Wood ID help

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Cwalker935

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Any idea as to what this wood is? Seems fairly hard but light, it was harvested roughly 40 years ago in the mountains of Virginia and has been kept inside all that time.

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JohnU

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I don't know what you have native to that area but the bark and end grain resemble cherry to me. Hopefully you will get some more responses. Good luck!
 
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Kansasville WI 53139
Is that long curly piece from the same tree? I thought that long curly work of art was from some sort of ficus tree, but the other photos don't resemble ficus at all. Now that John mentioned cherry bark, I agree with that, but that view across the grain doesn't really look like cherry to me, the grain looks more open.
 

Cwalker935

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The cutoffs are from the long curly piece. The curly piece is where the wood encased a vine. You can see a dark stripe on the upper part of the piece where the vine had emerged and was growing on the outside of the tree. In looking through some wood data bases, I think that Silktree Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) is a strong possibility.
 
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From what I can see, the wood looks very porous and the growth rings on the first picture look a great deal like some wood I got from a neighbor... the tree was a Royal Paulownia... or some call it a Princess Tree.... it's native of China and was brought here as a decorative tree, but has escaped to the wild. It's considered to be an invasive species... these are some bowls I turned from my neighbor's tree...

The wood is very light weight and is currently being cultivated in some regions of the world as an alternate source of lumber since it's purported to be the fastest growing tree in the world. My tree was about 18" diameter and a log 24" long by that 18" diameter was very easy to lift and handle. The core of the log where the pith should have been was hollow... the hollow core was about 1 inch in diameter... smaller pieces may not have the hollow core.

And the barks looks right too.
 

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Cwalker935

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It does seem very similar to the princess tree. It had a small hole in the center at one end. Here are photos of a sanded cross section, the cross section with sanding sealer, and a finished section. Does the princess tree grow deeper in the woods? I do not think of Mimosa as growing deep into the woods where this piece was found.

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Charlie_W

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In looking at your sanded/sealed end cut, I wonder about chestnut. Not sure but wanted to throw that in the ring for consideration.
I see the open pores and the rays shooting out. When dry, it might be light weight.
 

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Joined
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From what I've found about the Princess tree, the seeds are spread by birds that eat them and then poop them out... they could very well be spread deeper in the woods as could the mimosa trees.... the hollow core makes me pretty certain it's the Royal Paulownia or Princess tree and the second picture above looks very much like the rough cut blanks I have.

I'm not overly familiar with Chestnut, as I've only had one piece to turn and it was fairly heavy compared to the Paulownia I have.
 

Cwalker935

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I have turned quite a bit of chestnut and while the grain pattern and color is similar, the weight and bark seem different. The princess tree and mimosa are in my mind more likely. My only hesitation on the princess tree is that the bark seems a little different from what I can tell from the photos.
 
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Mimosa runs to dark and light grain patterns... it's actually a pretty wood, but very dusty for me... love turning it, but have to be careful of the dust.

This is a bowl I turned from Mimosa.
 

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1080Wayne

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I suppose another possibility might be catalpa , which seems to be similar to paulownia in pore structure and in the tendency for heartwood formation to start in second year growth . It is also light , but should normally be heavier than paulownia .

The largest piece of paulownia I have is 176 cc in volume and weighs 66 gm at about 6% moisture . It was from a tree in IL with some growth rings of 1 cm or more . Your wood was from a tree growing under more adverse conditions , with only one row of early wood pores instead of 5 or 6 , so it should be denser than my sample .

My vote would be paulownia . I would cut 2-4 inch chunks of the curled portion at an angle and make them into pen stands , holding a pen made from the same wood . Should be good for $100 a set , even with a slimline .
 
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