AZ wood id help

[vick]

I picked these up in the Phx AZ area.

Any idea on what wood it might be?

 

[wdcav1952]

I don't know, Mike, but it shore is purdy!

 

[gerryr]

Maybe if you send me some, I might have an idea.[]

 

[reed43]

It looks a lot like some cat claw mesquite I have. If it is it is very old as it grows very slow along desert washes.When cut, inside it is a light chocolate brown with lighter lines running through it.
It looks like it is still green. Here is a picture of what I have so you can see what it looks like, if it is the same as what I think it is. Reed

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[desert1pocket]

The bark and the thick sapwood tell me it is certainly not any variety of mesquite. I would guess some type of elm, which is pretty common in suburban phx.

 

[vick]

Reed - Mesquite was my first guess when I saw the logs since the bark looked just like Mesquite bark to me. However the bark is a lot lighter than I have seen in mesquite and the sap wood is a lot bigger than what I would expect in the size mesquite. However I know very little about Mesquite but I have gotten a couple logs before. I have to admit the heartwood looks a lot like mesquite to me. Iloked up cat claw on the internet and the bark does look abou the same. I was unable to find a picture of the actual wood though.

Desert1pocket - Some one on another forum also guessed Elm based on the log pictures. To be honest I did not know there was Elm in Phx. The wood is a lot darker than I would normally associate with Elm but I have no experience with Elm and am not sure if AZ is different than what I have seen pictured.

Here are a couple pictures of one of the offcuts that I sanded and threw a little oil on. Maybe it will give some other ideas.

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[Ron Mc]

Reed,
Could it possibly be DI? Boy it sure looks like it but I don't know what it looks like in a log form.

Mike,
How hard was it to cut?

 

[JimGo]

Looks really pretty to me, whatever it is Mike!

 

[Dario]

Mike,

It is hard w/o seing it in person. I collected some willow a while back (when I was starting to turn)...fooled me thinking it was mesquite but lighter. See after it dries a bit.

No matter what it is, the wood looks very promising especially the oiled off cut. I bet it will make nice natural edge bowls []

 

[reed43]

Ron here is a picture of DI in log form. This log is dry, Mikes picture looks like they are still green.

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[vick]

Yes that log is still green. I was thinking desert iron wood based on a pictue of a large tree that I saw on the internet. I did not want to say anything and influence opinions. To me your log pictured looks an awful lot like my logs. Geyinsh bark large sap wood ring and severly off center pith.

I have gone from thinking it was Mesquite, to thinking it was DI to thinking it was Mesquite to now I am not so sure.

Ron - It was hard to cut but not brutal. To give ou an idea last night I started milling these logs after about 2 of the sections shown I probably should have sharpened my chain and it was a brand new chain. I just removed the pith on the third so I could seal it and come back to it with a sharper chain. I am pretty inexperienced with a chainsaw though so I do not have a good frame of reference.
I am not sure if I will ever know, but I do know I am planning to go back and get more at lunch today. The only bad part is the log sections were chainsawed shorter than I would have wanted for bowl blanks.

 

[Ron Mc]

After looking at the provided pictures I'm going to say DI.
Mike, To be absolutely sure I would need to turn a piece![][]

 

[desert1pocket]

I mill a lot of mesquite, and have never seen anything with the combination of size, sapwood, and bark that you have there. Now that I see the cut-off, I would also tend to think desert ironwood. DI has a unique smell to it, and is very hard. There are plenty of elm trees throughout Az, and it still could be elm, but if it were elm it should have been pretty easy to cut. If you determine that it is DI, be careful about advertising as such, because it is highly illegal to harvest, and they have been cracking down on people recently.

 

[jclark58]

I have my doubts that it's Ironwood. IMO the bark doesn't look right, there's too much sapwood, and there are no checks in the pith, something ironwood is notorious for. As mentioned above if it's DI the smell should give it away. It's almost a rotten meat smell that tends to attract flys.

Give me a call this weekend. If you're interested I'm sure we could do a swap.

Jason

 

[vick]

Originally posted by desert1pocket
<br />I mill a lot of mesquite, and have never seen anything with the combination of size, sapwood, and bark that you have there. Now that I see the cut-off, I would also tend to think desert ironwood. DI has a unique smell to it, and is very hard. There are plenty of elm trees throughout Az, and it still could be elm, but if it were elm it should have been pretty easy to cut. If you determine that it is DI, be careful about advertising as such, because it is highly illegal to harvest, and they have been cracking down on people recently.

Thanks I was aware of that. Since I did not harvest it I think I am in the clear, I just saved it from the landfill. What ever it is I like it.

 

[reed43]

My daughter lives in Gilbert and in her section of town in the housing developments desert ironwood trees are planted for landscaping. These trees get plenty of water and grow faster than normal, therefore the larger sapwood. These wood probably came from one of these trees being removed. That is my guess[)] Reed

 

[vick]

Thanks everyone for the help especially Reed and Desert1Pockey (sorry dont know your first name might want ot consider a signature). I think I will call it Ironwood since that is my best guess someone can call me a liar later on if they want. Someone in another forum who knows about AZ wood thought is was Acadia and well I respect his opinion the picture of acadia I found did not look right.

Jason - I will e-mail you later I just picked up six more log sections [][}].

 

[vick]

Update - After talking to a couple seasoned AZ turners and after getting a sniff while turning I have a consesus that this wood is Acacia which is fairly common in the Phx area. Acacia is a very broad species that encompressed Koa and Australian Blackwood.


Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[stevers]

I cut down this tree today. It was a Chilean Mesquite. I know this because this is what I do for living. Have for 15 years off and on. Please excuse the pick quality, it was on my cell phone, the only camera I had available at the time.

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If you notice the growth rings, they are in a triangle shape. Thats because the tree was a "multi-trunk" type mesquite. It grew about 18" off the ground then split into 3 main leaders. Only one was left at the time of the pictures. If I can get better pictures I will.
The reason I posted these shots is because when I first saw the picks at the start of this post, they really looked familiar.
This Mesquite tree was probably between 15 and 20 years old and very healthy. Why did I cut it down you ask? Because it was growing into the utility wires and thats what I do. Note the big orange truck behind the tree.
So, take it as you like. I think the tree in question is a Mesquite.

 

[stevers]

I saw you settled on Acacia. The Acacia is very similar to the common Mesquites. That is why it may have been difficult to differentiate the two. It has slightly different leaves, but is very thorny and has very similar bark.

 

[BigRob777]

I know nothing of Texan (sp?) wood, but the pics look something like the "Texas Ebony" that Dario had last year. Just a thought...
Rob

 

[jclark58]

I swapped some wood with Mike and brought two chunks of the mystery wood home with me. I've turned my share of Mesquite and I think Mike has too and I can say that it is definitely not Mesquite. It's also definitely not Ironwood.

I've never turned Acacia before but the smell of the mystery wood reminds me of the smell of Koa which is in the Acacia family. I'm going with the Acacia identity.

Jason

 

[stevers]

I'll have to go find an Acacia tree in the lines and cut it down.[}][]

 

[vick]

I hear you it is definately pretty wood. I saved as much as I could but I only have a small car and did not have access to the pile over the weekend so the rest was cracked when I went back on Monday. I admit it I cried. All total I got 10 pieces most of them are slated as bowl and hollow form blanks.
However their was one log section that was only about 6 inches so I cut it into pen and bottle stopper blanks. I did not count but I would guess I got about 40 or 50 pen blanks out of it and will probably post them for sale once they are dry.