Found what I think is some pretty nice wood. I'd like your opinions as to it's worth for turning. Most of it will have to wait for a bigger lathe.
Also, can you identify the species, please. Thanks. Bill
As for this stuff I picked up about 6" and because of it's
Girth I had the seller to rip it.
Member
Looks like Eastern red Cedar [aromatic cedar] sap wood looks a little punky but the heart wood look ok. I've turned some and it turns ok.
Of course I had to nip off a piece to play with the HF mini.
Moderator
Looks like cedar to me too, from the transverse section and color, or something like cedar. I especially like it when it is highly figured with white mixed in with the red.
cedar_P9064289esc.jpg
I love turning cedar, easy to turn, finishes nicely. Here are some examples. Some is prone to tearout and needs very sharp tools. Go easy on the sanding - too much heat can cause checks. I often finish with just beeswax since I like the look. The vessel in the first picture is finished with 6 coats of spray lacquer.
cedar_vessel.jpg cedar_bowl.jpg cedar_bowl_figured.jpg penta_plates_comp_cropped.jpg
I have 17 cedar logs in a pile at the moment. Anyone local want some drop by. I often make 2" or thicker slabs on the sawmill. Dries quickly, very stable. These are about 18" across:
cedar_P9054283es.jpg
JKJ
Contributor
Yep.....cedar.
Remember, in a moments time, everything can change!
Vision - not just seeing what is, but seeing what can be!
John, that blanK looks amasing. It looks as though it was shot in 3D.
Can you confirm or put to rest something I posted a short while back that there are no cedar trees in the US, at least not in enough to provide much lumber. A book I read from 1980 claimed that what we buy and use is instead one of a number of varieties of Junipers.
Last edited by Bill Jobe; 09-23-2016 at 11:15 PM.
And the bowl in photo #3 is beyond words.
Another piece I got. This is a slice I asked him to cut off just prior to sealing it. Don't know what it is.
Member
Juniper in the east and south is often called e.red cedar. Real name -- Juniperus virginiana. Hence the reason for scientific names.
And I grabbed this piece.
I'm partially colorblind so it may be just another shot of cedar, but I was thinking he said it is hickory.
Is this considered a proper way to dry green wood? The pieces are supported in the back by an I beam, in the front with 2x4s. I gave them several coats of a gallon of a Walmart blooper...tint was off a bit so got it cheap. Also, it's exterior paint. The garage is neither heated nor cooled so they will endure 100+ temps in summer and -20 to -25 in winter. Here you see them stacked against the back wall of my garage.
Also, again my fault for not shooting them prior to sealing, can you identify the species?
One more pic. I don't have a clue. The guy was just racing around looking for pieces he thought I'd want. And of course I took them all.
Moderator
Bill,Originally Posted by Bill Jobe
You can put it to rest! There are many cedar trees in the US. There are hundreds on my property alone.
It is all in the name. Each wood has a scientific name and one or more common names. Yes, Eastern Red Cedar has the scientific name of Juniperus virginiana. Can we call this a Juniper? Yes, if we don't want most people to understand. Do we HAVE to call this a Juniper? No. We can refer to the Juniperus virginiana tree as Eastern Red Cedar, Eastern Redcedar, or Aromatic Red Cedar, Pencil Cedar, and probably some others.
Insisting that ERC be called Juniper is a hobby some people have. (They never call it a Juniperus tree.) I notice the same people don't insist that we have no Oaks in the US, since the scientific name, Quercus ruba, doesn't have the letters "oak". Then how about Maple? Maybe we have no maples in the US, we just have Acers.
But confusion with common names is in fact common in different regions, especially where the same species has different names and different species have the same name. I remember one confusing discussion about "poplar" where in most were thinking Liriodendron tulipifera when the question was about Populus. http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/poplar-cottonwood-and-aspen-whats-what/
Note that many wood dealers don't even know what they have. It is common practice to guess at names or even make up names to get the wood sold. Sometimes they make up names to intentionally mislead the buyer to increase sales. The best defense, where it matters, is to learn how to identify wood yourself.
It is true that much confusion in the wood world would be eliminated if we only used the scientific names like we do with Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora, Magnolia acuminata, Magnolia virginiana). This would really help with "Ironwood". But imagine the forum posts:
My latest Arbutus hollow form
I just scored some Cornus wood
What is the best finish for Diospyros, ...
