A first go at green woodworking

[Coxy15]

Hi all,

On my way home the other day, I saw someone had cut up what looked like a Jacaranda tree, Except it's not Jacaranda, it's the brother or cousin of it with the red flower…Porsettia or something?

Either way, they had left a few logs on the side of the road which, after asking their permission, I took home……I ummed and ahhed about it, and ended up making a bit of a bowl out of it….Its definitely worth a go, and felt softer than pine. It has quite a few nice markings through it too. Just have to let it dry and see how she comes up.

Speaking of which, I was told something about putting it in a plastic bag with some of the shavings and let it sit for 6 months or so….can anyone back this up, or advise how to proceed in drying it out before finishing it off?

Thanks

Tim

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[Toymaker Len]

Maybe poinsettia is what you have. Nice bowls and nice grain. The drying method of putting them in a plastic bag with shavings and leaving will only work if there is some way for the moisture to escape so what you do is open the bag every day. A more regulated method is to skip the shavings altogether, put the piece in a plastic bag and seal, the next day you will see a lot of condensation on the bag, take the piece out of the bag, turn the bag inside out and put the piece back into the now dry bag and reseal. Repeat every day until no condensation forms on the bag. Another thing you might like to try is microwave drying. Wrap the bowl in a tea towel, weigh it, write the weight at the top of a column, put the package in a microwave and blast for a minute, weigh it, enter the weight in the column, back in the microwave, blast for one minute...etc you will see the weight begin to drop as the piece gets hotter. When the weight begins to even out i.e. stops decreasing then let it cool for half an hour before unwrapping. Voila instant dried wood ready to final finish. Some woods microwave really well. some warp spectacularly and some just crack up so it is worth doing it slowly with many unwrap/inspect/rewrap cycles especially for the first ones.

[tree lopper]

Poinciana and Jacaranda aren't closely related. Poinciana is in the Fabaceae family and from Madagascar, while Jacaranda is from the Bignoniaceae family and from South America. Here's more about the Poinciana (https://brisbanetrees.com.au/poinciana), if you're interested.

The real issue in your identification is that, if it's a poinciana, it's rubbish wood and will dry into the weight of a sponge and the strength of a rotten palm. Hopefully it's not one. If it is a Jacaranda then you've done well as it's very nice for turning. There are cousins of Jacarandas that could also come out nicely, but Poinciana isn't one of them.

That's some nice woodwork, by the way, whatever tree it is.

[Coxy15]

Poinciana and Jacaranda aren't closely related. Poinciana is in the Fabaceae family and from Madagascar, while Jacaranda is from the Bignoniaceae family and from South America. Here's more about the Poinciana (https://brisbanetrees.com.au/poinciana), if you're interested.

The real issue in your identification is that, if it's a poinciana, it's rubbish wood and will dry into the weight of a sponge and the strength of a rotten palm. Hopefully it's not one. If it is a Jacaranda then you've done well as it's very nice for turning. There are cousins of Jacarandas that could also come out nicely, but Poinciana isn't one of them.

That's some nice woodwork, by the way, whatever tree it is.

I don't know the first thing about Poinciana or Jacaranda, I googled them and the leaf of both look fairly similar. This bowl was never going to be a show piece or anything like that, I just wanted to turn someones rubbish into something, I have always wanted to find a log or something and turn it down which is what I did. Realistically, it will probably be thrown out as it's not a nice solid piece and all that, which really doesn't bother me.

I will take a picture of the tree that it came from and maybe you could id it once and for all....I know a few people are curious.

Tim

[Rod Gilbert]

Hi all,
This thread highlights the beauty of wood turning you can pick up any thing a stick a piece of trunk anything timber at all and turn a nice piece from it. It sounds like you have a piece of poinciana as the tree had red flowers but so what you enjoyed turning it and learned from the experience what more could you ask for.
Regards Rod.

[artful bodger]

Realistically, it will probably be thrown out as it's not a nice solid piece and all that, which really doesn't bother me.
Tim
Looks reasonably solid to me.
The grain pattern on the outside also looks quite interesting.
How it dries out is perhaps the main thing. If it cracks and splits to the blazers then into the bin it goes.
Most serious turners who green turn usually rough turn the bowl leaving the wall thickness with a warpage allowance. Then from my observations pack the bowl in it's own shavings till it's dry and then re-turn it. Have not heard of plastic bags in the equation.

