# Wood IDs



## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*2 species of branches found in my green waste bin - what are they?*

I've had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It's laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores 

Thursday night after work, I came home to find the green plant-matter bin out by the road, indicating the gardeners had been by (landlady pays for them 2x/mo). Unusually, however, were limbs sticking out of it. I only have a few trees, and they don't really have anything like dying limbs that I can use. I've been interested in collecting usably-sized branches in the many species decorating streets and lawns here for use in my mini lathe, so it was an exciting moment. They don't appear to have come from my yard, so it's possible the gardners found them in their truck and threw them in my bin when they finished their work. I'd love help identifying them both.

Here are some shots of the first, twisty one:


The leaves were fuzzy, and weed-like, and I'm guessing this is considered simply a very large weed.


It goes from a tree-like brown bark to a green, plant/weed-like thing in an almost linear progression as the branches split and narrow.


It's more like a thick weed at this end:


The bulb-like, twisting bottom was obviously underground, with the dirt caked around it, and it appears they wrenched it free, perhaps with a shovel. 




There are more pics in the beginning of the Flickr set here

The second species is a simpler, straighter-limbed thing. It had no leaves whatsoever, but tons of twigs in a very busy display. Here are some pics:



Lots of twigs:


The gardeners, not realizing how important these things are, were obviously a bit rough with this limb 


One last shot of a twig, in case it helps any:


So… any ideas? I wish trees all grew with some kind of unique ID, or a barcode


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *2 species of branches found in my green waste bin - what are they?*
> 
> I've had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It's laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores
> 
> ...


Well it's not Poison Ivy at least ! I wish I could help you on this matter . I'm trying to learn some of my local barks , etc., so I can identify trees / branches myself .


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *2 species of branches found in my green waste bin - what are they?*
> 
> I've had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It's laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores
> 
> ...


You've done it again, Rob! I think that first one is indeed a Pride of Madeira, though the internet does not seem to like 'lifting up the dress' to show me the less ornate bits (the 'trunk') underneath. They sure are pretty when they're not balled up in my green city trash bin!

Any thoughts as to the twiggy, leafless enigma in the second set of pics?

Thanks again! You're amazing.

Dusty - that's why I'm doing this, too. Just want to learn all I can, and figured this was a good forum for not only learning, but sharing the knowledge with all immediately, as I learn it


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *2 species of branches found in my green waste bin - what are they?*
> 
> I've had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It's laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores
> 
> ...


this is like watching an episode of CSI!!!


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *2 species of branches found in my green waste bin - what are they?*
> 
> I've had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It's laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores
> 
> ...


Have you posted this question to the experts on our sister site , "Garden Tenders" ? 
You're already a member so all you have to do is sign in : )


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *2 species of branches found in my green waste bin - what are they?*
> 
> I've had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It's laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores
> 
> ...


Debbie - I know! Exciting, isn't it? 

Dusty - That's a great idea. Rob in the first comment here nailed down the Pride of Madeira for me, but I still don't know what the other branch is. Thanks for the tip!


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *2 species of branches found in my green waste bin - what are they?*
> 
> I've had quite a weekend here in LA with the free wood gathering. It's laughable to you folks on farms, or out in the deep woods with harvestable lumber all around you, but here, we have to beg for our scraps, or put down hard earned cash at the stores
> 
> ...


definitely! I'm almost on the edge of my seat watching you play detective, waiting for you to solve the case


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*A look inside the second mystery branch*

It would seem Rob (user: socalwood) nailed another species down for me in my previous post - the Pride of Madeira - going off nothing more than one gnarled limb (which turned out to be the whole trunk and some branches of a small plant) and some withering leaves. Great job, Rob!

I looked a bit more into one of the few branches of the second mystery species, and found a yellowy, eccentrically-ringed wood that seems to love to split along its length down its ring and ray lines. I'm hoping it'll dry out and harden up so that I may use it in my mini lathe. If it stays this prone to splitting, however, the best I may be able to do is turning it carefully in a chuck, as the pressure of centers could split it apart. Here are some pictures inside a thin limb of about 1" and under in diameter. I have another one that's more in the neighborhood of 1.5".

I cut it up with a Japanese flush cut saw from Rockler. I love the finish sawing with that thing leaves, and it flushes things so perfectly - pegs, pocket hole plugs, etc. - you can't feel them. I've even used it to do the work of a laminate trimmer. It cuts very fast in all the woods I've tried it in, and with no effort at all:


Note the eccentricity - the rings are anything but centered in relation to each other:


The eccentricity reminds me of a certain Hollywood Juniper limb I cut down last year, the pieces of which are still drying in my shop, for use eventually on the mini lathe. I keep thinking that eccentricity like this is just a hallmark of a lot of fast growing species. The rings in this are pretty far apart in some areas - 1/4" or more - and that seems like fast growth to me. Maybe not.


Mineral stains reminded me a lot of poplar I've seen, and for all I know it could be any of the related poplars or tulip woods. It really likes to split along its ray and ring lines. The splits were already there, or appeared in pieces that fell to the floor (not sure if that caused them, though). I didn't cause any splits with my sawing:



There's a kind of fiery sunburst around the outer edge, inside the outer bark. I researched for awhile, but still can't tell my vascular cambium from my secondary phloem, so I'm useless to explain what I'm seeing here, other than that it looks neat. It seems online you either find colored microscopic slides of cellular level things, or illustrations of the larger stuff, but no actual labeled real photos of a variety of tree and limb cross sections to really give you a better sense of what you're seeing. This doesn't match up with pretty much anything I found:



This piece was already split, so I cut around it, but it's pretty detailed inside, with another internal split, mineral stains, wood in various states of dryness, what almost appears to be rot, or spalting (though I don't think it is), and much else. It was fun to just wander around it with my eyes, trying to understand everything inside:



I haven't room in my shop to build tables, couches, beds, or rowboats, but I also have a real love of tiny, detailed things, so these little limbs, which can be turned into very tiny things (hopefully) are still rather delightful to me. With the fractal nature of trees, all of the hallmarks of woodworking are still found in miniature in these tiny 'logs," so in a sense, I almost feel like I'm doing regular woodworking, but as a giant


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *A look inside the second mystery branch*
> 
> It would seem Rob (user: socalwood) nailed another species down for me in my previous post - the Pride of Madeira - going off nothing more than one gnarled limb (which turned out to be the whole trunk and some branches of a small plant) and some withering leaves. Great job, Rob!
> 
> ...


Interesting growth rings. How hard is this wood? Does it shape well?


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *A look inside the second mystery branch*
> 
> It would seem Rob (user: socalwood) nailed another species down for me in my previous post - the Pride of Madeira - going off nothing more than one gnarled limb (which turned out to be the whole trunk and some branches of a small plant) and some withering leaves. Great job, Rob!
> 
> ...


mmh - The pieces you're seeing here are about as thick as my middle finger. I was going to try to do something with them, but eventually got tired of moving the little plastic shopping bag all around the garage out of my way and dumped them in the green recycling bin. They weren't really hard. They were still kind of close to new/green plant growth, really. They had a stinky smell, like salt and brackish water. I did turn one on my lathe out of curiosity, and it just looked like yellow/white wood. The cool patterns at the end didn't translate to a pretty turning. Never did ID it. The gardeners threw it in my green waste bin, but it's not from anywhere around my property. They must have had a branch stuck to their truck or in the bed when they arrived and just threw it in my bin, where I discovered it later. I'm much less excited about 'sticks' these days, as I've since found lots of piles of respectably sized logs to play with here in west LA


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Another found ornamental tree, with a mystery hole*

More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.

I think it's either a whole small tree, or the top of a very tall larger tree, as it doesn't seem to branch in the way a branch would. It's too radially uniform around the center line. It was a piece roughly cut at the base, and about 7'-8' tall.









The tip and every little twig terminated in a little fuzzy bud, reminiscent [mildly] of a pussy willow, and there were less mature buds and leaf scars regularly spaced along each twig:





I noticed in the dirty, rough-cut at the base a hole with a membranous covering, like hard, milky-white, translucent plastic. When I cut the limb into pieces for use in my mini lathe, or side projects (got a few ideas), I found the hole ran through the entire thing, even the thin branches:











I had cut off the end to clean it up, and found that the hole through the middle with its membrane caps let some light through. It was translucent. I tried to learn a bit more by peeling off the bark, and cutting through the cylindrical hole running up the middle. What I found were chambers running through the entire thing, like very short bamboo segments:















Some cuts revealed some branch lines radiating from the center out. Note that these limbs are really wet inside:



I got 16 little twigs of varying widths and lengths. I'd like to make a little natural birdcage out of them, and at around 2" spacing, I can do about a 10" diameter cage, and I have some ideas I think will be pretty cool for how to fasten them together into a ring, and how to create the door. The top remains TBD 





And of course, my immediate question was: "Can I turn any of this on the lathe?" Obviously, the central hole made for a great on-centers setup, if it also meant I couldn't turn too thin. I got a chance with this to try out my new Sorby Spindlemaster, on sale recently at Rockler for 20% off. I only buy those pricey things on sale.



It smelled just like carving a pumpkin, and turned very easily. It's pretty firm, though wet. The colors were amazing. It has a [I think it's the right term] cambium layer that's fluorescent green, like antifreeze, some mustard-colored areas under each branch root, and pale, maple-colored interior, with an ultra-straight grain. I was half expecting it to shred like a weed, but it held up beautifully under the turning tool. I was impressed:







I made a nice little mess of wet shavings, and got some unfortunately blurry pics of the debarked piece. My auto-focus was aiming for the lathe table (machining mill part), I guess:







It almost seems like it would work for some pen turning, except it definitely wouldn't be a high quality hardwood pen 





Parting shot of the mess:



Anyone have any idea what tree this is from? A couple more shots and descriptions in the Flickr set.


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Another found ornamental tree, with a mystery hole*
> 
> More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.
> 
> ...


Interesting. Apparently no tree, sapling or scion is safe from you. }~


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Another found ornamental tree, with a mystery hole*
> 
> More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.
> 
> ...


I'll track them all down one day!


