Interesting wood. Could use help identifying.

[DB in VT]

My wife and I cleaned out some underbrush and shrubs around the yard. A couple of the ones we tore out intrigued me so I cut up sone of the material just above the root ball.
Wow! What gorgeous stuff. However I have no idea what it is. It grows in clumps. The trunks get to about 4" thick. Leaves are small and there are small red berries later in the summer. Bark is silvery gray and shaggy. Location is in VT. The wood is fairly hard and reminds me of olive in its coloring.



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[donstephan]

Pictures 2 and 3 look like bush honeysuckle.

 

[Dehn0045]

I'd say Russian Olive. I don't have first hand experience with it in the tree form, but the wood looks quite like it. It looks like it grows as a full tree in the open, but can be shrubby too. I also checked that it grows in VT, apparently it's and invasive species (which I didn't know).

 

[wolf creek knives]

I agree it looks like Russian Olive. Here in Montana the Russian Olive has nasty thorns which I didn't see on any of the attached photos

 

[DB in VT]

Thank you. I did some research on the two suggestions. The smaller stems are hollow so bush honeysuckle seems correct.


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[donstephan]

If you try some bush honeysuckle for pen bodies please let us know how it works out. Dry bush honeysuckle wood can be VERY hard, shirley hard enough for pen bodies.

 

[MPVic]

I have some limbs that look very similar & that grain closely matches a bunch of apricot wood that I was given.

 

[DB in VT]

To date, I have made 2 pens using this material. When it dries, it cracks. Both pens needed to have small cracks filled in with CA before you turn too far. I have some more that has been stabilized so the cracks should not be a problem now.
The wood is very hard, when dry. It polishes up well. I look forward to making more; there's a lot more of the wood left that will be salvaged before going to the burn pile.

 

[naynay]

My guess is an olive wood because I just was given some today and a few small pieces from the stump that has the same "swirl".