lets see how many get this one?

sandsawmill14 · March 23, 2015, 05:12:14 PM

what do yall think?

Dave Shepard · March 23, 2015, 05:47:58 PM

The end looks like tulip, the bark looks like populus type poplar.

red · March 23, 2015, 05:55:12 PM

And it Cuts like Butter

landscraper · March 23, 2015, 07:13:01 PM

black gum?

curdog · March 23, 2015, 07:44:04 PM

looks like cottonwood

sandsawmill14 · March 23, 2015, 08:09:38 PM

curdog got it I get these brought to me from time to time when customers mistake them for tulip/yellow poplar wanting rafters. i have sawn some 16' 2x6 one time that had over 12" crown. I always tell them their no good but almost all will say saw it anyway ???(guess they dont believe me) :D
red it does saw easy but cannot be sawn flat or straight .

curdog · March 23, 2015, 09:04:42 PM

We get a few cottonwood around rivers and near ponds but not many. A lot of people around the area call paulownia cottonwood. A guy asked me if I saw a cottonwood out in his field and I looked all over and never found it. After a few people calling them the same, I finally put two and two together.

sandsawmill14 · March 23, 2015, 09:39:30 PM

i will have to do some checking but I'm pretty sure they are not the same. cottonwood (like this one) likes the water, ditch banks bottoms etc. Paulownia likes higher ground if I remember right. paulownia is supposed to dry better with less warp and checking than other wood. cottonwood will "draw" right of the saw. when the log in the pic was sawn i cut it into 2 9x14s and it pulled apart over an inch by the time i was 1/2 way through the cut. feel free to correct me if im wrong. maybe some of the others will chime in as I dont know much about paulownia ???

curdog · March 23, 2015, 09:54:23 PM

Yeah they are definitely different species. Paulownia is an exotic invasive from Japan. They also call it princess tree. And it will grow anywhere, even in the side of rock cliffs. They use it for making jewelry boxes in Asia. But they only wanted extremely tight grain. We had some people plant paulownia plantations years ago, some harvested it for really good money, but most have worthless trees. We have one mountain that is covered in paulownia and it looks purple in the spring from the flowers. Many wood carvers use it because it is light weight and very easy to work. I had one behind my office I gave to a women for carving. She made some carving of a gnome like thing, I think she called them wood spirits.

sandsawmill14 · March 23, 2015, 10:15:03 PM

I thought they were different

.

thompsontimber · March 24, 2015, 09:25:20 AM

Ah, those wood spirits are everywhere. You nailed it for our area Curdog. Everyone calls Paulownia cottonwood and half of them think it's highly valuable. Some still want to plant it. When they run across the occasional cottonwood they have no clue what it is. Actually had a logger attempt to market it as chestnut oak. When I told him what he had, he said he thought it kinda odd how that oak delimbed itself when it hit the ground. Yup, odd indeed.

Southside · March 24, 2015, 11:13:04 AM

But Paulownia is highly valuable, even more so than back yard walnut, and is desired by sawmills and furniture makers, it only takes it one year to go from a seedling to a mature, harvestable, tree and then after you cut it down it will grow back to the same size in only 3 months time - even shorter if you apply the secret squirrel fertilizer.

Most folks grow them in the same field as they raise their alpacas in so they can double their income and retire at age 23.

Didn't y'all see the video and read the glossy magazine article on it??

sandsawmill14 · March 24, 2015, 10:17:11 PM

wow!! thats amazing !!! I'm going to get my seeds now smiley_horserider :D :D :D

thompsontimber · March 24, 2015, 10:33:13 PM

Don't forget that fertilizer, its key to maximizing your profits.
I had that brochure, but as luck would have it I had already went all in on the Emu ranch and totally missed the alpaca and paulownia tree farm retirement plan.

sandsawmill14 · March 24, 2015, 10:50:06 PM

fertilizer got it

:D

curdog · March 24, 2015, 11:03:13 PM

Ya'll are in luck, here at the curdog paulownia seed company we are running a special right now. Buy one and get one free paulownia seeds. This should be enough to plant about 500 acres of rock cliff or 10 miles of shoulder on the highway. Hurry, supplies are limited.

landscraper · March 25, 2015, 06:22:51 PM

Quote from: curdog on March 24, 2015, 11:03:13 PM
Ya'll are in luck, here at the curdog paulownia seed company we are running a special right now. Buy one and get one free paulownia seeds. This should be enough to plant about 500 acres of rock cliff or 10 miles of shoulder on the highway. Hurry, supplies are limited.

You forgot railroad embankments, reclaimed coal mines and quarry spoil piles!

Ianab · March 25, 2015, 07:08:34 PM

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

A few trees are grown locally, but they can't keep up with the demand for the wood, and so Paulownia timber is actually imported.

Main use? Wooden surf and paddle board. It's light weight, with decent strength makes it ideal.

sandsawmill14 · March 25, 2015, 08:45:08 PM

there is not much paulownia around here its been probably 10 years since I have seen any. I've been told that the value all depends on the growth rings fast growing wide growth rings=worthless (pallet stock) slow growing narrow growth rings=$$$$ paid more than walnut But as I said this was years ago I dont know about the market now. I think I will :P up on it a little