# Oh Happy Happy Joy Joy - Surprise Milling



## MarksCaribbeanWoodworks (Sep 16, 2019)

So here's the background. I was contacted two weeks ago by a guy who had a "mahogany" tree for me to come get. Now I have a lot of mahogany and really did not need any more but of course I cannot say no right.

So I went to look at the tree. It was covered in mud and fungus and had a half a dozen large Mahogany limbs stacked top of it. After I was able to move a few of the limbs I found a giant ant nest in the tree. Like Massive red ant nest. Down here dem ants be nasty biting bastards. Vicious creatures.

So I was immediately like - "uh no I will take the logs but not the tree." The guy said "ok well tomorrow afternoon I am going to send it to be mulch." The Federal Government is here on the Islands mulching all the down trees from the hurricanes from 2 years ago. Anyhow - about 5 minutes after I left the guy something said "yo Mark you idiot get that tree." So I called the guy back and said I would be down with a flat bed later to get it. I

I got it back to the house and sprayed the nest with some nasty stuff from the neighbor. After a few days the ants were gone. So this weekend I started power washing the tree and cleaning off the bark. It did not take long before I realized that this tree had been down for a very long time way before the 2017 storms. Next I realized that it was not a Mahogany. But I had no idea what it was so I did a cross cut. See below.

To my utter shock and massive suprise I believe that this tree is a purple heart.

We have purple heart here but I have never come across a tree before - logs every once in a while but not very big logs - and never a whole tree!!!!!

You can see the cross cut section in the first picture. The middle picture shows the length and size fo the tree. The couple are my neighbors who are getting a table out of this baby and the bottom picture is the root base. 

Anybody think this could be a different species? Am I wrong?

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 7


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## barry richardson (Sep 16, 2019)

Hard to tell from those pics, got any flat sawn pics? Purple heart is much harder and heavier than mahogany, have you noticed a difference? Congrats on your score BTW!


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## MarksCaribbeanWoodworks (Sep 16, 2019)

I have not had a chance to flat saw it yet. Gonna try to get to it this weekend. This tree is definitely much heavier than a mahogany for its size. The truck had hard hard time getting it up the mountain to my place. He delivers alot of trees for me and he said that this one was a monster.

Reactions: Like 1


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## DKMD (Sep 16, 2019)

I’ve never seen Purple Heart in log form, so I don’t have a clue... my first thought was some kind of red cedar, but the smell would give that away. Fingers crossed for you that it is Purple Heart!


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## Mr. Peet (Sep 16, 2019)

Can't say, but look forward to more pictures, for sure.


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## phinds (Sep 16, 2019)

@MarksCaribbeanWoodworks, what is the diameter of the log at the point where you show the end grain? From what I've seen on-line, purpleheart has a lot narrower sapwood than your log, unless it's no more than 10 inches in diameter


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## Tony (Sep 17, 2019)

Great score, hope it is Purpleheart!


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## Allen Tomaszek (Sep 19, 2019)

Whatever it is it’s an awesome score! Can’t wait to see the lumber pics!

Reactions: Agree 1


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