SILK FLOSS FRUIT COMPOTE

Stephen,

We’ve never heard of Silk Floss . . . except for embroidery and dental work. ;-) It certainly is a beautiful wood and interesting about the thorns. It’s nice to keep learning new things.

Thanks for posting.

L/W

-- Jesus is the ONLY reason for ANY season.

This is beautiful wood! I guess you would have to handle it carefully. I have seen another kind of tree with those type of thorns or similar type thorns. It was on a tree that Indians would break off branches and chew on the twigs whenever they had a toothache and it would relieve the pain but I cannot remember the name of the tree. I have also seen someone make a cane from a tree of this species and only knocking down the pointy parts so it won’t stick you and the cane was very striking!

Erwin, Jacksonville, FL

-- Erwin, Jacksonville, FL

Wow. Silk Floss Tree.. nope I haven’t heard of it either. Where can you get the wood? I shall research this..
The figure looks similar to bird’s eye maple.. LOVE it.

-- ~ Eric P Jorgenson: Jorgenson Design

Eric,
I got it out of my back yard, cut the tree down to make room for my shop. Two wonderfully orange trees bit the dust too. I didn’t have a fireplace for the first 5 years I was there so the trunk sections just sat around drying. When I put a fireplace in I split and burned the sections. This was the last piece of the lot; on a whim I put it on the lathe and spun it, was amazed (and sorry I burned the others).
The tree is indigenous to coastal regions…the space between ocean and desert. Local lore has it that this was imported to California from Australia by someone hoping to make it on lumber sales, since it thrives where other trees wither. The guy didn’t do his homework…they don’t get large enough or mature fast enough to be viable as a lumber crop. They are all over southern California, but very sparsely populated, apparently seeding themselves with winged thingys that float a long way. The woodturning group I belonged to (Glendale Woodturners Guild) used to make network phone calls when the city tree service was cutting them down. They’d follow along behind and throw the tree sections into their pickups.

-- Stephen Mines (Saltmines@aol.com)

cool