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My nose says elm...

Started by Pepe_Silvia, January 21, 2020, 08:19:13 PM

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Pepe_Silvia

This has been air drying for about a year, and when I sanded it to get the grain shots it still had an extremely unpleasant odor.  It's still stuck in my nose a bit.  

I can somewhat see some bands in the latewood, which I'm learning also points to elm.  It's way darker with way less sapwood than the other elms I've come across though.

Is it certainly an elm, and any clue on subspecies?

 

 

 

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moodnacreek

I say no, not elm, too dark. Looks like catalpa. Catalpa is soft compared to elm.

petefrom bearswamp

Can you post a close up of the end grain?
Elm has wavy cells that are readily visible
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kantuckid

I have worked lots of Catalpa, a sure sign is that it does not split to the heart, even after very dry. The softness already mentioned is another sign. it's not seriously soft but does carve well and somewhat strong, not heavy wood. It cuts cleanly with hand tools.
One cut with a pocket knife and I could confirm Catalpa. ;D
I have carved many bowls of catalpa which has a pleasant soft caramel color.
That tree looks stressed so not sure why the various colors?
My source was a tree that came from a Kansas hedgerow. My Mom was doing a survey job in rural areas of KS-she worked for Gallup Poll, and ran onto a farmer removing old hedgerow trees from his field and burning them all. She got me some chunks. he told her the trees dated to the late 1890's when his great whatever had bought the tree seedlings off a wagon from a traveling nursery man. The no-till agriculture thing erased a bunch of midwestern trees in hedgerows as it were and aside from the trees themselves, wildlife lost a great place to live.
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

Pepe_Silvia

Catalpa would be a possibility in my region.  Does it smell pretty bad?  I've got a chunk that I know is Catalpa from a previous log so I'll sand it up and compare.

I'll try to get a better closeup of the end-grain.
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kantuckid

Not that I asked for it but the hedge tree guy cut off a huge 4" thick slab that I carted back to KY years ago. It is now a 3-legged, tall table on my screened porch-no tangential splitting to the heart. I made my wife a dough bowl out of another half log, gouged it out and about 3' long, no splits! It's actually pretty wood, just a bit soft, but not buckeye or basswood soft.
I carved a bunch of smaller bowls by hand and left the gouge marks inside the bowl for effect. The woods surface cuts so cleanly it has a surface shine.
TNear perfect carving wood, thus why cigar store Indians and ship figureheads were made from it. I have never once seen a chainsaw carver who uses Catalpa and we have two guys near me. I had a huge highway dept tree that was supposed to come my way and somehow the message to tell me what day got messed up and by the time i got there, two state boys with huge Stihls were in the middle of the hwy whacking the crap out of a very large tree, making something similar to firewood. My neighbor was my worker contact there and they sent him somewhere else that day...
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

low_48

Catalpa is the most uniform colored wood I have seen, well except for sassafras. Doesn't look catalpa to me. I've seen very dark siberian elm, thick bark like that too.

moodnacreek

Quote from: low_48 on January 23, 2020, 10:05:58 PM
Catalpa is the most uniform colored wood I have seen, well except for sassafras. Doesn't look catalpa to me. I've seen very dark siberian elm, thick bark like that too.
So have I, it has the grain of our elms but the color is quite dark.

DPatton

In my experience there's no mistaking the smell of catalpa when your sawing it. The term "Skunk Wood" comes to mind. From the looks of the end grain in the OP's photo I would say elm also. I have sawn elm (below) recently that was very similar in coloring along with a similar narrow sapwood band like the OP's pics.



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