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Another found ornamental tree, with a mystery hole*
> 
> More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.
> 
> ...


well who would have thought that such beautiful possibilities were hiding in that piece of wood!


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## Treeclimber (Feb 20, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Another found ornamental tree, with a mystery hole*
> 
> More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.
> 
> ...


with those buds and having a chambered pith so it most likely walnut….thats my guess anyway


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## neetodude (Mar 13, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Another found ornamental tree, with a mystery hole*
> 
> More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.
> 
> ...


To me this looks like a "tree of heaven" It grows as a weed here in IL, and stinks when the bark is stripped.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Another found ornamental tree, with a mystery hole*
> 
> More trash pick… I mean, recycling this past Thursday night. Someone in the neighborhood threw out what in the dark after work seemed like it might be plastic, but back in my garage turned out to be something with the texture, and a bit of the overall look of a plum, with smooth brown skin that seemed to have a purplish cast to it.
> 
> ...


Treeclimber - I came to the same conclusion! Don't miss the follow-up post here.

neetodude - I'm 100% sure it's a walnut, but only about 90% certain it's a black walnut. Check out the link above for my follow-up post with reasons as to why I think this.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*mystery ornamental branch identified*

After some online snooping, it looks like the branch I found the other day is of the Juglandaceae Family, which is to say it's a walnut. Here's some evidence…

The chambers in the middle, seen here in my sample comprise what is known as a "chambered pith" (a pith being the center of a tree/branch/twig). Here's how it happens (in elaborate, if brief science talk). When it comes to chambered piths, it seems the only two choices spoken of online are black walnut (Juglans *************************), and butternut (Juglans cinerea), aka "white walnut." Here a dichotomous tree terminates in those choices after choosing "chambered pith."

Wikipedia's entry on the walnut tree features this image of the chambered pith of a black walnut. I'm a little iffy on it being a black walnut, however, as some shots, like those found on this page show that while the chambered pith is similar, the wood in that shot seems more woody, and the twig shots seem hairy, whereas my limb was smooth and hairless. However, at this great page on butternut, and its sister page on black walnut, there's a comparison shot of the twigs of both which suggests that if either, I have black walnut. The buds on butternut are pointier and longer, and the leaf scars much larger, with a shape that's elongated more down the stem. Even the author of those pages implies it's not always easy to tell them apart for a novice like me.

There are some more good shots of young butternut twigs here, and they certainly do show some similarities, like the bark color and texture, and the distribution of the little white dots, or "lenticels" (pronounced LEN-tih-kuls), which act as pores to bring oxygen into the growing limb, similar to those found on my silver birch. For reference again, here are my twigs: one, two, and three, with clearer views of the lenticels here and here. In that last one the lenticels are fading, and the trunk right between my fingers seems to be gearing up to split into the more textured, woody bark of older trees.

Here's a shot of black walnut on Flickr that shows more of the transition from young to mature tree. Its buds do look a lot like those on my samples. There's a bit more on butternut, black walnut, and hickory (also in the Juglandaceae Family) here. Making things more difficult is the fact that there are 8 genera in Juglandaceae, and its genus Juglans alone is divided into 4 sections. The Japanese Walnut (J. ailantifolia) isn't too dissimilar, telling me that I'd probably have to run through all of the Juglandaceae Family to know for sure what I have.

For now, I'm going to say it's a black walnut, and be happy  I suppose I could always send my Flickr set to The Walnut Council and see what they have to say about it. There's a council for everything! Anyway, pretty neat to get a chance to work in walnut this young, though I wouldn't go chopping one down on my own for the opportunity.


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## sandhill (Aug 28, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *mystery ornamental branch identified*
> 
> After some online snooping, it looks like the branch I found the other day is of the Juglandaceae Family, which is to say it's a walnut. Here's some evidence…
> 
> ...


I will take your word for it, :=) That's cool that you took the trouble to look into that thanks for the great links are you sure your not a detective?


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *mystery ornamental branch identified*
> 
> After some online snooping, it looks like the branch I found the other day is of the Juglandaceae Family, which is to say it's a walnut. Here's some evidence…
> 
> ...


Detective indeed, sandhill. Where were you on the night of March 12!?



If it were up to me, there'd be some pretty powerful dichotomous keys with rich photosets for every plant and tree possible online. Perhaps one day it will be up to me, if I keep taking many high resolution photos of each tree I find, posting them, and then doing research.


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## clieb91 (Aug 17, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *mystery ornamental branch identified*
> 
> After some online snooping, it looks like the branch I found the other day is of the Juglandaceae Family, which is to say it's a walnut. Here's some evidence…
> 
> ...


Nice sleuth work there. Hmm maybe should have paid more attention and done more homework in that Tree ID course I completed this past winter 

A book you may be interested in is Better Homes & Gardens WOOD
I borrowed it from local library and just finishing it up has a lot of details about specific wood types and workability as well as working with found wood. Planning to add it to my own library.

CtL


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *mystery ornamental branch identified*
> 
> After some online snooping, it looks like the branch I found the other day is of the Juglandaceae Family, which is to say it's a walnut. Here's some evidence…
> 
> ...


Thanks, Chris. I'll keep my eyes out for a copy. I'm really starting to gather in the wood now. My tiny place is going to be impossible to get to, or into soon


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*

I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:





The man in the house behind it was out talking to someone walking past, so I headed over and asked if he thought anyone would mind me taking it. The city had conveniently cut it up, and would be back for it later, but usually those guys are glad to be relieved of the load by wood scavengers. He said to take it, and also take the live one next to it, only half-jokingly. I couldn't - don't want to kill trees, particularly, and can't remove city trees without permits and such. I loaded the big stuff, then cut up the small stuff, and left with my car looking like this:









And back home:



I had to come back for the large stump, and had forgotten my favorite saw there, too, so I headed back, never found the saw, but found the neighbor next to the fallen tree dragging more of it out to the road. The remaining pile had nearly doubled when I got back. I don't know where it was coming from. I didn't see any debris in that guy's lawn, but there were many smaller pieces cut up I could pull out of there, while also scouring around for my missing saw. I eventually managed to get the base of the tree into the car, with great effort. Here it is, with the rest of the haul from the second trip:



And here's the final pile - both hauls - on my back patio, with me for scale:





What a load! Well, for me in the city of Los Angeles it is. You folks out in the woods are laughing, as I would be if I still lived with my parents deep in the woods. We used to have 100x this pile to split - a never-ending chore for me growing up. The cuts were extremely sappy - the goopiest sap I've ever seen. It was oozing out like a slime more than a sap.

This is officially the dirtiest I've been in LA, and it's all dirt-impregnated sap, which took a lot of rubbing with Goop-Off to remove:



Now the big question… Anyone know what it is? Here are some leaves and flowers to help you out:







I came up with a simple idea and location for some wood racks that will keep off direct rain, but leave all of the logs and things I'm finding these days out in the open air (and out of the sun) to air dry.


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## PG_Zac (Feb 14, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


I've no idea about the wood type Gary, but good haul. That chuck of trunk base looks heavy, but only to those who have manhandled green logs. The uninitiated would probably think it is relatively light.

Personally, I don't go for anything thinner than my bicep, but whatever tilts yer kilt is what you must go for.


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## jockmike2 (Oct 10, 2006)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


You may want to swipe some paint on the ends of the logs to keep them from splitting and cracking. Or order some anchorseal online. It's a waxy emulsion that you can spread on the ends that does the same as the paint, just more expensive. It really does'nt matter what kind of paint you use. Just the ends need it. Never mind I read your next blog and see that you already know about anchorseal.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


I love the photos!!! I am sure that you got a few stares when you were driving back with the load of wood but that is at times what being a LJ is all about. I can see a lot of potential in your wood stash.


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


The leaves and the 5 petaled flowers make me think Peach. But I'm no arborist…


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## wdkits1 (Mar 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


Hi Gary
Nice haul you made. Looking at the pics of the leaves and comparing them with pics in a tree book I think what you have is a California Laurel.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


I'm sure that one of the pros on our sister site , *Garden Tenders *, can help you identify this item . 
You're already a member , so all you have to do is sign in and post your question or supply them the link to this page : )
Nice haul …my pick up truck rotted away , so now I'm using my Honda hatchback instead to get the job done : )


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


you took a chance driving with your car loaded like that.I know I've done it too LOL what are you going to do with the very small stuff?Alistair


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## clieb91 (Aug 17, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


Nice Haul Gary. Mike might be right based on this entry… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbellularia

Do the leaves smell likethe bay leaves in your spice cabinet? Should provide you some good project wood.

CtL


----------



## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


Nice haul. I see why you need a truck! Does that Irwin saw work better than a bow saw? or have you tried one? I'll join the crowd on the end thing. Checking starts immediately.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


Any luck finding your saw ?


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


Looks like a great haul. Good luck on finding out what it is. Ask the guy where you got the wood he might know.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


Thanks for all the replies, everyone. To answer a few questions:

Zac - no pen blanks for you, or do you have really skinny biceps? 

Mike (jockmike2) - yeah, I got some Rockler Green Wood End Sealer a day or two later and went at most of the pieces. I still have plenty to seal up, though. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm quickly running out of the 2 quarts my local store had, so tonight I ordered a 2-gallon bucket of Anchorseal from the source. I'll be happy to be able to compare the two sealers at last, though it'll take awhile, with trials across similar pieces of various species to really know how well they're working, and of course YMMV what with local humidity, barometric pressure, temps, winds, and all that.

Scott - I'm used to stares. I seem to usually be doing some odd thing no one else would consider, or bother doing. I'm like some kind of alien or something 

Doug and Mike - I think Mike may win this one with the call on the California Bay Laurel. Still have a lot of my usual over-research to be on about, but it looked quite promising in my first glimpses of Google Images. Thanks, guys!

Dusty - We're in the same boat with our hatchbacks, but I'm going the other way and trading it in (probably for $5  for a pickup ASAP. Since this tree I've picked up a found night stand out by someone's trash bins, a large branch that when cut up at convenient locations, filled up a lot of the cargo area (nothing like this, though). Then there was tonight: 8 2×4s, 4 pressure treated 4×4s, and 5 2'x4' "handi-panel" plywood sheets, 23/32" each. It was fun turning corners and having all the 2×4s roll over onto my right shoulder. Oh, and thanks for the tip on Garden Tenders. I seriously need to enlist their help. What a great resource I've been overlooking!

