Free Wood!

[Skie_M]

Ok, that got everybody's attention ....


So yeah, I got me some free wood. I am not sure what species it is, but the guys from the tree cutting service mentioned taking down a large sycamore with orange/reddish wood ... They had some decent sized branches in the back of a truck that they let me have, as I wasn't interested in the large trunk pieces (way too big for me to process).


So ... as I was cutting a piece into roughly 1" square pen blank sizes to stack and dry (it's fresh cut), I noticed that the interior was a creamy off-white color. After drying on a blue shop towel for a half hour, the pieces are now a nice looking orange. I have the other half of this chunk laying to the right, so you can see the bark. It would also appear that anywhere it has made contact with iron has turned a rusty reddish color ...

What is this species?

 

[mark james]

Osage Orange?

 

[Skie_M]

Oh? Could be, given that pretty color ... is Osage Orange usually a creamy off-white when fresh cut?


Anyways, cant turn wet wood and expect it to stay reasonably stable (at least for my purposes), so the wood that's not out in the pile slowly seasoning is getting the ultra-modern treatment. I took the two blandest looking blanks I've cut and used them for my test drying ... decided to microwave kiln dry them a few at a time. I found that 6 minutes was WAY too long (at 50% power, by the way), and ended up with a pair of charred blanks that were pretty much unusable. I dialed it back to 4 and a half minutes and ended up going from 48% moisture content (using this Harbor Freight moisture meter) down to 11% .... good enough for me. There was some warping, but with these rough cut 1" blanks, that's not a big deal.

I got about 6 branches around 4 - 6 inches thick, roughly 3 - 4 feet long, plus this chunk I was working on in the house ... perhaps 10 inches long, 8 inches across, but both ends were cut at a diagonal...

I chainsawed it down the middle so I could fit it on my band saw in halves for processing into blanks. (still have the other half in one whole piece for now)

I'll leave the rest of it out in the wood pile till late August to October, and then check the moisture before I process the rest and stick it in a shoebox... I plan on bottle stopper blanks, some small bowl/box blanks, and the rest pen blanks.


(edit concerning the charred blanks) The smoke was extremely acrid ... it was burning my throat, my lungs, and my eyes... There was no open flame (smothered in the plastic bag full of moisture), but 80% of the wood was unusable. Of the rest, the center was more charred than the outside. I tried turning it round, but it split down the sides. It did have an interesting look to it. For those that are interested to know, the Harbor Freight brand of Western Safety "Multi-Purpose Dust Mask" was awesome ... quick and easy to put on with the velcro strapping. I just had to grit my teeth and bear it with the tear-inducing smoke as I got the charred blanks into the sink.

 

[Skie_M]

A few shots processing it further ...

In the red box on the left is the microwave kiln-dried pen blanks. They are about 7 - 8 inches long. On the right are the un-dried blanks. You can see the curvature of warping apparent in the left-most blank.

Next, on the lathe ... you can see here what I mean by "creamy-off-white" for the freshly cut wood. In the background balanced across the end of the banjo and the tailstock handle is one of the wet blanks for comparison ...


And for those who want a nice close-up look, I've left 3 photos below for you to click and blow up ... Left-most is sanded to 400 grit abranet. Center is with BLO and 2 coats of CA. Right-most is with a tiny bit of sanding to level things out at 3200 grit micro-mesh and then I hit it twice with Plast-X to see a polished shine.

 

[jttheclockman]

Aspen wood.

 

[liljohn1368]

Usage is a creamy white when you first cut it. But it has a darker core.

 

[TonyL]

Nice....and free!

 

[TellicoTurning]

Microwave burned wood, like microwave burned popcorn STINKS...been there dun that, don't want to do it again.... but I microwave a some of my green bowls at about 3 minutes per cycle usually 3 min in MW, cool for 20 minutes and repeat, up to maybe 4 cycles...., don't know what the power setting on the MW is, it's an old Montgomery Ward's that I got from Habitat store a few years back... kept blowing the fuse in it, so put a piece of peppermill shaft (aluminum) in place of the fuse... haven't blown that yet and pay attention when I so use it in case it decides to blow up some day.... I have a HF moisture meter Also have a postal scale to weigh it on...but usually just feel the wood and if it feels dryer, don't bother with the meter or scale.

On your wood, if it is osage orange (in Texas it's Bodark -- probably in Oklahoma too)... it's pretty stable green or dry... I had some from my step-father's cow lot down in Freestone county that had green stripes in it... turned several pieces green and didn't have problem with it.

 

[Skie_M]

Well ... I doubt it's Osage Orange ...

The Wood Database

Comments: Osage Orange has a relatively low modulus of elasticity compared to its weight and modulus of rupture which helps explain why it is sometimes used for archery bows. It's sometimes called Bois d'arc, which literally means "bow wood" in American French.The wood is also very stable, with little seasonal/environmental movement.

One helpful characteristic that can help separate it from lookalikes such as Mulberry or Black Locust (besides being heavier) is that Osage Orange contains a water-soluble yellow dye, so putting shavings into water will turn the water yellow.