[Coxy15]

Hi all,
This thread highlights the beauty of wood turning you can pick up any thing a stick a piece of trunk anything timber at all and turn a nice piece from it. It sounds like you have a piece of poinciana as the tree had red flowers but so what you enjoyed turning it and learned from the experience what more could you ask for.
Regards Rod.

And that's why I like working with wood. It's natural and something very satisfying about using it. Im not trying to take away from metal work by any means, but I seem to gel better with wood than metal.


Looks reasonably solid to me.
The grain pattern on the outside also looks quite interesting.
How it dries out is perhaps the main thing. If it cracks and splits to the blazers then into the bin it goes.
Most serious turners who green turn usually rough turn the bowl leaving the wall thickness with a warpage allowance. Then from my observations pack the bowl in it's own shavings till it's dry and then re-turn it. Have not heard of plastic bags in the equation.

I completely forgot about drying it out! When I turned it down, I left it pretty thin as I forgot about it being green…..as strange as that sounds, but either way, I left it on my kitchen bench for the last week or so and it has dried out completely and hasn't cracked…..I am actually quite surprised by this!

Unfortunately, I have lost the lathe to my partner for the moment so I am occupying my spare time with other forms of woodwork, and have just made a chopping board…..was feeling pretty good about it until my dad pointed out all I did was stick a few bits of wood together with some glue and sanded it back :~:~:~:~:~

Tim

[artful bodger]

I completely forgot about drying it out! When I turned it down, I left it pretty thin as I forgot about it being green…..as strange as that sounds, but either way, I left it on my kitchen bench for the last week or so and it has dried out completely and hasn't cracked…..I am actually quite surprised by this!


Tim

Well that's a pretty good way to go!. When you turn it thin it dries out quickly. Also lessens the chance of splitting /cracking.
If you have a big bunch of green bowl blanks and wait for them to dry out before you turn em, most of them will crack while they dry.

[JB]

That's a god bowl. Collecting your own wood and making something from it is the best way to get in to woodworking, good to see someone doing it.

I'd say the wood is poinciana (from your description of the tree). It will end up light in weight which is not a bad thing, but should be strong enough.

I can't see anything about finishing. To avoid cracking you do need to get some finish (oil, shellac) on to it. Until you do I would not leave it exposed to over dry conditions (i.e. a heated or air-conditioned house) for too long.

Cheers.

[IanW]

Hmmm, are you sure the wood came from the red-flowered tree? It looks very much like Jacaranda in your pic. The (very limited) Poinciana wood I've seen didn't look like that at all, but maybe I just haven't seen enough. If the bark was still on it, that would help - Poinciana has smooth bark while Jacaranda has dry, finely tessellated, or 'scaly' bark.

The history of drying easily & remaining sound also fits Jacaranda, it's a very forgiving wood to turn green (and turns easily 'dry', too). It's one of the few woods that will (usually) dry when left 'in the round' without catastrophic checking....

Cheers,

[Coxy15]

Well,

Upon closer inspection, the tree has infact No flowers on it at all....I am buggered if I know what it is.

Took a photo for people to pick what it is:
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[IanW]

Well,

Upon closer inspection, the tree has in fact No flowers on it at all....I am buggered if I know what it is.

Took a photo for people to pick what it is:

Jacaranda.

I was pretty confident from the wood. The wood could have been from an Elm, which has a very similar grain pattern to Jacaranda, but Ulmus is not a likely backyard tree around Brissy, what goes by the common name of "Chinese Elm" is Celtis sp., and its wood looks different. This tree pic shouts 'Jacaranda'. The leaves are typical, as is the growth habit (Poinciana has more horizontal primary branches & they don't step up in zig-zags like Jacaranda), and the bark is definitely not Poinciana (P. bark is smooth-ish).

Check it out in late Oct/early November, if it isn't covered in purple flowers then, I'll eat my hat...... :U

Cheers,