Alistair - this car has done really well for how poorly I've cared for it and treated it over the last 9 years. It only has 50k miles on it (as of yesterday on the way to Home Depot!), but it's always been out in the weather, almost never serviced, I've driven the brakes to the point of needing new rotors installed (maybe 2x now - need to get that checked out again), and had a dead battery once caused by a 3" tall mountain of bright blue corrosion. I'm hoping to get a decent, new truck, probably with one of those sprayed-on armor liners, and then I'm actually going to take care of it. Maybe I'll have it for 10-15 years, as my dad had his tiny blue Toyota pickup (always ran/looked the same), and end up saving a lot of money, while getting a lot out of it. I seem to be jamming some oversized thing into this hatchback daily anymore. It's amazing what's fit in there, though. Check this out: a large treadmill, in the box, a 6-inch Delta jointer, and 24 2x4s (25 is impossible , It's made too many hauls like this over the years, and both of its long trips - cross country (FL->NJ and NJ->CA) - were made with the car completely packed with my belongings. It's almost like a short station wagon.

Chris L. - great link! I think you and another guy in here nailed it. More research, and a follow-up post (thanking you guys) to follow, of course. Thanks for your help!

Topamax - I am pretty sure it works better than a bowsaw. It's been decades since I tried one out, but a coworker and I were talking about it, and he told me about some problems he's had with them, and I have to say I didn't have any of the problems. I'm kind of tempted to pick up a high-tension bow saw I saw at hom depot near the Irwin. It had a wood-cutting blade with pretty aggressive looking teeth running in both directions. One area where the Irwin has it beat, though, is resawing. I'm quite curious to try that out on some smaller logs, and even on some big ones with the 24" version of this thing, which I'm about to go order online tonight. I took a bunch of pics of the saws I've picked up recently, and even some cutting videos - full cuts through the same sized logs using the same techniques and pressures to try to show how long each takes, and what goes on with the shavings, how they sound, if they bind, and will probably do that with all of my saws, and put together a comparative video as a review, with my notes peppered in for good measure. Oh, and the bow saw's bow gets in its way in larger stock. I feel pretty certain I could get through 12"-14" logs with this thing. I imagine with a bow saw I'd have to roll the log, or work my way around its perimeter to reach every part. And yes - checking sure does start fast. All of my logs got some mild splits in the ends. I'm doing what I can to end grain seal them ASAP - so many, though! So little time.

Dusty - the saw is nowhere to be found, but it's only $14. I got 2 more at Home Depot, and just said goodbye to the other. I hope someone found it who appreciates it. I'm keeping one in the garage now, and one in my car, and that came in handy today, when my officemate alerted me to a large limb he saw on his drive to work. I went and cut it up and hauled it all away 

Karson - thanks! I think 2 guys in the comments here might have nailed it with their guess of California bay laurel.


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## Blake (Oct 17, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


You and me have the same truck! (But mine is yellow.)


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet*
> 
> I was putting in the rafters on my shed roof today, when while taking a break I noticed a message on my machine from a friend. He had spotted a fallen tree, which didn't make it through today's heavy wind storms here in LA. I grabbed my Irwin carpenter saw - the best hand saw I've used so far for wet logs (I've tried 3 now) - and headed out in my inadequate hatchback. It's getting traded in for a truck soon, hooray. This was the pile I found:
> 
> ...


Did you wash up afterwards? Nice haul. You would have gone "Bonkers" here this weekend, as the neighbors had a HUGE (80 ft?) Oak tree cut down. It took them 2 days to cut and haul it all away.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 1 of 3*

I went out for a walk from work late in the day last week sometime, through a neighborhood I'd not explored. At its end, I encountered a fallen gum tree, and as probably seems the right response to many in here, was overcome with joy. It had obviously been down for a while. These LA people sure don't understand what treasure there is to be had in their trash. I determined to come back for it at night… sometime.



Uncharacteristically for timid ol' me, I went back that night, after midnight, under cover of darkness with a completely inadequate Japanese pull saw, meant for things like cutting pegs flush with boards. It's all I could scrounge up. Two trips later, a total of 3 hours of building up callouses on my hand as I sawed and got the saw bound in the wet, swelling wood over and over (in the end, ruining its blade with a kink right in the middle), I was home with the prize:





Lots of branches, great for turnings, and this large trunk piece that I couldn't cut (tried for 40 minutes), which I just had to push through the hatch and out the passenger window:







There's quite a variety of subtle colorings and textures in the peeling bark of this thing, and it was a joy to explore it all.



















The end grains, as usual for me were very interesting, and had an exotic look to them - patterns and textures that reminded me of things like cocobolo, padauk, and Honduran mahogany. The smaller limbs had interesting eccentricity to their rings.







But that wasn't the coolest part. The coolest part was the boring insects, and what they'd done to the tree, besides kill it  The larger limbs were infested with the Eucalyptus Longhorned Borer, which I learned a lot more about here. I found larval insects that look exactly like the one halfway down the page at that link, leaving trails and excrement exactly as seen there, only everywhere under the bark. The damage they cause is beautiful, and deadly:















The seemingly solid bark peels away easily under finger pressure, revealing the boring insect's 'mud' beneath:





And now, for identificational purposes, here are some closeups of the leaves and seed pods, which I remembered to include in the haul. There are over 700 species of Eucalyptus, many known as gums, but there are also several pitfalls to identifying them, as this comment at a UK gardening site notes.











Believe it or not, there are many more pictures in the flickr set. Part 2 to come soon will involve cutting up most of the larger logs and sealing them with Rockler's Green Wood End Sealer. Part 3 will be a green turning I made that revealed some striking beauty hiding inside. Stay tuned! Also, if you know the exact species of this Eucalyptus, I'd love to hear it!


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## PG_Zac (Feb 14, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 1 of 3*
> 
> I went out for a walk from work late in the day last week sometime, through a neighborhood I'd not explored. At its end, I encountered a fallen gum tree, and as probably seems the right response to many in here, was overcome with joy. It had obviously been down for a while. These LA people sure don't understand what treasure there is to be had in their trash. I determined to come back for it at night… sometime.
> 
> ...


Gary,
I'm no expert in identifying the species in the Eucalyptus family, but this I know - It is beautiful wood.

There are plenty of subtle and not so subtle colors ranging from yellow through blue, pink, brown, blonde, and more. Several of the types of gum have a very hard wood with very entwined grain, making it a b!tch to work with sometimes, but always beautiful.

I'm looking forward to the pics of the turnings.

Good haul - AGAIN!

BTW - while you are looking for your woods, keep your eyes open for guava - It is a surprising wood.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 1 of 3*
> 
> I went out for a walk from work late in the day last week sometime, through a neighborhood I'd not explored. At its end, I encountered a fallen gum tree, and as probably seems the right response to many in here, was overcome with joy. It had obviously been down for a while. These LA people sure don't understand what treasure there is to be had in their trash. I determined to come back for it at night… sometime.
> 
> ...


At this rate you need to seriously consider trading in your car for a truck!! It would make hauling all this wood a lot easier. I just assume that you have not run out of room to store it yet. 

This is a lot of wood that you have been scavenging. But this is a wonderful story since you get free wood and save it from going into a landfill or being converted into mulch. It is going to be interesting to see what you can come up with from this eucalyptus.


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## StevenAntonucci (Aug 14, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 1 of 3*
> 
> I went out for a walk from work late in the day last week sometime, through a neighborhood I'd not explored. At its end, I encountered a fallen gum tree, and as probably seems the right response to many in here, was overcome with joy. It had obviously been down for a while. These LA people sure don't understand what treasure there is to be had in their trash. I determined to come back for it at night… sometime.
> 
> ...


I'd be interested in seeing what you make from the branches. As a turner, I tend to leave the small diameter stuff on the ground because it doesn't give me enough material to work with. If I was making "stick" furniture, I'd have loaded my truck twice, especially after seeing the insect damage! I think it would make an awesome twig project.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 1 of 3*
> 
> I went out for a walk from work late in the day last week sometime, through a neighborhood I'd not explored. At its end, I encountered a fallen gum tree, and as probably seems the right response to many in here, was overcome with joy. It had obviously been down for a while. These LA people sure don't understand what treasure there is to be had in their trash. I determined to come back for it at night… sometime.
> 
> ...


Zac - will do on the guava! Euc has been surprising me over and over the more I've read up on it. The green piece turned really well, though I did not have the right tool(s) for the inside bit. I remedied, or at least began to remedy that on a trip immediately after that to Rockler, but I still need some more tools and experience (who doesn't? 

Scott - more than seriously considering it. I just need to do the research. I will have a truck inside the year, and probably even within the next few months. My 9-year-old hatchback is falling apart. I think it's obvious why.

Steven - Can't get too tiny! Ever seen Mike Rowe's turnings? I'm finding something about as fascinating as the insect damage in every bit of wood I pick up here in LA. I'll have to make a list of what I've found, and what impressed or startled me about each one, because it's been literally everything so far!


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 2 of 3*

In part 1, I found a Euc in an LA neighborhood, went back under cover of ninja darkness around midnight, spent 3 hours cutting it up and hauling it home in 2 trips, and detailed what I ended up with. In this part, I cut up some of the bigger logs, look under the bark a bit more, and brush away boring bug excrement to reveal some more beautiful patterning underneath.

The trails seen here are caused by Eucalyptus Longhorned Borer larvae, several of which I found while digging under the bark, and a good shot of which can be seen halfway down the Center for Invasive Species Research's page on the ELBs. You can see in my shot below what appears to be little bits of mud caked on. This is what remains clinging to the wood below the bark when peeled away. It's the excrement of the ELB larvae, and is time-consuming to remove without a wire bristle brush, which is what I used to scrub (and scrub (and scrub)) the wood to remove every trace of it. I thought I was sanding down the wood, but after much work, I realized the grain patterns were swirling with the wood, and were not caused by me.





