Box Elder Turning (2nd try)

[Larry D. Wagner]

I started this post a few minutes ago and all of a sudden it posted before I was able to finish. Don't know what I did. As I said I have been away from SMC forums for a while and while cutting some boards from a few logs a friend saved from firewood there were two small box elder logs and when we cut them open there was some beautiful red and orange designs around what looked like a knot.

Now I know that I have seen several box elder turnings that have taken advantage of this beautiful coloring. The problem was that as the pieces layed around the color started to fade. First is this normal and second how do you save it? I have one piece about 5" square about 5 feet long that has some of this coloring, although faded thst I want to turn. Will the color come back when I turn or should I dry it first and then turn? If I turn green, what method should be used to dry it?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

Larry

[Kevin Jaynes]

Larry,

I don't have this thing figured out yet, but it looks like no one responded to your question.
Based on my experience with box elder, which is substantial, the coloration inside the wood should be as bright as the day it was logged.

I have had blocks of it sit in the sun for days and it fades out. But when you open it up it comes right back to life.

Seal with an UV inhibitor where possible, and do not allow direct sunlight to hit it. Should last.

[Jim Becker]

The exposed red will fade over time. Nature of the beast...

[Gary DeWitt]

You could plane or scrape the area in question and throw some mineral oil, naptha, whatever you have handy on it to see what it will look like finished...

[Michael Armstrong]

One of the local turners here has had quite good luck with using spar varnish. It does contain a UV inhibitor and he has found that the colour lasts longer.

Michael

[Kevin Jaynes]

I sell alot of this species and I have had customers send me turnings as gifts, and the red has held its color on every piece thus far.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Kevin......I dont' doubt your word but my experience here in Idaho has been just the opposite. My box elder turnings....the red eventually turns to browns?????? Don't know why.

[Kevin Jaynes]

Hey Ken, I don't doubt your word either. How long does it take to noticeably fade? I don't have any turnings older than a year yet so I may not have had them long enough. I just figured that if they haven't turned yet they won't. but that's based on experience with osage and eastern red cedar.

I have had some great success delaying the fading with ERC and Osage though.

Also I have heard that stabilization of the wood, the process that is, pretty much halts the fading of Red Box Elder in its tracks, but I don't have first hand experience with that, just repeating what others have claimed to experinced.

i do have one turner who swears that pentacryl stops the fade and he has been turning for over 20 years. I have found his word to be reliable so maybe that's an option worth exploring. In fact, one of the items we have is a plate he turned for us as a gift and he treated it with pentacryl immediately upon recieving the wood from us. Here is a picture of it about one month old.
RBEplateObverse.jpg
RBEplateReverse.jpg
I am looking at it right now at about 9 months old and it is still just as red.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Kevin...I turned a salt shaker and a pepper grinder for my wife about a year ago. They had plenty of red then......4 or 5 months later the red streaks turned brown......Don't know why but it sure happened.

[Allen Neighbors]

Ken, I think it is because of Ultra Violet light... I haven't had any box elder, but Cedar and Mesquite (yellow sapwood) and Bois d'Arc will change faster when exposed to UV light, than they will when left in a semi-darkened room away from the light.
When I want a Bois d'Arc (OO) piece to turn quicker, I set it under an incandescant lamp or on a window sill and turn it everyday. It'll darken in about 4 days. I have a Domino Box that I made from Mesquite that has bark, sapwood, and heartwood in it, and the sapwood has lost very little of it's yellow shade in ten years. Mesquite that is cut green, and cured indoors, will keep the yellow sapwood longer than that cured outside... just the nature of the beast. But if you put it in a window or under a lamp it will turn beige in no time.
I think it's probably the UV light that causes the red to fade to brown.