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Let's start a topic that even the most uptight, self-righteous person will

3K views 28 replies 21 participants last post by  Bernspen 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
never mistake for trolling.
I live in CA/OR, depending on the time of the year, and know that the northwest is a big provider of most all things pine. However, I love to work with walnut and maple and yet I don't have a clue as to where our best walnut and maple come from other than "back east".
Most folks like to brag about their local area and what they are famous for. If your area is known for a specific type of wood then I would like to know. I would especially like to know where the best walnut and maple come from. I also like to work with ash. Who's known for that?
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
For walnut, Missouri and eastern Kansas produce some of the best and most sought after trees. Something in the soils produces great color. I think maples are more of a Wisconsin & Michigan commodity.

Other species that come out of eastern Kansas (albeit in smaller quanities) that are easier for me to find in good quality are black locust, honey locust, Osage orange, hackberry, pecan and elm. Oh and of coarse, red oak. We have quite a bit of good ash, as well, but the Emerald ash borer has started appearing around Kansas City and so we may lose a lot of those before long.

^ I love the look of spalted hackberry.
 
#13 ·
Well lets see. Georgia is known for peaches and pecans. I have not had any peach wood but I've seen several here who have done things with it, and it looks nice.
I HAVE had some pecan (although it came from a tree that was grown in Tennessee) and it was really nice to work with. The bowls I cut from it came out with some beautiful grain! (see my blogs for those)
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These are both pecan
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Wood Basket Drink Ingredient Serveware

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Dishware Wood Natural material Serveware Pottery
 

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#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
Here in Indiana and Michigan, we have great red oak. Ash, maple, walnut, poplar, hickory and others. These are available from local sawmills.

And I recently found my favorite wood which is quarter sawn sycamore with an beautiful and unusual grain pattern.

The ash here is quickly dying due to the emerald ash borer but still a lot available and in wide widths.
 
#18 ·
are you saying that the tree was where Poe is burried and you got it sawed before it fell? Or am I looking too deep?
Cool if so.

Just got some Hackberry that was gonna fall on Mr. Poe.
Is that famous?

- RobS888

- SirIrb
That is exactly what I meant. The branch standing up was from another tree.

My wife started turning a piece last night, she has never had wood that freshly cut before, so she really enjoyed it.

Plant Wood Trunk Grass Brick
 

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#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
There's actually quite a bit of walnut out here in OR (and CA, WA, and ID). As for maple, there's lots of western big leaf maple around … that's a soft maple, hard maple is pretty much a "back east" wood. But, you can find some nice figure and some big slabs of western big leaf, and it is a nice wood to work with, and not really THAT "soft".

Now, the thing that I wish we had some of out here is black cherry, but of course, we have some things they don't have back east (madrone, myrtle).

Edit to add that we produce ash out here as well.
 
#23 ·
Down here in the NE section of FL our biggies are heart pine and heart cypress.
People are going crazy for this stuff, expecially the virgin timber pulled from riverbottoms.
It can go for up excess of $20/bf. Very pretty stuff.

We have a little bit of cherry that can be interesting.
I picked up some from a sawyer friend of mine that I call "birdseye cherry" cause thats what it looks like.

We also have Southern Red Cedar (not to be confused with Eastern Red Cedar) which isn't good for a whole lot other than blanket chests, birdhouses, and panelling for closets. Extremely knotty.

Of course there's pecan, sycamore, and even some hard maple, but not good quality.

So from FL, GA, LA, it would be heart pine & heart cypress.
 
#25 · (Edited by Moderator)
Additional PNW woods are yellow cedar, yew, and various spruces. Also hackmatack (aka larch or tamarack). There are, of course, specimen trees such as walnut that grow in peoples' yards, but none that grow wild as far as I know. Black locust, though not native, has naturalized itself and can be found wild in western Oregon and Washington. Oregon white oak (goes by other names, too) can be found around Olympia and Fort Lewis n western Washington, as well as in the Willamette valley in Oregon. It is reputed to be of high quality, and is often used for steam bent frames in boat construction. I see trees when I drive I-5 that are tall and straight, which I think would mill up into lovely material.

But our iconic woods are Douglas fir and red cedar. Sadly, very little old growth is left, so that timbers from old commercial buildings such as mills and warehouses have become highly prized and expensive. (The old growth often is straight grained, with few knots, and with very narrow, closely spaced annual growth rings).

Oh, in the San Juan islands, which are quite dry compared to the rest of western Washington, we find scattered specimens of some kind of juniper. This stuff is deep mahogany red with purple streaks, and has a powerful fragrance that makes me want to carve it or turn it. The trees are always severely twisted and distorted from exposure to winter storms.

As for madrona (aka arbutus in BC), I've never seen lumber made from it, though I am curious about it. And how can we not mention our two regional pines-ponderosa and lodgepole. Ponderosa is what we find in the BORG when we are looking for shelving. It's usually pretty knotty, and is very soft and not strong. My dad made a lot of stuff out of it, and always stained it maple or walnut. But it never looked like anything but stained pine. Very sad.

Lodgepole pine is found in the dry side of the Cascades, at higher elevations. As it tends to grow in dense stands, it can be quite straight and tall. But I've never seen any that were more than maybe 10 inches or a foot in diameter. If you owned a stand of it, of course you'd build your log cabin out of it.
 
#26 ·
Here in my part of South East Texas we are known for southern yellow pine. We used to have major saw mills and shipped lumber all over. Most of the big mills are gone and we now chip them up for paper as well as pellets that are shipped to Europe by the ton. We also are using the chips to generate electricity and all of this happens within a few miles from my front door. Timber is treated as a cash crop here and since it doesn't take as long to grow a chipper tree as it does a mature tree, the industry has changed. We also have the Big Thicket National Park that holds the last remnants of a once vast and extensive forest. That being said, I can drive down to the local hardwood mill and pick up the following: red oak, white oak, hickory, walnut, cherry, cypress, maple, sassafras, sycamore and probably a few more that slip my mind at the moment. I know, more than you ever wanted to know.
 
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