Here's the mess the bugs leave under the bark, with their trails caked in by their own excrement, which really isn't anything more than wood pulp. It all smells lovely, actually, just like Eucalyptus 







This is the outside of that same piece of bark, showing no signs what an awesome little world lies beneath:



Here's what kind of mess you create brushing the boring bug excrement off a couple of logs, and out of all of the bug trails:



The end grain got me a little excited. I'm really interested at this point to see what comes out of this when sawn and/or turned. I love having enough tree here than I can really try everything, including quartersawing (very small planks , wet turning, dry turning, stacking and stickering tiny planks and watching them dry (with the ends sealed), and joining jointed, small planks into larger boards for maybe some things like boxes. Also, I can really experiment with a host of finishes now, too. This is all one tree, so I can really see how everything works and finishes Eucalyptus wood with several copies of each kind of stump, log, branch, and pen blank. Neat!





And here's what I got after lots of scrubbing up of some pieces I cut:







And now for some workability info…

I find this Euc to be wonderful to work with. It's heavy and dense, and of course still wet, but my Irwin 15" ProTouch™ 9TPI course-cut carpenter saw chews through it in maybe 5 strokes per inch (I'll need to empirically test that next time I cut one of these). It doesn't take long to cut through a 5"-6" log. I also used a large, course pull saw from Home Depot to cut a smaller piece (~3" diameter) later for turning, and it went through it nicely, and left a very clean cut.

I will say this, though - it starts splitting along its ray lines at the ends almost immediately. I didn't have any sealer when I started, but got some Rockler Green Wood End Grain Sealer a day or two later and immediately covered every cut I'd made in globs of it. Just awhile ago tonight I ordered a 2-gallon pail of Anchorseal straight from the source, as I'm starting to really find trees and large branches now. It's become a fun hunt in this urban sprawl.

In part 3 of this 3-series promise, I will reveal something I turned with a 3" diameter chunk of one of the branches of this thing. The turning is simple - I'm very inexperienced, on a very tiny machinist mill - but the wood is gorgeous inside. More later, and thanks for reading along with my mini adventure!

There are several more pics hidden in the flickr set

Oh, and btw, a moment of silence for my little Rockler Japanese pull saw, which could not cope in the field with the enormous strains of the heavy, wet wood. It bound constantly, even on the pull stroke, and though it occasionally helped a little, even bending the limb in different ways to try to 'open' the cut around the blade just didn't help. I think the wet wood swelled as I cut, pinching the blade. The blade is now quite kinked, even though it's hard to see in this shot. It's replaceable, but with such a little saw, it's almost like throwing the whole thing away to put in a new blade. Ah well… it was all I had in the way of hand saws on that impetuous night of a week ago.


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 2 of 3*
> 
> In part 1, I found a Euc in an LA neighborhood, went back under cover of ninja darkness around midnight, spent 3 hours cutting it up and hauling it home in 2 trips, and detailed what I ended up with. In this part, I cut up some of the bigger logs, look under the bark a bit more, and brush away boring bug excrement to reveal some more beautiful patterning underneath.
> 
> ...


your blogs have quickly moved to to the top of my list of favorites. You stand among 4 or 5 other on this site that I'd truly miss if they were to stop. Thanks for taking the time!


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## 33706 (Mar 5, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 2 of 3*
> 
> In part 1, I found a Euc in an LA neighborhood, went back under cover of ninja darkness around midnight, spent 3 hours cutting it up and hauling it home in 2 trips, and detailed what I ended up with. In this part, I cut up some of the bigger logs, look under the bark a bit more, and brush away boring bug excrement to reveal some more beautiful patterning underneath.
> 
> ...


Thank you Gary for the inspiration! I have harvested found logs, and once followed the Electric company around as they disfigured some beautiful American Elms, simply because some branches interfered with the wires. But I did get some hobby-length boards after re-sawing! I've made a few keepsake boxes out of laminated found-woods and pallet salvage and it is quite gratifying to tell people where each piece came from.
I'm hoping to get some honeysuckle and lilac this spring after pruning, maybe some alder/boxwood too. I've never seen either of these milled or turned before, should be interesting. I did get some imported Manzanita from a friend who raises macaws, apparently it's the birds' lumber of choice, and it has a cross-section similar to your eucalyptus. There's not many exotics here, few species are hardy enough here in zone 2 (-40 degrees).


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 2 of 3*
> 
> In part 1, I found a Euc in an LA neighborhood, went back under cover of ninja darkness around midnight, spent 3 hours cutting it up and hauling it home in 2 trips, and detailed what I ended up with. In this part, I cut up some of the bigger logs, look under the bark a bit more, and brush away boring bug excrement to reveal some more beautiful patterning underneath.
> 
> ...


HokieMojo - thanks so much for the kind words! I have posted like this in other places, but felt unappreciated. This is definitely the right place for me to talk about this particular passion 

poopiekat - that's great! I agree that it's so much better to have a cool story behind the wood, instead of just saying "This is red oak from Home Depot." I would love to see what the woods of both lilac and honeysuckle look like. I didn't think they got thick enough to be useful. Also, you live in a very cold place!


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 2 of 3*
> 
> In part 1, I found a Euc in an LA neighborhood, went back under cover of ninja darkness around midnight, spent 3 hours cutting it up and hauling it home in 2 trips, and detailed what I ended up with. In this part, I cut up some of the bigger logs, look under the bark a bit more, and brush away boring bug excrement to reveal some more beautiful patterning underneath.
> 
> ...


i tried saving a small (very small) holly tree. the thickest part of the trunk I managed to get was about 5" wide. Lots of cracking though because I didn't seal the endes. We'll see. Maybe I'll blog on it someday. Holly is such a pain though because I wanted to try to keep it as white as possible.


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 2 of 3*
> 
> In part 1, I found a Euc in an LA neighborhood, went back under cover of ninja darkness around midnight, spent 3 hours cutting it up and hauling it home in 2 trips, and detailed what I ended up with. In this part, I cut up some of the bigger logs, look under the bark a bit more, and brush away boring bug excrement to reveal some more beautiful patterning underneath.
> 
> ...


The grain looks nice and tight and the outer worm trails are so interesting, it would almost be ashame to remove them. Have you worked with this wood yet?


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*

In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.

In part 3, I finally took a 3" diameter piece of the green wood and had a go at it on my Sherline 4400 CNC mini lathe, set up as a manual wood lathe. I'm quite 'green' myself at this turning business, and don't yet have many techniques, experience, and tools necessary, but it came out alright, was a lot of fun, and revealed that this euc is gorgeous inside. I didn't expect that.

Here I'm cutting up the 3" diameter chunk and straightening up the side with a large pull saw:





Mounting it on the mini lathe's face plate:







Skipping well ahead, I have the simple outer form done, and the wood is quite pretty inside:



Time to try clearing out the inside - really unskilled in this area currently:



Skipping ahead again, I've hollowed it out (poorly , and sanded it to 12000 grit (yes, 12k!):



The grain is a bit open, and really should be filled somehow. The lathe plate looks kind of nice as a base:



Removing the faceplate:





A [thick-walled] cup! Check out that grain, and those colors;





As a first finishing test, I figured I'd rub in some tung oil finish that looked awful when I tried it on maple. It's meant for hardwoods, and this is pretty hard stuff. It really deepened the colors and brought out their contrast. I loved it! Still, the open grain seemed to me to detract a little from it.









It holds Sharpie® markers nicely:





The next day, tung oil finish dried up a bit, and in natural sunlighting, the contrast had died back significantly:





I definitely need a proper internal turning tool, and experience:



It being a green turning, the bottom decided to start splitting in several places, including the center. Here are a few around the bottom edge:



Here are a couple of shots of the then-current state of the open grain, coloration imparted by the tung oil finish, natural swirling patterns of the log, and how it all looks in natural daylight:





On my next trip to Rockler (to get green wood end sealer to save all the logs I'm now finding around LA), I grabbed some Hut PPP (perfect pen polish), which are 2 different bars of polishing-compound impregnated wax ingots. You turn the lathe up to high speed, run the brown bar (satin) over the whole thing to smear hard wax all over it, then press hard on it with a paper towel as you run across the surface, removing the extra wax and polishing up the wood with it a bit. Then you go over it again slowly, pressing hard, melting the sheen of wax into the open grains. You repeat this with the white bar (gloss).



Here's a pre-Hut shot:



And here's the after shot, having followed the plan detailed above:



You can see the wax burned into the paper towels in that shot. Here are a few more of the final, glossy look. The first pic shows a crack that formed in the base - the trouble with green wood - and the second shows a patch in the middle of formerly quite open grain, now filled in and made glossy by the Hut PPP wax:





With a bit darker exposure, this is closer to how the cup currently looks:







The cup is still [as I type this] attached to the lathe face plate. It's probably a week later now, and I'm shown something important and interesting - how much it shrinks. Note that the cup was sanded and polished down to match the lathe face plate in these shots. Sitting next to me on the desk here, I can see that it's about 1/16" smaller in diameter, so about 1/32" shrinking around all sides. That's a significant figure. The once-flush [temporary] metal base is no longer even close to flush.

I have since sealed the ends of all the Euc blanks I've readied, and the logs I'm storing. I'm anxious to see what other treasures it has in store for me. Still no idea which species this is, but I've since found a forum of Euc folk who might know. It's an apparently tricky proposition to identify a gum tree all the way to a species. There are over 750, and lots of anomalies, like differences in the same tree, or similarities between different species that can combine to make two trees of different species seem more similar than two others of the same.

Anyway, this was all just an excited test of the wood. I had no plan when I screwed the piece of log into the face plate, so I was glad it came out to be anything at all. Now we wait, and wait, for the other logs and log bits, all painted up with Rockler green wood end sealer to finally dry out to more useful levels.

There are several more shots scattered throughout the flickr set.


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## spanky46 (Feb 12, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


Very interesting Gary! Keep up the good work.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


This is a nice post. It is great to see wood that would be destined for a landfill or converted into mulch getting a new lease on life in the form of a nice piece like this. Not only are you getting some nice wood to work with at a great price (FREE!!!) but it also affords you the opportunity to spend more time in the shop honing your skills. Sounds like a winning combination to me. Great job, Gary.


