Loner on August 27, 2007, 05:27:29 PM
Quote from: WDH on August 23, 2007, 11:24:45 PM
Hey, most people would not know an oval intervessel pit if they met one in the road...... :-\

Or a double band of marginal parenchyma ::) :D.


Well, for all the doubters, I have seen the double bands of marginal parenchyma, but I do not have any magnolia wood to illustrate.  If you have any magnolia, send a sample to the Swamp Donkey, because he takes the best close-up pics that I have seen on the Forum :D.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

OneWithWood

DL, thanks.  Life just got a lot simpler.
When some one asks me what a particular plant is I can just say 'Well it is in the Magnolia class.'
Hey, I can't miss.  Unless it happens to be a grass or palm and then I can say 'It appears to be a grass' or 'It appears to be a palm.'
Hot dam, sam, I be an educated fool for sure  8) 8)
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

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