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Lucky find

Started by Dodgy Loner, November 14, 2008, 07:47:55 PM

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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 ;D

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 ???
"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.

LeeB

redbud? I really don't have a clue. Just a wild guess.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

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.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

LeeB

I think Tom is on the right track. Dogwood?
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

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. ;D

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. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

zopi

Looks like beech to me...
Got Wood?
LT-15G GO chassis added.
WM sharpener and setter
And lots of junk.

Gary_C

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

SwampDonkey

"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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.   :D :D
But now I'm sticking with Pawpaw.  8)

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?   ???
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

DanG

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

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!
"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.

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. ;D :)

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.  :D :D

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.   :)     :D :D
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

SwampDonkey

semi-ring to diffuse porous, like walnut. ;D

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

Tom :D      Gary thought I was winded. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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.  ::)
LT10G10, Stihl 038 Magnum, many woodworking tools. Currently a farm service applicator, trying to find time to saw!

Gary_C

Obviously I have never seen nor heard of Yellowwood before, and probably neither has SD.  :D   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? 
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

SwampDonkey

Well if wood only, end grain with microscope looking at stuff with weird names I was always asked to draw with some imagination :D , 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. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Gary_C

I guess what I am trying to ask is do you or have you ever made a mistake?    ::)
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

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. :D

One thing for certain is I never called a balm-of-gilead, a red oak. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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