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## oldskoolmodder (Apr 28, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


Great stuff. As the pics went on, I kept thinking pencil holder, though I prefer Sharpie holder too. Looks like you're learning quite a bit and despite being a beginner turner, you are keeping at it, and only getting better.


----------



## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


Interesting post. Looks like you're doing better than your self critic says )


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


fantastic! grain patterns looks beautiful. and that sheen from the SSS is remarkable!

how is the checking? is the wood still going on cracking? or did the wax help it out?


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Lev - All further checking has stopped. I'm not sure if it would have stopped there anyway, but it makes sense that the wax would have helped. The paraffin emulsion from Rockler (Green Wood End Sealer) has stopped the logs outside from further checking. I know they would have kept going as many are a week old now, but painted up right after cutting most show no checking. Any cuts I made before I had the sealer had several checks within a day.


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## baller (Nov 14, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


looks like i need to get in the game with that friction polish. Eucalyptus is so easy to find around socal it's ridiculous. I was always weary cuz of all the visible holes in it. Turned a bowl recently, grain looked just like that, but a bit more colorful. It was pretty easy to turn, and it was great how all the bug holes came out somewhat-random but consistent around the bowl, but they also caused me a lot of snags while turning (i hate snags! they scare me, and one actually bent my bowl gouge…a quick prying back to almost straight and im back at it though =)). Glad to see some other socal'ers utilizing the over-abundant eucalyptus


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## baller (Nov 14, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


'n oh yeah, for the checking, try some microwave drying methods….works wonders, and pretty much lets you know where the cracks are gonna occur (if they do, i've dried some even with the pith in the middle of the turning with zero cracking….i'll post some pictures soon)


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


Gee, I really like how the grain shows on this.


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## palaswood (Aug 9, 2013)

gfixler said:


> *Found Eucalyptus tree in LA - part 3 of 3*
> 
> In part 1 I found a Eucalyptus tree in a nearby neighborhood. In part 2 I cut it up and had a better look under the bark, finding great boring bug patterns.
> 
> ...


Great job - I know what you mean about the open grain on this species. I got a ton of this stuff from up behind my place. Really sweet grain patterns though. Nicely done


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Sealing up the mystery tree (probably California Bay Laurel)*

You folks helped me to ID this as probably a California Bay Laurel, blown down a pretty strong wind storm a week ago. I'm still going to research it, but for now, it needed to be sealed up against the checking that had already begun. I wanted some good pics of the cross sections before they get their coat of sealer. I have 2 gallons of Anchorseal in shipment now from the source, and I'm wondering if I should have gotten the 5gal bucket. Meanwhile, last week I picked up 2 quarts of Rockler's Green Wood End Sealer, the last of the stuff from my local store, and went on a sealing mission. The insides of every tree and branch I've found here in LA so far has been a small adventure. There's so much to see inside these things.

The main stump was already checking:



Sealing it with the wax really brought out what appears to some rot, or spalting. Thoughts?



This piece shows more of this apparent rot/spalt:



The outside of the previous log has some interesting knotty/burlish stuff happening:



This mark would appear to be some spalting happening around a preexisting fissure inside this branch:



This stuff may come out a bit like cherry when all is said and done. Note the sap - the stickiest I've yet felt. It feels wet and gooey, then dries out as you rub your fingers together and becomes a very tacky glue. I've been thinking I should harvest it, mix it with a little thinner, and do some tests of varnishing with it. Thoughts on this? Anyone tried similar with tree sap?



I'm a bit intrigued by the swirling grain here, and can't wait to see how it looks flatsawn, quartersawn, and turned:



Anyone know what these yellow marks are inside some of the logs?



Here's the part that was wrenched from the ground as the tree fell:



So much to seal!





I didn't get to seal all of it yet. Most of the tiny branches are on hold. I'm too busy with about 5 big projects, and I've since found several more trees and branches locally, which I'll post about soon. Neat stuff. On today's agenda is finishing up the 3rd section of my wood drying/storing racks. I'll post about those with pics and a Sketchup model soon, too! Anyone know how to make about 3 more of me, or extend a day by about 3x?

There are a few more pics in the flickr set.


----------



## kiwi1969 (Dec 22, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Sealing up the mystery tree (probably California Bay Laurel)*
> 
> You folks helped me to ID this as probably a California Bay Laurel, blown down a pretty strong wind storm a week ago. I'm still going to research it, but for now, it needed to be sealed up against the checking that had already begun. I wanted some good pics of the cross sections before they get their coat of sealer. I have 2 gallons of Anchorseal in shipment now from the source, and I'm wondering if I should have gotten the 5gal bucket. Meanwhile, last week I picked up 2 quarts of Rockler's Green Wood End Sealer, the last of the stuff from my local store, and went on a sealing mission. The insides of every tree and branch I've found here in LA so far has been a small adventure. There's so much to see inside these things.
> 
> ...


When my late father got pieces like this he would store them in a dark place as well as sealing the ends. Black plastic helps keep the light out and moisture in.


----------



## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Sealing up the mystery tree (probably California Bay Laurel)*
> 
> You folks helped me to ID this as probably a California Bay Laurel, blown down a pretty strong wind storm a week ago. I'm still going to research it, but for now, it needed to be sealed up against the checking that had already begun. I wanted some good pics of the cross sections before they get their coat of sealer. I have 2 gallons of Anchorseal in shipment now from the source, and I'm wondering if I should have gotten the 5gal bucket. Meanwhile, last week I picked up 2 quarts of Rockler's Green Wood End Sealer, the last of the stuff from my local store, and went on a sealing mission. The insides of every tree and branch I've found here in LA so far has been a small adventure. There's so much to see inside these things.
> 
> ...


harvesting sap is a good green idea, not sure how practical though. keep us posted if you do happen to take on that job


----------



## Karson (May 9, 2006)

gfixler said:


> *Sealing up the mystery tree (probably California Bay Laurel)*
> 
> You folks helped me to ID this as probably a California Bay Laurel, blown down a pretty strong wind storm a week ago. I'm still going to research it, but for now, it needed to be sealed up against the checking that had already begun. I wanted some good pics of the cross sections before they get their coat of sealer. I have 2 gallons of Anchorseal in shipment now from the source, and I'm wondering if I should have gotten the 5gal bucket. Meanwhile, last week I picked up 2 quarts of Rockler's Green Wood End Sealer, the last of the stuff from my local store, and went on a sealing mission. The insides of every tree and branch I've found here in LA so far has been a small adventure. There's so much to see inside these things.
> 
> ...


Keeping busy huh. Keeps you out of the bars.


----------



## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Found limb - Bottlebrush*

This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.

Later in the day I took a walk to that area, bringing my handy Irwin coarse-cut carpenter saw with me, tucked into my pants under my coat, gangster style. It was bigger than I thought. I cleaned it up, and carried the rather large log back to the office and my waiting car, 0.83 miles away (I measured later on Google Maps). I'd say it was about an 80lbs log, more than 10' long, and required quite a bit of freeing with the saw from its plume of foliage, so naturally, I was dirty, sweaty, worn, and bleeding by the time I got back to the office. It took 2 days for the pains in my shoulders and neckbone to go away, but I had fun the whole time, so I'm not complaining 

Here's what I found. At this point I was thinking "I shoulda drove here…"













I took some pics of the tree so you guys could help me ID it, but then I accidentally solved it (sorry!). It would appear that of the 34 current species in the genus Callistemon, this is C. citrinus. These pics from Cuyamaca College's Ornamental Horticulture 170 class are all spot-on matches. However, other pages, such as this one show it as more of a shrub, so Cuyamaca's classification could be off. As usual, I wish for complete, definitive guides, but don't find them. Most pages agree that "Callistemon" comes from the Greek words "calli," "kalli," or "callos" ("beautiful") + "stemon" (stamen), as it is the stamen of the plants that appears as a beautiful red or white plume, like a pipe cleaner.







Here are some shots of the leaves, twigs, and berry-like seed pods:











And here was the real giveaway, and the reason it's called a Bottlebrush:



I skipped shots of all the cuttings-up action, but I learned something: When you carry a huge log through a neighborhood, people talk to you. No one ever talks to me in public, especially in LA, but while cutting the twigs free, an older couple walked past, and the woman remarked to me "That thing just fell down in the wind, didn't it?" Walking back, an older Asian man looked delighted, and asked "Did you pick that up all by yourself?" Shortly thereafter I heard a woman laughing, and found her sitting on the steps in front of her building. "How far do you have to carry that? Are you going to be okay?" There were several more on the walk back. The guy in the gatehouse at my company, who's never spoken to me before even leaned out of the window to ask "What in the world!?" Not too many people carrying limbs back to office buildings full of computers and nerds  The only one person who didn't talk to me was the beautiful, shapely young woman in skin-tight exercise outfit who walked past me, who for whatever reason was lightly glaring, as though I'd just stolen the limb from her private collection. Oh well…

Here's how the final branch looked, back at work, near my '00 Ford Focus hatchback:



I wouldn't even close to fit in the car, but the Irwin saw had it chopped up in a few minutes. I love that thing. The inside reminded me a lot of some Junipers I've seen:



And here's how it looked cut up and stacked in the hatchback:



Did I mention I'm pricing trucks right now? I left before anyone could link me to this mess at my office:



Checking was evident less than a full day later. Time to get these things sealed up:



A neat feature of this tree is the seed pods. They grow on pretty much every size part of the tree:



And now for some very pretty cross sections of the smaller pieces:











Here's my little trimming setup, with a drill press vise, clamps, and pull saw, on my circular saw table:



I've taken lately to dipping branches in Rockler Green Wood End Sealer, and starting last night (on more Eucalyptus), Anchorseal. This shot is of the former, as the Anchorseal only came in 2 days ago:





This shot of the bark of a small piece really reminds me of this macro shot of a human iris:



This is what I ended up with of the small pieces, cut into small turning blanks and sealed up:





Next step was to start peeling bark off the big pieces, to get to the wood beneath…





The bark was amazing, and reminded me of bacon underneath. Mmm… bacon:





The limb had rippling, fabric-like folds in it underneath the bark, which of course were wooden and solid:



I cleaned up the torn end that had been connected to the tree, revealing some dark red heartwood:



The outer bark peels away with about the same resistance as fresh corn husks, but the last, lowest layers really hold on. If you can manage to peel them, and the cambial layer off, as I could on the lower piece here, you find a very smooth wood beneath:



Here's the result of stripping the bark from the large limb chunks:





I believe the little spiky nodes found under the large limbs' bark are seed pods forming:







In real life, these colors are much more vivid. Also, that cut is still healing, a week later:



Note where the pith is on these, and see how eccentrically the rings can grow:





My garage was quite a mess after cleaning up the branch, not to mention all the Eucalyptus crap:



Everything is sealed up now:



One last shot of the bacon-like inner-bark:



I made a cool discovery several days ago. Bottlebrush bark is aromatic. It almost has a barbecue-smoke smell to it. I burned a piece as a test, and it gave off a church incense smell! I quickly gathered all the bark into a pile, and even took the pile the gardeners had thrown out back out of the green recycling bin to add to my stash. This stuff may come in handy. I just have to read up on its toxicity, and whether or not it can be used for smoking meat, or even distilled for its essential oils.