Commonly, the wood of a related South-American species—Maclura tinctoria—is imported as Argentine Osage Orange. This imported wood has the advantage of being available in larger sizes, with boards having less knots and defects than the smaller domestic species, Maclura pomifera. (Though it appears, at least on paper, that Maclura pomifera has a lower modulus of elasticity, making it more flexible—which may be good or bad depending upon the intended application.)

Osage Orange has been shown in studies to produce more BTUs when burned than any other domestic hardwood, and is accordingly sometimes used as fuelwood.

I put a handful of shavings into water in a white plastic container 10 minutes ago ... water still pretty much crystal clear.

Bobbins by Van-Dieren

Paloba Rosa
(Aspidosperma peloba)
Color is a creamy yellow at first cutting which gradually changes to pink with darker streaks of red. It is a very dense wood with a smooth texture.

So .... Peloba Rosa or Peroba Rosa seems to be similar to what I'm seeing here, but I can't find any examples of the bark online, and this is a species native to Brasil... Still looking around to figure out what this wood species is.

 

[towerswoodcrafts]

I don't think it's wenge, cocobolo, padauk, Ebony, walnut, zebrawood or red cedar. Hope that helped with the process of elimination.


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[Skie_M]

Hmm ... thinking perhaps the microwave kiln drying process may be tampering with the water test ..... gonna try it again with fresh wood shavings and see if this is osage orange. I just looked in the container and there's a very slight tinge of yellow color in the water. (It's been a few hours.)

 

[Skie_M]

OK, the fresh cut wood shavings are giving me a noticeable yellow tint in the water ... seems like this really is Osage Orange.

I had no idea that wood could change like this just because of exposure to iron content and/or oxidation ... I know that purpleheart likes to show up after heating/scorching and UV exposure, but this one's new in my book!

 

[Monty]

Does look a lot like the OO I have, but mulberry is similar looking also.

 

[Maverick KB]

For drying, try using a toaster oven. Keep the temp low, around 125 or so. Leave them in for a day or two.

Typically you want to air dry slow until around 10% then bake to avoid most warping and cracking.

You might also soak the green wood in Pentacryl. This is a "green wood stabilizer" that bonds with the moisture in the wood to prevent cracking and checking during the drying process.

48% moisture is very high and any attempt to speed the drying process at that point will have issues. If speed is required, cut pieces larger than you desire so that they can be cut down to size once dry and remove the warped portions.

You can also help slow the drying process so that it happens more evenly by burying the wood in sawdust. The sawdust will dry quickly due to the high percentage of surface area and will regulate the RH as it fluctuates. When humidity goes up, the sawdust removes the moisture like a sponge before it gets to your wood, allowing it to reach equilibrium at a more constant rate. It may then be kiln dried to get to 0% moisture, but will start to regain some moisture as soon as it comes out of the oven and touches moist air.

I can't say for sure what your wood is, but hope this helps some with the handling of it.


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[Skie_M]

Yeah, it's 48% moisture content because it was fresh cut yesterday or the day before...

This is why I'm cutting roughly 1" square pen blanks ... I don't actually need to have them anywhere near that large, 5/8ths would work fine for most of my pens.


The reason I'm explaining what I'm doing from one step to the next is so that those of us out there who come across some wood laying on the side of the road or a fallen branch or two out by a garbage heap might know what to do to process it into pen blanks when the windfall comes their way.


I had no idea that if you finish your Osage Orange before it has a chance to change color, it'll keep the creamy tan/off-white color ... I noticed the ends of that short blank have started to go orange on me.

After this wood has seasoned for a while on my wood pile, I may find myself a decent 3 - 4 ft piece with relatively few knots - hopefully no knots - and split it down the grain along the side of the curve and use the belly of the curve to make myself a decent bow... if it ends up being too small for practical use, then I may convert it into a crossbow.

 

[Maverick KB]

Now that sounds like an amazing project! I'd love to see something like that!

Processing a log is easy. Doing it correctly takes time and bit of attention. [emoji6]


http://shedlifellc.com/

 

[Rolandranch]

Not that I know any more than these other folks here... but looking at the grain, I'd agree that it's osage orange.

 

[GaryMGg]

Hobbit house for ID:

osage orange

OO's end-grain and cross grain is very telling.

Some of the mulberries can seem like OO.

 

[TurtleTom]

IMO it's Mulberry, Red. Put a piece is sunlight for a few weeks see if it turns dark wine color. Mulberry is very light in weight also. It is also the traditional wood for Buddhist begging bowls in Asia.

 

[Gary Beasley]

Reminds me of bradford pear, it color changes the same way and the bark looks similar. Stuff is really dense and fine grained when dry.

 

[TurtleTom]

It's hard to mistake Osage Orange for anything else. The weight is a dead giveaway. It's heavy, 54 lbs cu ft. Osage also has a large band of sapwood that's light and the heartwood is very dark.