Look what I found hiding in the woods!

[Gene DiNardo]

As Wood Shop said, we get a lot of that red streaked Box Elder here in pa.
It is my understanding that the red is caused by a beetle that only affects
the Ash Leaf Maple (Box Elder). If you keep it out of direct sun light the red will last quite a long time. I have some in my shed in boards that is 7 or 8 yrs. old and some unfinished turnings that are still quite red.
The lumber is pretty soft and light (bout the same as Poplar) but it works well and can be used as cabinet/craft wood. The surface when hand planned
can exhibit some pretty nice chatoyance (a kind of iridescent glow that changes depending on the angle it's viewed from). I have found it to be exceptionally easy to dry and is very stable. Very little drying loss from warping, checking, or case hardening. I often use it as a secondary wood
for drawer bottoms for it's strength to weight ratio.

 

[lumberjackchef]

As Wood Shop said, we get a lot of that red streaked Box Elder here in pa.
It is my understanding that the red is caused by a beetle that only affects
the Ash Leaf Maple (Box Elder). If you keep it out of direct sun light the red will last quite a long time. I have some in my shed in boards that is 7 or 8 yrs. old and some unfinished turnings that are still quite red.
The lumber is pretty soft and light (bout the same as Poplar) but it works well and can be used as cabinet/craft wood. The surface when hand planned
can exhibit some pretty nice chatoyance (a kind of iridescent glow that changes depending on the angle it's viewed from). I have found it to be exceptionally easy to dry and is very stable. Very little drying loss from warping, checking, or case hardening. I often use it as a secondary wood
for drawer bottoms for it's strength to weight ratio.

Excellent information to hear Gene. Thanks! I was thinking about quartersawing one of the logs that i have. Do you think that it will exhibit any type of figure in the grain?

 

[oldsaw]

Sunlight does fade that red, but you can keep it partially there by coating with UV resistant finishes, there are some. And yes much of it still looks great with all the mottled browns and tans along with the pinkish. Here in PA I've come across pure stands of it, it seems to grow very well in certain kinds of damp not well drained soil. On my Dad's property up near Hamburg PA, it's almost a weed tree with every 3d or 4th tree a boxelder.

Dad still calls them "weeds". Have a friend that wants some, so next trip to the farm I'll bring the mill. Dad has a huge willow he wants gone, find a boxelder, and I'm still working on "my" ash. 34" DBH and pretty straight with no branches for about 25 ft. Dad has hundreds of bft of ash in the barn, so I'm negotiating for "my" tree.

Mark

 

[Wolfking42084]

Hey guys,
I have turned two bowls out of box elder now. Both are 12" diameter and around 4" deep. The red has stayed in both since i've turned them around 5 years ago. I agree about the bug, because every red patch in the wood has a hole similar to wormy chestnut. All I used on one bowl was spray on poly. about 6 coats of it at that. Good luck with your findings, it's a really neat wood.

 

[Gene DiNardo]

Chef,

Other than the added stability of quarter sawn, no reason to quarter it.The grain of the wood itself is rather subtle,no visible radial rays like oak that would produce fleck. The colored spalting appears to be more dramatic when flat sawn (through and through). The face of quarter or rift looks more like ink blotches than the streaking you see in flatsawn. Besides, if you saw through and through, the board before, and after the center board will be rift, and the center board will be true quarter sawn on either side of the pith.
That being said, Box Elder that has been affected by the bug, is like a box of Cracker Jacks; A surprise in every Box !
Gene

 

[lumberjackchef]

Then I can't wait to open up these Boxes!:greenchainsaw:

​

 

[dustytools]

I posted these a while back. They are still awaiting their date with the CSM. View attachment 86998

View attachment 86999

View attachment 87000

 

[Rookie1]

I had a large box elder next to house cut down. I burned it in fireplace and it had no red in it.I cut one down at my FIL house for him to burn and it was full of red but not as much as that. Very cool

 

[Sawmill]

I use to saw for a guy that had a lot of box elder and it had alot of red and some real bright green coloring in it. He was building a house at the time and used alot of this wood for some fancy trim work in it. He had a friend that was from Japan and they would soak the logs in a pond for a year to get different colors. They turned a lot of posts and bowls out of it.

 

[oldsaw]

I posted these a while back. They are still awaiting their date with the CSM.

Holy crap, there will be some interesting stuff in their. I've never seen that kind of patterning, and I cut a lot of boxelder in my formative years.

Mark