Believe it or not, there are more pictures in the flickr set, though not many more  All this limb and tree finding, project working, and photo uploading and commenting has me a bit backed up on new material. Hopefully lots more to come, including some projects again finally.


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## whitedog (Dec 7, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


i can't wait to see a finished project with this wood … looks like it will be interesting


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## livi (Apr 16, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


I live in Puerto Rico, we have lots of these trees here. I planted on in front of my house obut 10 years ago. It grew beautiful, but had to cut it down. Now it is growing tall again.

I saved all the branches I thought I could use because the wood looked redish and so beautiful. Im an artisan, a friend cut me some rounds (slices) about an inch thick and they worked perfectly. I sand and seal these wood, then mount my figures on them. they loo very nice and my customers are very happy with the looks of this wood.

I would like to know if it could be used for carving. Does anyone knows?


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## johnpoolesc (Mar 14, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


good find if it did turn into an adventure. i as well am waiting for a finished project.. and yes, you can carve bottlebrush.. i perfer to boil smaller pieces then dry, a lot of turners use that methid


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## livi (Apr 16, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


I have being carving for a few month, so I'm pretty new at this. Never heard of boiling wood and then drying it, could you please be more specific, details, more information please. Why would you boil wood? what kind of technique is this or… is it a joke? I was looking in the web for more information on this, but couldnt find any.

Also, if anyone knows of a wood supplier that ships to Puerto Rico, I would appreciate the information. Im looking for basswood, white pine or butternut to practice carving. (not expensive wood). Tried Heinekewood but they do not ship to PR.

Thanks guys. Livi


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## joshu017 (Jan 25, 2010)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


Hey Gary,

A bottle brush tree in my back yard blew over in the latest installment of San Diego 'winter' (I'm from Michigan so it gets quotes until we have at least a little snow) and after some googling your blog post shows the most promise of anyone knowing whether or not this stuff is worth keeping and/or trying to use in a project. Did you ever get around to using it for anything? How did it go?

Thanks!
-Josh


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


Hi Josh,

I have not gotten back to it, though now I'm excited to again. Thanks for the reminder! What I can say was that it seemed a good wood. It was dense, hard, and heavy, and the cross sections were quite pretty. If I had to guess, I would think it would have the look of something like cedar or juniper when cut up or turned, and probably the turnability and closed grain similar to eucalyptus. You know my answer, though. I'd definitely keep a whole tree that feel over of this stuff!

I don't just keep anything anymore, though. I no longer want any fig wood, for example. I couldn't find anyone online using it for anything, and I know why now. It gets moldy very easily, especially under sealers (Anchorseal, green wood seal, etc), and the mold travels through the entire log - keep turning a bowl, and it's everywhere throughout it. It has a kind of stinky smell, like hard liquor. Too, it's very fibrous. I had a decent bowl shape I turned green, and then it dried out, and turning it again to straighten out the warping, it just tore all apart. It's like a bunch of rope joined together. It's a terrible wood to use for woodwork, but I think bottlebrush could be quite pretty and useful.

I'd love to see what you do with it, if anything!


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## joshu017 (Jan 25, 2010)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply! I will definitely keep it - perfect timing that I'm getting into woodworking this year, right?  I'll let you know when it's dried out and I try to make something with it -

-Josh


----------



## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


Did the reddish wood retain it's color? I really love the red/orange woods.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


Still waiting to find out on that one, mmh. I haven't been into that part of my wood racks in a long time. Hopefully soon, and of course I'll post all about it in my blog. Thanks!


----------



## Jim Jakosh (Nov 24, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Found limb - Bottlebrush*
> 
> This branch, found a week ago now, was a mystery for awhile, but then I accidentally identified it while looking up something about paperbark trees, which are in some ways related. Callistemon, or Bottlebrush Trees, in the Myrtaceae family, are - like many LA trees - native to Australia. My coworker and officemate, who knows about my log and tree-collecting shenanigans told me one morning that the city had roped off a big branch that had fallen. He saw it on his drive in to work.
> 
> ...


Very interesting, Gary. My friend it Apache Junction,Az just called yesterday and said they had a dead bottle brush tree in the park and they cut it out of there. He found the wood to be a pretty red even after being dead for 3 years. He is saving it for me. I saw your story and it is nice to see what it looks like so now I can start drooling!

Thanks, Jim


----------



## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Paperbark branches*

A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).



I passed a few times on lunchtime errands, and finally decided to stop and ask for some free wood. I've been so curious for 5 years now about what's underneath the spongy, peeling bark of these trees. You can punch the trunks and leave a deep imprint of your hand, which swells back up eventually, hiding the dent. It doesn't hurt, because they feel like a stack of chamois, or like something made by Nerf®.

They let me take whatever I wanted, but for the most part were only cutting off long, straight branches, clearing out a sight-line for a security camera that was being installed soon. I filled my hatch with them.





I had to go back to work after that, and when work ended, I found my car heavily steamed up inside 



Here's the haul. The leaves hide a fair bit more of the limbs. I didn't want to be ungracious by tearing all the leafy branches off and throwing them back to the trimmer guys, so I just loaded them all. Later I was pleased to learn that the leaves are very fragrant. They even got me to look into distillation, and I'm teetering on the edge of buying a Pyrex still for obtaining essential oils from them and other things I've found.



Leaves:



Here's some bark on very young, and only somewhat young limbs:



It took quite a bit of work to remove the leafy twigs. The bark grows up thickly around them and acts like strain relief. The twigs are also a bit rubbery, so not only is it hard to break them, but it's hard to bend them sharply enough near their connecting point to break them. I resorted to some wire cutters.



Here's the twig/leaf pile from the paperbarks next to a pile of bark from a recently found weeping bottlebrush tree (Callistemon viminalis) limb that blew down in a storm. It's quite fragrant as well, and when burned, I've found it smells just like church incense.



Rough cut cross section shows off how thickly layered the bark is, even on young limbs:



It's hard to make out the profile of this one thick piece I got under all of its spongy, peeling bark:



The bark starts to peel when the limb growth exceeds the bark growth, tearing it open like fabric stretched too tightly:



A week later I finally found a window of time to start cutting them up and sealing them with the new Anchorseal that had arrived (2 gal). The branches are a bit deceptive in size, as the bark is so thick, but I think they'll be somewhat useful little pen-blank-sized pieces, with a few slightly larger, and one in particular that's of a more respectable "log" thickness.











I couldn't resist trying to peel a few entirely to see what was beneath the spongy bark layers.



The cambium underneath is very wet and cold to the touch, perhaps insulated from the day's heat by the bark layers, and is covered in a bit of a slimy white layer of something for which I don't yet have a name. It rubs off under finger pressure.





And here's what's underneath all of that bark, peeled away with only minor hassle by hand:







Here's a limb with half of the bark peeled away, and half with most of its inner layers still included:



Peeled limb with unpeeled limbs behind it:



This one looks like an apple:



If I'm reading it right, this limb is only 3 or 4 years old, suggesting they grow pretty quickly:



Larger limb peeled:





Anchorseal seems more slimy than Rockler's Green Wood End Sealer, takes much longer to dry (a day or two vs. a couple of hours), and does seem in the last few weeks of using it to provide a better seal. It also seems to cling better to more kinds of limbs, and create a more even layering. Rockler's stuff tends to pool to one side, or thin out too much. I can dunk a limb in the Anchorseal bucket, take it out, give it 3 hard shakes, turning it as I do to get the excess off all sides, and that's a really good coverage. Rockler's would be too thin at that point, and recoating later is hard, as the wax doesn't like to stick to its dry counterpart. I'm still learning about it, and will post more about the two in a review some day when I've gathered a lot more data over many more tree species.

Here's a stack of Eucalyptus next to the first of the paperbark pieces. The euc has had a day to dry, and some are still wet. Had it been Rockler's sealer, they'd all be dry, with thinner coverage.





I decided to save the peeled bark for now, in the off chance there's some use for it. It stinks when burned, however, like burning hair, though not as strong:



Here's the one thicker piece I got, showing 2 different cuts that have gone their separate ways. I believe the darker one is simply the older one, and that this is how the species looks when it dries out naturally in the air. I had a couple of limbs that showed this on their ends - the dark, fuzzier look, caused by fibers pulling into the tree at different rates when shrinking. The newer chainsaw cut is much cleaner, and far less porous:





The flip-side of that one larger limb I got shows some interesting heartwood and sapwood delineation, and makes me extra sad that I did not get the one monster-sized piece I saw there. I meant to go back for it, but forgot, and then they were gone on my next swing by. It must have been 14"-16" thick, and 4'+ long, and probably had some really neat heartwood in it. I peeled the bark from this one (there was a lot):







This piece might be fun to turn on my mini lathe, which can only really handle stuff about this size anyway:





Here's the second set of cutups on a different day:





Speaking of paperbark bark, here's a little video with a visitor I found in my bag of the stuff:






This small rental house sure is starting to fill up with logs! I did a tiny test turning of both the bottlebrush and this paperbark, which I've read several places online are related by genus, somehow, and they looked nice inside. These were just 1" thick pieces, about 3" long, turned down to about 1/2" diameter (so much bark!), then polished up with PPP sticks from Rockler, while still pretty green, but they gave me some hope that these could be useful, perhaps for things like white chess pieces.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

gfixler said:


> *Paperbark branches*
> 
> A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
> 
> ...


