Is Ginkgo wood worth milling?

[Robert Long]

One of my log sources (a tree service in urban area) just called, he took down a 24" dia. Ginkgo and is looking to do something with it, but what?

This is typical of the logs I get from him, when a nice log comes his way he calls, we usually barder somehow and the log is mine for whatever we agree to.  Perhaps boards for him or exchange of work somehow.  Now, back to the Ginkgo......is it worth something as boards or as a carving wood or what if anything.  We don't have many Ginkgos around here and I don't know if it can be found in much of the north up here.  So for this reason I would think it would add to the spieces of woods I offer to those craft people who are looking for something interesting and different.

I would also like to know more about the Ginkgo as a spieces as well.....just for personal interest!

Robert

[metalspinner]

So for this reason I would think it would add to the spieces of woods I offer to those craft people who are looking for something interesting and different.

I've come across a few of these in the same way.  The wood is very pretty and white.  Looks alot like maple, but very soft.  Because it isn't around much, the turning blanks I put up for sale sell immediatly.  Carvers, I think would like it alot.

[leweee]

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten/thetree.htm ;D
http://hcs.osu.edu/pocketgardener/source/description/gi_iloba.html

And the old herbalist joke" I take Ginkgo biloba but I can't remember why" :D

[Robert Long]

metalspinner

Is the Ginkgo as easy to carve as basswood?  Does it have an open grain like basswood or does it carve stringy?

Robert

[metalspinner]

I just did the fingernail test and the fingernail won. :D

I also used a dull chip carving knife and pulled out a nice chip with zero effort.  The block I was just handling is 3"x6"x10" and is very light weight. BTW, this block was end sealed and drying outside under cover and has no checking or defects of any kind. The grain appears to me to be close grained like soft maple, but I'm not an expert in that.  It is not open grained like walnut - more like cherry or maple.

[jim king]

Ginkgo: The Tree that Lived with Dinosaurs


 

The hardiest of street trees, the ginkgo remains unchanged from prehistoric times.

Already ancient when dinosaurs walked the earth, one species of tree survives virtually unchanged into the space age. Defying air pollution, disease, and insect infestation, just as it has for 150 million years, the ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) flourishes along city sidewalks and thoroughfares in the United States and other temperate regions of the world.

To the ginkgo, 20th-century perils dont stack up to those of past millenniums. Drifting continents failed to destroy it. So did the alternating climatic cycles of tropical temperatures and frigid ice ages. Unlike its contemporaries, the ginkgo defied death. It also stopped evolving as far back as the Paleozoic era, appearing today as it did in prehistoric times.

By the time man began migrating and populating the planet, though, the ginkgo had retreated from its once-global range to the mountain forests of eastern and western China. There it thrived until the early 1700s, when explorers brought seedlings to Europe. In 1784, the ginkgo was introduced to America.

In China, ginkgo yielded its wood for carving, and the nuts of its somewhat foul-smelling fruit (that only the female tree produces) for toasted treats. However, in ginkgo's new lands, it makes the ideal ornamental and the hardiest of all street trees. When you see it, remember that you may be viewing what some scientists believe to be the living link in the evolution of ferns to trees.

[Robert Long]

Thanks jim king 8)

Nice little intro to the story of the Ginkgo Tree.....a pretty amazing tree, I do know it is of it's own spieces.  That is to say it does not fall into a group of trees because it is the only tree who's seeds are formed naked on the stems of the tree and not like others which develop from a pistil of a flower.

Robert

[Robert Long]

Hey, metalspinner
8)

Sounds like I should cut that tree into carving blocks.....when and if I can snag it from the tree service guy! ;D

Robert

[metalspinner]

That sounds like a good idea.  You can probably resaw the thick planks later if needed with not to much trouble.

[MemphisLogger]

I sawed a bunch of Ginkgo a few years ago but haven't used it for anything yet.

It's softer than poplar and has a really nice creamy color.

One thing I can say about it is that it dried absolutely flat with very little shrinkage.

[Robert Long]

Urbanlogger

What dimension did you cut the gingko into and have you got wood carvers visiting your mill and do they know gingko is good for carving?

I don't want to be stuck with wood I can't find a place to unload it to.

Robert