Milling a little bit of Flowering Dogwood

[newforest]

I scavenged a couple Dogwood (C. florida) bolts on a job in Kentucky last week. One is 5" diameter and 2.5 feet long; the other is about 4.5" and 4 feet long. I don't have any particular plans for them yet beyond taking the sides off them and dreaming up a use for them - someday. I live 2 states to the north and one county north of the last examples of the species growing in the wild. It never attains a useable size here.

My question is - should I maybe paint the ends of these while I hold them?

They are currently serving as a bit of ballast in my pickup along with bolts of future smoking Hickory, and some nice green hard Maple. The Dogwood is on the bottom of the little pile so is buried in snow and ice for the time being.

I heard that Dogwood was the wood of choice for thread holding dowels, back in a long ago day. So my next question is - what else was it used for historically?

Several years ago I gave a similar, 2-sided bolt to a friend of mine who is a high-end Luthier (makes $10K acoustic guitars); I had hopes he could slice it thin enough to use for a guitar neck that would maybe capture the pink color of the wood when still green, but alas that probably isn't possible, i.e. preserving the color. I don't think he has otherwise used that particular bolt.

 

[dmb2613]

Dogwoods are very small in size

 

[buzz sawyer]

Dogwood was used for carving mallets and gluts (wooden wedges). It is supposed to be very hard and resistant to splitting.
Also found this comment:
"Dogwood has excellent shock resistance, and is one of the hardest domestic woods of the United States or Canada. Its toughness is appreciated in a variety of applications, though its poor dimensional stability means that its use is usually restricted to unglued/unjoined standalone components where it’s expansion and contraction can occur freely."

Sounds like it may not be good for musical instruments. I will check with a luthier I know.