BUCKEYE tree, anyone messed w/ one?

[Ironwood]

Just got a big buckeye from a yard. Dark, Dark heart, like mineral stain in maple. I am just curious if anyone has "played" with one of these?





          Ironwood 

[woodbeard]

Yep. 
I've sawed up a couple big ones like that, and some smaller ones, with my old Peterson, and with my Woodmizer.
It's real soft and fluffy stuff. The fibers tend to expand in the cut.
I had a better time with it on the bandmill, as it really wanted to grab the circular blade on the swingmill, getting the blade hot. Using water kept the blade cool, but made the wood expand more. :-\
It can be real pretty wood, though.
The darker heartwood tends to check a lot.
The sapwood often has a fine ripple in it, like flame or fiddleback, but much more subtle.
It's nice for interior paneling because it is so light colored. I used it on my kitchen ceiling.

And on a electric bass guitar
I like the darker streaking here, it seems to develop as it dries. I have some othe pieces that I covered with plastic for a while when it was hot and humid out, and got a lot of this effect.
To keep it white, you would probably want to sticker it and dry it as quickly as possible.

[metalspinner]

I believe the Buckeye burl found on the market is often the root ball which has been left to spalt a bit.  The color is similar to the blue/grey above.  If the tree you hauled off was a blow down, it may be worth it to go back for the rootball.

[LeeB]

I have never seen one that big. All the ones I've seen where in central Texas and barely more than shrubs.

[Tom]

WDH's wife is growing them all over their yard.  :D

[Dodgy Loner]

There are many different species of buckeyes.  Some of them are large shrubs or small trees, such as red buckeye (Aesculus pavia), Georgia buckeye (A. sylvatica), Texas buckeye (A. arguta), and bottlebrush buckeye (A. parviflora).  Others can become quite large, such as Ohio buckeye (A. glabra) and yellow buckeye (A. flava)

Here's a picture of a large buckeye from the Great Smokies.  The largest one I've ever seen is in Sosebee Cove in North GA; it's 5' in diameter and over 130' tall.

[woodmills1]

Will be watching here with interest, I have 2 huge horesechestnuts in my front yard I believe date to just after the civil war.

[WDH]

WDH's wife is growing them all over their yard.  :D

Ours is the little red buckeye, Aesculus pavia.  Very pretty, but will never make a log like Ironwood's.

My wife collects the buckeyes in the fall and plants them all around the house as natural landscape plants.

[low_48]

You also need to collect the crotches. They really have some fantastic long flame grain. I buried a bunch of regular stock and crotch stock under black plastic, covered with shavings and bark/slabs, and threw in some miracle grow. I think I read  somewhere that buckeye spalts easier with the bark? I got some fantastic blue stained wood. Makes great pens, but I sent it out to be stabilized so it would have some dent resistance. I've made some nice sales as pen blanks, and to a guy for intarsia. He went wild with the white/brown/blue stained wood.