Live dyed trees

[smoky10]

At one time I had the web page to a wood supplier that carried live dyed wood and I lost it when my puter went graveyard dead. I have done a search but had no luck finding it, so if you have it I would appreciate it if you will share it with me.
Thank you sooooooooo much, Tom

 

[Chasper]

Is this who you are looking for?
http://www.tswoods.com/index.htm
I marked it as a favorite long ago, I've never bought anything from them.

 

[smoky10]

That is the one, thank you so much.

 

[MikeInMo]

That is cool!

Does anyone have any idea how they do that?

 

[DocStram]

Tom at TSWoods gives great service. All of my dealings with him have been nothing but positive! Plus, his dyed aspen blanks are way cool.

 

[Russianwolf]

I know if you put food coloring in water and put a fresh celery stalk in it, you will see the dye go up the veins in the stalk. I bet they are doing something similar.

If you notice the color seems to be mainly in the outside area (on the hardwoods). Which would have been the sapwood that carries the water to through the tree. Do it for a couple years, and you would build up layers of coloring. That's the same way you get mineral streaks in Poplar and Maple.

 

[MikeInMo]

I figure the mechanism inside the tree is similar to the food coloring/celery idea, but that is done with a cut piece of celery with the end grain exposed. I guess my curiosity is about (and the trade secret is) how they get the dye past the surface of the wood without killing the tree.

 

[Russianwolf]

through the water table.

If the water they are supplying to the trees roots is colored, the roots will likely absorbe the coloring along with the water. Now they may have had to experiment on which types of colorings were absorbed easier. But I bet's that's the general method.

 

[airrat]

for anyone interested in purchasing, I got a flyer from TSwoods about a spring sale. Not sure if it is still good. We received it in the mail while we were out of town.