Getting the most out of the log

[turnerted]

G'day
About six months ago my wife and I were visiting some public gardens on the southern outskirts of Sydney when I heard the whine of a chain saw . On investigating I found the gardeners were cutting up a large log with brilliant red colouring in it . I introduced myself and asked if I could have a bit . No problem . The boss loaded a log into his wheelbarrow and took it to my car and helped load it in . He said the tree was Acer negudo . Looking this up when I got home I found this was Box Elder and the red colouring is caused by a fungal infection ,presumably the reason it was being removed.
When cutting it up , I got two slabs from the middle about 90mm thick . The timber outside still had good colour so I got two more slabs about 60mm thick .
One of the centre slabs gave me the large bowl shown 330mmx80mm and from the core I got the smaller bowl shown 260mmx40mm .The other four bowls are roughed out waiting for me to finish them off .
The log was a fair bit longer than the diameter so from the offcut I got about a dozen bangle blanks . When I make bangles I core them out with a hole saw and the plugs still had good colour in them so I made a set of pendant earings out of a plug but that didn't use all the plug so I made a key holder too. Even though these were endgrain they still finished well .
The bowls are finished with DO and the others were sprayed with gloss estapoll
I don't like to waste wood.Unfortunatly the rest of this brilliant timber probably went to the tip.
Ted

[John T]

HI FROM JOHN T in tassie some very nice turned bowls :2tsup::2tsup:its a shame the rest of the box elder went to the tip to good for that.

[Sawdust Maker]

Bluudy nice
'shame about the bit that I didn't get

[Pat]

Nick, I think it's Ted's turn for a little meeting.

Good work Ted, always inspirational to see your work.

[Ad de Crom]

Ted, wonderful turnings, what a very beautiful colored wood.
Very good hearing a chainsaw, happens not so much, at least not to me.
The last time that I heard a chainsaw, was last year in the garden of my neighbor, with cutting down a magnolia tree, and a bit later the tree was mine :2tsup:
Ad.

[TTIT]

Like neopolitan ice-cream - Yummy :2tsup:

[thefixer]

Why does that never happen to me. Whenever I hear a chainsaw it's either a conifer or another bloody gum tree.

[Nai84]

Hey Ted

WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW that is some lovely wood you got thier those bowls look fantastic and the jewellery is to die for :D:D:D I am gonna be a bit checky :B do you have small of cuts that would be good for making pens :B once again nice pieces

Ian

[robo hippy]

Box elder is a lovely wood. The red/pink color does come from a fungus or bacteria that is particular to the tree, and does not seem to cause any health issues. Only down side is that the color oxidizes to browns as it ages.

robo hippy

[artme]

Beautiful timber there Ted and very nice turnings too!!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

[Ed Reiss]

Nicely done :2tsup:

[Ozceltic63]

Nicely done :2tsup: :2tsup:

[turnerted]

Nai84
Ian I'll have a look tomorrow . Busy watching the cricket at the moment.
Ted

[Ozceltic63]

yeah me too :( :C

[TTIT]

Nai84
Ian I'll have a look tomorrow . Busy watching the cricket at the moment.
Ted:think: . . . :?

[Nai84]

Nai84
Ian I'll have a look tomorrow . Busy watching the cricket at the moment.
Ted


Hey Ted

Thanks :2tsup: have fun watching the cricket :2tsup: just let me know how much you want for them if you have any :U

Ian

[Avery]

fabulous colours!

and very nicely done too.

[wheelinround]

Ted big Darrell from OTGA cut some similar up a while back no one had any idea what the wood was. It did have an odour of cats urine when working the pink area. Does that Box Elder?

I agree with Pat would love to see you in action.

Ray

[turnerted]

Wheelinround
It definatly does not have a pleasant smell when working it . The first time I ever turned box elder it had grubs in it and I thought the smell and red colour was was caused by grub poo .The colour was nowhere near as good as this though .
Ted

[rsser]

Nice score!

I roughed turned some and as it dried all the red vanished. Phooey.

Here are a couple of tips from Dale Nish on preserving the colour ...

1. Use catalysed varnish as the finish and keep the piece out of direct sunlight.

2. Some folk appear to have had success applying a coat of Armorall every 3 to 6 months over the top of a film-type finish. Or if aiming for an oil finish, use the Armorall first. Presumably the stuff has UV inhibitors, and UV is one of the causes of the fading.

The other is oxidation, so don't rough turn before slow drying.

[turnerted]

rsser
I had the timber all cut up and bowls roughed out within two days but I did soak the roughed out bowls in water for about four weeks prior to letting them dry . I don't think there has been any reduction in the colour .The brown bits , which are presumably oxidation, were there right from the start .
Ted

[rsser]

Sorry Ted, I should've been clearer .... after standard turning and finishing, the loss of the red stripes may take a year or so.

But maybe your bowl soaking will prove to be another method of preserving the colour.

[mañana]

We had a huge Box Elder at our home in Sutherland, Sydney. It was so prolific, with young trees coming up everywhere - in our roof gutters, all our neighbours had them, even in our glasshouse amongst orchids - the seeds are in catkins which blow all over the place. My wife used small branches that we had cut off the tree as stakes beside plants in the vegie garden and most ot the sticks struck and grew. A bloke I had a few beers with at the Royal Hotel was a gardener with Sutherland Council. I gave him a coupla hundred young trees probably thirty years ago and when we left Sutho in 2003, the trees were in plague proportions all over the Shire - Street plantings and parks etc. Depending on which Southern Sydney public garden you sourced the Box Elder from - if it was in the Shire, I may well have been responsible for it being there.
I brought a few trees up to Stroud when we moved here and they are thriving - in time they will give the Camphor laurel a run for it's money. They are a great tree - great shade, deciduous, make great mulch from their prunings and beautiful to turn from anything bigger than 75mm dia. - but I haven't encountered any colour in them - only almost pure white.
Mick C.

[pommyphil]

Mick If you want more colour just wait a few days til your next accident, black, blue,

bright red :rolleyes:

[Christos]

This looks almost glass like.

Very interesting.

[turnerted]

Mick
This could well have been a pup from your tree . It came from the Camelia gardens at Gymea .
Ted

[mañana]

Well Ted
I reckon you are right - it would definitely be one of the progeny of our tree. A word of warning! Don't leave any shavings around anywhere - 'cause the buggers will take root and grow.
All the best from Stroud
Mick C.

[Paul39]

Breathtaking color and figure. I hope you can preserve the color.

Nice turning also.