Gary, I am not sure where you are going to put all this "found wood". You have managed to get a nice wood collection started. You did a nice job on the photos too.

Glad you posted the video. After watching your technique I have come to the conclusion that you may have missed your calling in life as a "critter re-locater". 

As always, this was a nice post.


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## WhitePineLane (Jan 27, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Paperbark branches*
> 
> A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
> 
> ...


Fun post! Really interesting to see the wood going from the tree all the way down to turning pieces.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Paperbark branches*
> 
> A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
> 
> ...


rob - I finally took a look through your site. Amazing stuff! You have some beautiful, rustic doors and tables. How on earth did you find that much land in souther California?

Scott - I built some racks, and can add 4 more to the 3 I've made so far in that space. I'm going to get those in a project post soon.

WhitePineLane - thanks! Having used nothing but dimensioned lumber all my life, I'm still amazed that there's useful wood hidden inside most trees. I imagine it's a bit like the feeling of hunting, skinning/gutting, and slicing up your own dinner. In either case, these things have always been prepared for me by factories.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Paperbark branches*
> 
> A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
> 
> ...


Rob, I'm not sure how you afforded it. I think a place that big anywhere near where I am would be half a billion big ones, at least. Awesome, though. My family has a lot of land like you back in NJ. The south is still pretty underdeveloped.


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Paperbark branches*
> 
> A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
> 
> ...


Gee, did you really have to evict the baby oppossum? He was too cute. We have a mating pair in the neighborhood and I saw the mother with 7 babies on her back last spring. They were all clicking to each other and trying to hang on while she waddled around looking for food.

As for the wood, how hard is it? What do you intend to do with it? The bark looks like you could carefully peel it off in one piece and make cloth out of it as the Hawaiians do to make tapa cloth.

Is this the same tree used for tea tree oil?

Nice documentation of your discovery and stash (and eviction).


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Paperbark branches*
> 
> A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
> 
> ...


rob - thanks! I might take you up on that offer. I'd love to check out the operations. It'll be awhile, though. I'm swamped this month.

mmh - I know. I felt bad about kicking him out, but he'd starve in the shop. I wasn't even sure it could get back out of the bag! I saw it again last night backing into the driveway, scurrying under the hedge wall. The wood seems to be about medium hard. It's not super soft like some pines, but it doesn't seem very hard like hard maple. I'll know more when I resaw the one larger piece, and turn some of the smaller ones. Not sure about the leaves, but it's possible. They're really fragrant.


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## palaswood (Aug 9, 2013)

gfixler said:


> *Paperbark branches*
> 
> A couple weeks ago I passed some tree trimmers cutting up a handful of paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
> 
> ...


Gary, I have a few huge trunk pieces up behind my house of this tree. The wood is hard and purplish (its super old). If you're down near OC, hit me up and I'll split it with you (not literally, well, I do have an axe)- I'll share it with you. We would need your truck to haul it out of the ditch its in, but its dry and you could slab it up right away. PM me if you're interested.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Not a California Bay Laurel after all...*

Previous blog entries on this tree:

Wood IDs #5: Mystery fallen tree in LA - my biggest haul yet
Wood IDs #9: Sealing up the mystery tree

I found a really great site out of Canada for help in identifying plants and trees. It seems a place where horticulturalists, botanists, dendrologists, and maybe even scientists hang out and share things about plants and trees: UBC Botanical Garden. And they have a forum specifically for plant and tree IDs!

In this thread I got my answer. It's a Victorian Box, or Australian Cheesewood (Pittosporum undulatum). Though mine had none, it develops orange fruit. And of course, it's an Australian tree, considered an invasive species here in California. I should just start my research from now on in the invasive Australian species lists. I think pretty much everything I've found so far - gum, bottlebrush, paperbark - are considered as such. I'm in Zone 10, which must be very Oz-like.

No idea yet whether it's called "Victorian Box" because it's good for making Victorian-style jewelry boxes 

Related links:
Calflora's page on Pittosporum undulatum
Dave's Garden on Victorian Box, Sweet Pittosporum, Pittosporum undulatum
Wikipedia's page on Pittosporum


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## spanky46 (Feb 12, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Not a California Bay Laurel after all...*
> 
> Previous blog entries on this tree:
> 
> ...


Gary,
Good start on a lumber yard, saw mill, mill works or a bond fire! lol 
A man should do what interests him with in the law!
Allways look forward to your posts!


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Not a California Bay Laurel after all...*
> 
> Previous blog entries on this tree:
> 
> ...


nice find Mate! thanks for sharing all the links and parts of this search of yours and it's findings.


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Not a California Bay Laurel after all...*
> 
> Previous blog entries on this tree:
> 
> ...


But where's the baby opossum? I thought it was a Possum Nest Bark Tree.


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## ccpenco (Feb 19, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Not a California Bay Laurel after all...*
> 
> Previous blog entries on this tree:
> 
> ...


do you live near UBC


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Not a California Bay Laurel after all...*
> 
> Previous blog entries on this tree:
> 
> ...


Spanky - Thanks very much! My posts have all been trees lately, even though I've built about 4 things since I joined. I'm just trying to catch up with all the pics I've taken 

Lev - You bet, thanks!

mmh - I miss him, too! That possum nest bark tree was a paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia). This one's all hard outside, like a regular, hard tree!

ccpenco - Unfortunately, no. I'm in Los Angeles. It's about the full height of the USA away from me - many days of all-day driving, or half a day of plane travel.


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## ccpenco (Feb 19, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Not a California Bay Laurel after all...*
> 
> Previous blog entries on this tree:
> 
> ...


oh i actually live quite close. it's a pretty neat place


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Hollywood Junipers heavily trimmed = probably a lot of pen blanks*

Wow, it's been a busy month. These are from a month and 2 days ago. My landlady stopped by to check things out, and decided the Hollywood Junipers (Juniperus chinensis) needed trimming. Here's how they looked, during a day when I was drying out my tarp, and realizing it was the same size as my tiny back yard:



That was 3 months before they were trimmed. They had grown in a lot more in that time. I had cut down a limb last year so I'd have room for a wood storage shed, and found pretty intricate stuff going on in the cross sections:



I never sealed these, but it's been 6 months, and they haven't checked in the slightest. I guess Hollywood Juniper isn't under much tension, at least not in these small limbs. The tree guy trimmed the trees while I was at work, and I returned home to this decimation:



It was pretty shocking, and bittersweet, as I loved the privacy and shade the huge wall of foliage provided, but also will enjoy trimming up the limbs for small turning blanks. It was like my own miniature woods under there. I asked my landlady if I could keep the branches for woodworking, and she agreed. What a pile the tree guys left me!



The pile is 5' tall, and about 8' in diameter. It is jam-packed with spiders and their webs. I've recently picked up a distiller for extracting essential oils, so I want to run a bunch of the juniper leaves through that, too. I'm slowly gaining the ability to use all parts of the trees I find. I haven't had time this month to go through any of the pile, only to cover it up so the gardeners don't throw it away, but I'm quite curious to see how many little turning blanks I can gather out of them. I suspect it will be more than I imagine. I'm wondering how much essential oil I can tap, too, if it'll smell as nice as the leaves do, and how often I'll feel like setting up the distiller for yet another round 

I'm also wondering if small juniper limb pieces can turn into anything nice. We'll just have to wait and see. Darn these drying times…

Some more pics in the flickr set


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## HokieMojo (Mar 11, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Hollywood Junipers heavily trimmed = probably a lot of pen blanks*
> 
> Wow, it's been a busy month. These are from a month and 2 days ago. My landlady stopped by to check things out, and decided the Hollywood Junipers (Juniperus chinensis) needed trimming. Here's how they looked, during a day when I was drying out my tarp, and realizing it was the same size as my tiny back yard:
> 
> ...


the distillery is really intriguing to me. I was jsut thinking that there probably isn't TOO much usable lumber out of all that material, but apparently you are finding a way.

Maybe the tree will fill back in quickly. It is a bit sad to see that more than just pruning took place.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Hollywood Junipers heavily trimmed = probably a lot of pen blanks*
> 
> Wow, it's been a busy month. These are from a month and 2 days ago. My landlady stopped by to check things out, and decided the Hollywood Junipers (Juniperus chinensis) needed trimming. Here's how they looked, during a day when I was drying out my tarp, and realizing it was the same size as my tiny back yard:
> 
> ...


Very Resourceful your good at locating found wood


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Hollywood Junipers heavily trimmed = probably a lot of pen blanks*
> 
> Wow, it's been a busy month. These are from a month and 2 days ago. My landlady stopped by to check things out, and decided the Hollywood Junipers (Juniperus chinensis) needed trimming. Here's how they looked, during a day when I was drying out my tarp, and realizing it was the same size as my tiny back yard:
> 
> ...


The end grain looks very interesting. Should be some good colors in there


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## spanky46 (Feb 12, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Hollywood Junipers heavily trimmed = probably a lot of pen blanks*
> 
> Wow, it's been a busy month. These are from a month and 2 days ago. My landlady stopped by to check things out, and decided the Hollywood Junipers (Juniperus chinensis) needed trimming. Here's how they looked, during a day when I was drying out my tarp, and realizing it was the same size as my tiny back yard:
> 
> ...


Gary, can't wait to see a project with this wood! I know it will be interesting!


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Hollywood Junipers heavily trimmed = probably a lot of pen blanks*
> 
> Wow, it's been a busy month. These are from a month and 2 days ago. My landlady stopped by to check things out, and decided the Hollywood Junipers (Juniperus chinensis) needed trimming. Here's how they looked, during a day when I was drying out my tarp, and realizing it was the same size as my tiny back yard:
> 
> ...


