# wood identification help



## Lewis (Jan 30, 2015)

My buddy has this tree in his back yard. He is cutting it down said I could have it. Not sure what it is. Has burls all over. Has bark like an ash and the.leaves around looked like a mix of ash and box elder but they could have come from anywhere. Some guy said it was olive? Help?

Reactions: Way Cool 2


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Jan 30, 2015)

Boxelder is sometimes refered to as false ash. IMO the bark looks like boxelder as well as the wood.


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## Kevin (Jan 30, 2015)

It's definitely acer negundo. You will have LOTS of awesome pen and call blanks in that maybe some boards. Maybe not much red but plenty of eyes I bet. I wish they'd grow down here like that. Nice score.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Kevin (Jan 30, 2015)

Lewis if you process that smartly you can make many thousands of dollars from it. It will not happen overnight but the big thing you have going for you is your location. It's probably already dry. half the work is done. You could invest way less than a thousand dollars to turn that tree into stabilized blanks that the pen and call makers would eat up.


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## Lewis (Jan 30, 2015)

Ya, trying to decide if it's worth it. Would the tree milled into slabs bring any money?


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## Foot Patrol (Jan 30, 2015)

Now Now Kevin. Lewis that wood is diseased, full of bugs, probably overly dry and may be punky to boot. I would take it off your hands so that you don't have to put in your landfill. Send me a large cap to sample and I will report back to the masses.


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Jan 30, 2015)

Lewis said:


> Ya, trying to decide if it's worth it. Would the tree milled into slabs bring any money?


Is provo anywhere near you? If you took the time to process the tree and took it into the CSUSA location there my guess is you would have a sale on your hands on the spot. My guess is the inside of the tree is punky or outright rotten so by the time you got a full slab out of it you would be past the best figure. Now small slabs coffee table and end table sized you would get better figure quality from.


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## Kevin (Jan 30, 2015)

I don't think it'll produce any flitches (slabs) but plenty of smalls worth money.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Lewis (Jan 30, 2015)

Thanks for the replies. Provo is very near me. I am so excited I won't be able to sleep. I get so excited about wood. The house it's at is 140 years old. So it's an old tree that has seen alot.


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## barry richardson (Jan 30, 2015)

The cheap route (what I would do) is hack it up into manageable chunks with a chain saw, then saw for all the standard blank sizes, pepper mills, calls, bowl blanks, etc. you can sell and trade that stuff all day long... you would need a decent band saw though...


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## Lewis (Jan 30, 2015)

barry richardson said:


> The cheap route (what I would do) is hack it up into manageable chunks with a chain saw, then saw for all the standard blank sizes, pepper mills, calls, bowl blanks, etc. you can sell and trade that stuff all day long... you would need a decent band saw though...


Haha just so happens I bought a rikon 18" bandsaw last Saturday. What great timing.

Reactions: Like 3


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Jan 30, 2015)

Barry brings up a good point! Don't saw for stopper and pen blanks you will get plenty of those from the drops. Saw for bigger stuff to start like bowls, pepper mills, and such. You should have enough drops from that stuff to make all the call blanks, knife blocks, and pen blanks you need. Another thing I would do is whack it into manageable pieces like barry said and process to fit your orders as they come in. Leave most of it in the chain sawed pieces until you know where your demand is gonna be. If you get 10 guys lining up for call blanks then it would be ok to cut big chunks down into all call blank sizes, or pen blanks or whatever the buyers want. Heck the guys at CSUSA might place an order for 100 pen blanks who knows? Just keep em big until you know what you need to get from them. Good luck, be safe and have fun! If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Lewis (Jan 31, 2015)

Wow, feels like the best day of my life. Curly red flame box elder.

Reactions: Like 2 | EyeCandy! 1


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## Kevin (Jan 31, 2015)

Turners think like turners. :-) 

Lewis the guys are correct in saying a variety of those sizes are more liquid, but the larger pieces are worth less. Just the opposite as you'd think. If you sell a 5.25" cube (1 BF) blank for $20 that's good money but a board foot of pen blanks (26 of them) sold for $4 each will net you $104 and you can probably get more than $4 for solid one like you're showing. You can get the same kind of coin for call blanks. It may take a little longer to sell but not that long. 

If you're a turner you'll want to cut turning blanks. If you're a seller you'll want to get $100 to $150 a board foot as opposed to $20 BF.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Lewis (Jan 31, 2015)

Kevin said:


> Turners think like turners. :-)
> 
> Lewis the guys are correct in saying a variety of those sizes are more liquid, but the larger pieces are worth less. Just the opposite as you'd think. If you sell a 5.25" cube (1 BF) blank for $20 that's good money but a board foot of pen blanks (26 of them) sold for $4 each will net you $104 and you can probably get more than $4 for solid one like you're showing. You can get the same kind of coin for call blanks. It may take a little longer to sell but not that long.
> 
> If you're a turner you'll want to cut turning blanks. If you're a seller you'll want to get $100 to $150 a board foot as opposed to $20 BF.


Thanks for the info. I have gotten wore a collection at my house. Need to start selling it off since is way more than I can use. Any info like this is definitely helpful. I got juniper, peach (with burls) walnut, Russian olive, ash, cottonwood, flowering pear, 2000+ year old limber pine and now loads of box elder.


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## Lewis (Jan 31, 2015)

I been reading and learning about stabilizing but have a few questions. Will stabilizing dry the wood? How else can I dry the wood after I have cut it up so it doesn't split?


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## DKMD (Jan 31, 2015)

You can only stabilize dry wood, so that won't help your cause. There are lots of homemade kilns that'll speed the process, but I tend to air dry everything.

I usually cut oversize and seal the end grain with anchoseal to prevent checking. If the wood is prone to checking, I'll place it in a large cardboard box to slow the drying... Paper bags work also. Be sure to cut away any checking before sealing... Sealing doesn't keep checks from getting worse. Remove the pith when processing or it'll crack all to heck.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Wilson's Woodworking (Feb 12, 2015)

Kevin said:


> Turners think like turners. :-)
> 
> Lewis the guys are correct in saying a variety of those sizes are more liquid, but the larger pieces are worth less. Just the opposite as you'd think. If you sell a 5.25" cube (1 BF) blank for $20 that's good money but a board foot of pen blanks (26 of them) sold for $4 each will net you $104 and you can probably get more than $4 for solid one like you're showing. You can get the same kind of coin for call blanks. It may take a little longer to sell but not that long.
> 
> If you're a turner you'll want to cut turning blanks. If you're a seller you'll want to get $100 to $150 a board foot as opposed to $20 BF.


Qiet now @Kevin I was hoping to trade or buy a couple of rolling pin blanks out of that baby. 
Great find there @Lewis

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mr. Peet (Apr 14, 2015)

Nice score Lewis. I had 2, 10' Ash Leaf Maple (Boxelder) logs just like that to pick up. When I got there, the owner felt bad and gave them to someone who needed the wood.

Well, I had only offered $20 bucks a log, and this other guy really needed the wood for winter heat. I wonder what it looked like inside. I wonder who the other guy was.We often have blue and black streak staining in our Boxelder which is even less common. My wife said urban tree, likely loaded with nails. Maybe.

Post some pics and update us on the choices you have made with your Boxelder.


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## Lewis (Apr 15, 2015)

@Mr.Peet I have diced up some of the Burl into pen blanks and have them for sale on here. It took $200 to repair my chain saws from that two days of constant running. It's taking me a little time and money to get everything to process the Burl and stabilize it. I have made 2 pens out of it. I will try and get some pics to post up.


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