Orange Jessamine. Murraya Paniculata

Byron Barker

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Or White Gold as I call it. This is some jessamine wood I milled up from a big log I had posted some time ago. I found it after a missive 6.7 earthquake hit my area in Taiwan, toppling a few buildings and causing a lot of rock fall. This tree likes growing on cliff faces, so it must have tumbled off during the quake (not the tree pictured below). From ring count, it was nearly 200 years old but only about as thick as a soft ball. It is incredibly dense wood and sinks like a stone in water. Looks almost like ivory or wax rather than wood the rings are so fine and wavy. Due to the muscley nature of the tree, it has incredible figure, but is nearly impossible to get deminsional lumber out of and it it gaurunteed to check a bit. None the less, it has a glass like finish and simply looks beautiful. My phone camera can't do it justice. This piece is getting donated to a lucky person's collection.

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phinds

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If you're donating it, then @Mr. Peet would be a good person to donate it to if he doesn't already have a piece.
 

rocky1

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Don't suppose you've ever tried turning it by chance, have you Byron? Or, do any of the locals? Interesting looking stuff.
 

Byron Barker

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Don't suppose you've ever tried turning it by chance, have you Byron? Or, do any of the locals? Interesting looking stuff.
We use it for bow wood here. It is actually the best bow wood on the island believe it or not and the aboriginals prefer it to anything else. Outstanding compression and tension, so they used to use it for everything from hammer heads to bows. You need to find a freak tree that has less muscle on it to make a bow, but there are a few out there. I have a few usable snakey staves of it at home I found way out in the middle of no where. I am not really a wood turner per se, so I have never turned it, but below is an example I posted before of some turned pieces. Looks like ivory. It is typically used for religious objects when carved because the Chinese think it is a holy (or at least "spiritual" however you'd define that) wood. Like I said, it will certainly continue to check as it dries, so monitoring it and filling checks immediately with CA superglue is the way to go.

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Byron Barker

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Very nice. Interesting tree in itself.
Yes, it is one of my favourite trees here. It has these little white flowers you can smell from way far away. The Chinese name is QiLiXiang, which means "7 Mile Smell". It has beautiful waxy dark green leaves and the trunk is always a thing in and of itself. Twice a year it produces loads of little orange-like fruits no bigger than a fingernail. It is so slow growing that it is sacrilegious to cut a large tree. I was lucky to find this one completely downed and dead as I would never have touched it otherwise. Sadly, I can't say the same for a lot of poachers. It is highly protected now since it has been over harvested for ornamental plants. Poachers will literally dig the tree out by the roots if possible and repot it like the one pictured. Those trees sell for big money. The one above is listed for over 1,000USD. The one in the picture below is the oldest one I've ever seen. It is claimed to be 3,000 years old, probably making it one of the oldest trees on the planet. The guy is selling it for 40,000USD

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Bob Ireland

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Incredible. It's sad what people will do for their own personal gain and ruin it for others. If you ever come across some more (even pen blank size), I'd be interested in adding it to my collection.
 

Byron Barker

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Incredible. It's sad what people will do for their own personal gain and ruin it for others. If you ever come across some more (even pen blank size), I'd be interested in adding it to my collection.
I have more from the same piece I cut his blank from. I can cut you a chunk off it if you'd like.
 

Bob Ireland

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I would be grateful. Again not really looking for too big a piece. Just something to add to my species collection.
 

Byron Barker

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I would be grateful. Again not really looking for too big a piece. Just something to add to my species collection.
What size do you want? I will probably just mill up the remainder of the cut off that I have. It is quite large.
 

Bob Ireland

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something at least 3/4" x 3/4" x 6" (or 2cm x 2cm x 15cm) but I'm not sure what is a usual shipping box from where you are so whatever makes the most sense to maximize shipping.
 
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