HokieMojo - I'll definitely post a follow-up of the blanks I'm able to cull from this pile. I need the rest of these crazy times to pass first. So much going on, so many projects, so little time, so little me…

Rob - good thinking! It hadn't occurred to me. I guess I'll give the leaves a tumble in some water for a bit to rinse them off, though if they've absorbed things, I guess I can't really do much about that. Oh well. This was more a [very expensive] whim of mine than something I'm looking to get rich off of. I have a feeling I'm going to end up making a little rack to store the labeled 1-dram amber glass bottles. I like little collections like that. Nice little conversation pieces when friends stop by.

Jim - thanks! I bought a truck tonight. That should help a lot.

Topamax and Spanky - here's hoping! I think I might actually try a few very tiny half-log bowl turnings from the larger pieces. The patterning is tight, and tiny enough that it should look like intricate patterns on a larger bowl. I imagine with so much going on like this in a larger trunk, bowls turned of 6+ inches would look really busy inside.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*Figured out what kind of Eucalyptus it was that I found*

It's a #2 phillips, based on the seed pods.



In other news, I stuck all the old sets of the tree find and subsequent handlings (ongoing) into a collection here. I also went through and rotated some that were on their sides, added descriptions to some missing them, and finally made everything public, as I'd forgotten to on several, like these:





That's from May 4th, and shows significant shrinkage of the euc cup. It had been turned and sanded flush with the lathe drive plate less than 2 months prior, as shown in this shot from March 20th:



I forgot to remove it from the plate, and it sat there for about a month and a half, shrinking. I accidentally created for myself some rather good empirical data on shrinking percentages here.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

gfixler said:


> *Figured out what kind of Eucalyptus it was that I found*
> 
> It's a #2 phillips, based on the seed pods.
> 
> ...


#2 Phyllips. I'd not seen that one in the text books that I've got, but, I found it the "Chiltons Manual" for my 1980 Minivan.


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## GaryC (Dec 31, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Figured out what kind of Eucalyptus it was that I found*
> 
> It's a #2 phillips, based on the seed pods.
> 
> ...


yep, Karson's ticker is back and working just fine. 
Gary, you should write a book. "Everything you ever wanted to know about any living tree and then some" Man, you have more data than wiki But you sure come up with some cool stuff. I'm still thinking about that juniper with the red color. That was really pretty


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Figured out what kind of Eucalyptus it was that I found*
> 
> It's a #2 phillips, based on the seed pods.
> 
> ...


Very interesting


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Figured out what kind of Eucalyptus it was that I found*
> 
> It's a #2 phillips, based on the seed pods.
> 
> ...


Karson! Glad you're back, and I hope you're feeling alright. Does your minivan smell pretty like eucalyptus?

Gary - Thanks, but I've got a long road ahead! One day at a time, I suppose.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *Figured out what kind of Eucalyptus it was that I found*
> 
> It's a #2 phillips, based on the seed pods.
> 
> ...


Gary,

I tried packing my "wet" turnings in the left over shavings, wrapping them in several layers of newspapers and then sticking the whole thing in a paper bag. It slows down the drying process and reduces some of the warping- it's not perfect but helps.

Lew


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *Figured out what kind of Eucalyptus it was that I found*
> 
> It's a #2 phillips, based on the seed pods.
> 
> ...


Lew - interesting. That's the second time I've heard that this week. There must be something to it.


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*African Blackwood and conservation*

I picked up another box of 20 exotic wood turning blanks from Rockler. It's been on a big sale for a long while now, and I had free shipping going, too. I have an idea for possibly turning it into some saleable items, and running the numbers, it was a very good deal.

One of the woods it includes, of which I have now 4 1.5"×1.5"×12" pieces is African Blackwood. The tree, - Dalbergia melanoxylon, found primarily in Tanzania and Mozambique, though native to, and probably spread beyond at least 26 African nations - is known by Swahili-speaking locals as "Mpingo." It looks like a scraggly desert tree on the outside, but under the pale sapwood is a gorgeously dark heartwood (see also). There are some more nice pics at the bottom of this page of the logs and cross sections. They didn't make them clickable links, but you can right click on them and 'View Image,' or similar to see some of them larger.

I feel a bit bad about having these blanks, though, as it's threatened. It's a highly valued tonewood - ~$50/BF - used especially in the making of oboes, clarinets, and bagpipes, though I've seen it in everything from knives, pens, and pipes, to flutes and guitars. And of course, carvers in Africa make all manner of art sculptures to sell, like these giraffes. Gresso even makes a luxury phone encased in it.

However, it's a slow-growing tree, and it's being over-harvested, and supplies are dwindling, which might be why places like Woodworker's Source list it, but don't have any in stock. I feel for the people in those areas who don't typically think of it as a non-renewable resource, and just want to make some money, but that money will run out when the trees are all gone. That's why I was glad today to find The Mpingo Conservation Project. On the front page is a link to a PDF of an April 30th press release about what's being done now to save mpingo as a resource. It's only 2 pages, but to sum up the points that made me smile:

Two communities in Tanzania are working with the Mpingo Conservation Project to start properly managing their blackwood resource. By following the guidelines, they've received a certificate from the Forest Stewardship Council, which, under the Participatory Forest Management system - part of Tanzanian law - grants the community ownership and control of the land, which in turn grants them profit rights from timber sales provided they manage them sustainably. Now instead of about $0.08(USD) for a log, they're getting upwards of $19, or about 250x more than they were making doing things non-sustainably. The certificate tells responsible purchasers of the lumber that they're buying from a group that isn't destroying the resource.

Hooray for small victories.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

gfixler said:


> *African Blackwood and conservation*
> 
> I picked up another box of 20 exotic wood turning blanks from Rockler. It's been on a big sale for a long while now, and I had free shipping going, too. I have an idea for possibly turning it into some saleable items, and running the numbers, it was a very good deal.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info.


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## bowyer (Feb 6, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *African Blackwood and conservation*
> 
> I picked up another box of 20 exotic wood turning blanks from Rockler. It's been on a big sale for a long while now, and I had free shipping going, too. I have an idea for possibly turning it into some saleable items, and running the numbers, it was a very good deal.
> 
> ...


Good job on the research. Commen sense may soon catch on

Rick


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## Stilts (May 29, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *African Blackwood and conservation*
> 
> I picked up another box of 20 exotic wood turning blanks from Rockler. It's been on a big sale for a long while now, and I had free shipping going, too. I have an idea for possibly turning it into some saleable items, and running the numbers, it was a very good deal.
> 
> ...


Common sense really isn't all that common. It's not just these third world countries that sell their assets for immediate financial gain not thinking about future generations, it happens right here in our own backyard.

Here in Chicago, our mayor is selling any asset he can just to balance the budget, no worries about what our kids are going to do when they run into budget issues. He has sold a major toll road, city parking garages, and one of our major airports. Since then, our tolls have gone up 50%, our parking fees have doubled, and who knows what will happen with the airfare. Oh well, I guess all that matters is that he looks good by not having to cut jobs. It doesn't matter we already have the second highest taxes in the country.

Sorry for my rant, I know it's not the same thing as saving the rainforest but the comparison just popped in my head while reading your blog.

Nice job Gary.


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *African Blackwood and conservation*
> 
> I picked up another box of 20 exotic wood turning blanks from Rockler. It's been on a big sale for a long while now, and I had free shipping going, too. I have an idea for possibly turning it into some saleable items, and running the numbers, it was a very good deal.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the information. I often wonder how sustainable these exotic woods are. I am always on the hunt for beautiful, unusual woods, but don't want to be part of the cause for extinction of a tree. Keep up the excellent blog!


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

*The American Woods - 350 N. American species specimens*

I just tumbled into a fantastic vat of info hosted by the Special Collections Research Center of the NCSU Libraries.

"Radial, tangential, and cross-sections of 350 North American woods from the 14-volume rare book The American Woods, published between 1888 and 1910 by the author, Romeyn Beck Hough. The images can be accessed by volume number or by the scientific or common name of each tree."

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/forestry/hough/index.html

The 600DPI images are nice and big for positive IDs, or maybe for getting interested in trying out certain species. I'm going to be dizzy after hours of clicking on each of these.


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## jlsmith5963 (Mar 26, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *The American Woods - 350 N. American species specimens*
> 
> I just tumbled into a fantastic vat of info hosted by the Special Collections Research Center of the NCSU Libraries.
> 
> ...


Fetish: Any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion or an abnormally obsessive preoccupation or attachment; a fixation. (not that there is anything wrong with it, lol)


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

gfixler said:


> *The American Woods - 350 N. American species specimens*
> 
> I just tumbled into a fantastic vat of info hosted by the Special Collections Research Center of the NCSU Libraries.
> 
> ...


Hey Gary
Thanks for the link,
Heres one of the best I've seen http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *The American Woods - 350 N. American species specimens*
> 
> I just tumbled into a fantastic vat of info hosted by the Special Collections Research Center of the NCSU Libraries.
> 
> ...


jl - me, or the author!? Probably correct either way 

Jim - agreed! HH is my favorite ID site. I couldn't do a search online without landing there back when I was trying to ID all the hardwood scraps I got from Rockler. Thanks!


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## jlsmith5963 (Mar 26, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *The American Woods - 350 N. American species specimens*
> 
> I just tumbled into a fantastic vat of info hosted by the Special Collections Research Center of the NCSU Libraries.
> 
> ...


Gary I'm looking at you kid…. lol


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## MikeGager (Jun 15, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *The American Woods - 350 N. American species specimens*
> 
> I just tumbled into a fantastic vat of info hosted by the Special Collections Research Center of the NCSU Libraries.
> 
> ...


nice find gary, thanks!


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## gfixler (Feb 21, 2009)

gfixler said:


> *The American Woods - 350 N. American species specimens*
> 
> I just tumbled into a fantastic vat of info hosted by the Special Collections Research Center of the NCSU Libraries.
> 
> ...


jl - it wouldn't be proper OCD if I could control it!

Mike - you're welcome! Hope it helps.


----------