If you want most woodturners to know you what you have, call it Cedar, Eastern Red Cedar, or ERC.
JKJ
Moderator
Bill,
That may work with some of the pieces. Unfortunately, depending on many factors, sections of trees will still often crack and split even if well sealed. This may happen over a few weeks or a few months. Not all wood, but much. Eastern Red Cedar is particularly stable and can be left in big chunks, especially if you first remove the sapwood. Dogwood, most fruitwoods, many others - if not processed or used quickly may end up as firewood. I have seen 1" wide spits in 8" dogwood rounds after a month inside in an unconditioned garage. Removing the pith helps to avoid the worst splits but again, "it depends". Some people may respond with success stories; others with firewood stories.
"The Experts" recommend not accumulating more wood than you can use in a week or two. By "use", they mean turn to a finish piece or rough turn and put aside to dry. Another way to "use" green wood is to process it into smaller pieces and dry those.
Since I mostly turn dry wood, I have a lot of experience with the latter. I cut almost everything I get into pieces blocks and squares on a bandsaw, from 1" to 6" or so square. For platters and bowls I usually cut thick slabs. The sizes I make depends on many factors. I cut off any endgrain checks, rip between any cracks, seal the newly cut ends immediately, mark each piece with the date, then stack these pieces loosely on wire shelves. After they dry significantly, I usually shave some thin sections off the ends to inspect for end checks, remove those, reseal, and finish drying. This process is not for the impatient. Much of the wood I'm using now has been drying at least 6 years. The dogwood I use now I cut and processed 10 years ago. I have some larger pieces drying now for almost 20 years.
As I said, this method doesn't work well for the impatient. It also doesn't work well for big bowls since a large blank of most species is likely to split far before it dries. Again, in this case the best advice I have read is to only collect green wood that you can use quickly.
BTW, any sealer on the ends is better than none. Some people have found that paint doesn't work nearly as well as the emulsified wax sealer such as Anchorseal. Dipping in hot paraffin works better than Anchorseal. I notice that many exotic wood blanks are dipped, sometimes completely, in paraffin wax. Some sawmill/drying people say that if you use paint, use aluminum paint.
BTW2, there are some other ways to save big chunks of wood indefinitely. One is to submerge them in water. Another is seal them and put them in a (big) freezer.
BTW3, I can recommend a good book for someone who is interested in learning the why and the how:
Understanding Wood: A Craftsman's Guide to Wood Technology, by R. Bruce Hoadley
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding.../dp/B004WYO862
This book, and others like it, has a wealth of information about the structure of wood and why it behaves the way it does. Most people won't take the time to even read information like this, let alone study it.
JKJ
Moderator
Photographing wood to ID is often a waste of time. Unless the wood is very distinctive, many photos of cut sections of wood and even of the bark can look the same. Just see the posts where someone shows a photo of a board and gets 10 different guesses.
I have made wood id a bit of a hobby. For many species, examining the end grain of a properly prepared small sample may immediately show the species. White oak, for example, is distinctive. Elm has wavy bands of latewood pores. Even if the exact species can't immediately be determined, it is often easy to say what the wood CANNOT be. For example, a ring-porous wood cannot be cherry. A diffuse porous wood cannot be oak. Other clues are the orientation of the both the earlywood and latewood pores, the size and distribution of the rays, the presence of tyloses in the large pores, and more.
Elm:
wood-elm.jpg
All that is needed is a razor blade and a 10x hand lens. I usually use a low-power stereo microscope because I have one. I also sometimes use a 365nm UV light since some woods have distinctive fluorescence under UV light. The hardness and relative weight of the wood can help. Figure (which many people mistakenly call "grain"), color, and lightness/darkness can be helpful but keep in mind they are the most variable and can look wildly different in trees grown in different environments and even within sections of the same tree.
The book Identifying Wood by Hoadley is a good start. The Wood Database also has some useful info: http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...ication-guide/
All this takes some time but I find it fun to do. But you can do like most people when they don't have the bark or leaves or absolutely trust the source: guess a species and write it on the bottom of the piece. Or just call everything cherry. This method does give those who can see the difference a private chuckle. I remember the guy who passed around a bowl that was obviously ring porous, even without a magnifier. It was labeled "cherry".
If the species is important and you are a US citizen the US Forest Products Laboratory will positively ID up to five sample of wood per year. Check their web site.
JKJ
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote