Smoke tree Wood - Staghorn - Sumac

Cotinus coggygria

Smoke tree show spectacular wood known like Sumac or Staghorn wood

Yesterday i found this place:

shrubs and bushes were cut in order to wide the road,
it seemed like a good opportunity to pick up some wood.
This morning wasn't really good weather,
but picking up worked nicely however, and i found this 25 years smoke tree cut in a piece long 2,50 meter for 12 cm diameter....mas o meno...
It has irregular growth, but i have to consider that in this bush it has to grow higher to get the light,
much competition around there...

From Wiki:

Cotinus coggygria, syn. Rhus cotinus (Eurasian smoketree, smoke tree, or smoke bush)
is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae,
native to a large area from southern Europe,
east across central Asia and the Himalayas to northern China.

It is a multiple-branching shrub growing to 5–7 m (16–23 ft) tall with an open,
spreading, irregular habit, only rarely forming a small tree.
The leaves are 3-8 cm long rounded ovals, green with a waxy glaucous sheen.
The autumn colour can be strikingly varied, from peach and yellow to scarlet.
The flowers are numerous, produced in large inflorescences 15–30 cm (5.9–11.8 in) long;
 each flower 5-10 mm diameter, with five pale yellow petals.
Most of the flowers in each inflorescence abort,
elongating into yellowish-pink to pinkish-purple feathery plumes
(when viewed en masse these have a wispy 'smoke-like' appearance, hence the common name)
which surround the small (2-3 mm) drupaceous fruit that do develop.

Smell really good, it has a kind of resin under the bark...

i don't know if its Linfa, but it is very sticky

and gives the idea to lubricate the bevel of the gouge.....

i played a bit with first,

It' strong wood, tenacious...

the colours are natural, will be finished with oil after dried and some sanding...

Cheers

Paolo

redbud Woodbowl

Few weeks ago i had this cercis siliquastrum trunk,
it was given to me from a colleague, and it was cut end of february...

Judas tree wood is very tough and compact, and for that reason I tried to push me over about the thickness...
Redbud holds up very well thin walls,
i had some few natural edge bowl reached 1 mm thickness...let the light pass through..
some points its even less than a millimiter...by mistake....i was lucky to not have it broken...
To be perfect the wall must have the same thickness..i got it only in the last two pieces of 13 that cames out from this trunk.

the sound of the wood when it's cut by gouge is the best thing to pay attenction when workin' with thin walls.. it becomes increasingly fine and acute...

however i made these bowls becouse i care about wood natural deformation..
That warp of the wood came out in the drying process and is more when is been reachin' 1mm or less of the thickness...i mean, with 1 millimiter the bowl's walls itself deforms, the ovalization of the bowl came out whatever thickness....
when is around 2 mm the deformations of the walls are scarce,
between 1 and 2 mm it's like play the lottery...
if there's difference of the thikness cercis siliquastrum wood could have cracks starting from the core,
or from the twisting burl...
i have used Cianoacrillic glue mixed with osange orange chips (i had those chips on my lathe at that time..) to fill the voids..and it works! it has stopped the extension of cracks...
under the bark you can find the natural folds,
that's why in some pieces I removed the bark...

                                               Redbud burl dry faster, and looks shrivels

                                                                           Lamp???
        

Cheers
Paolo

Osange Orange Wood - Maclura Pomifera

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera

It was given to me two month ago when i was in Rovato...
Man who gave me knows very well when tree have to be cut in order to have uncrackable wood for turning. He say the cut depends on the moon fases. The cut have to be made ​​in waning moon.
It's important to know in which zodiac houses the moon is passing through, each house have its own influence on the  fluids distribution of the plant (flowers,seeds,roots....) and as a result the drying process of the wood.
i don't have much experience about cutting tree, but when i found some wood i try to get much informations than i can...
Good cut is when the moon passing through one of these zodiac signs: Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo.
But the influences on the plants depends also from the Apogee and perigee (distance and proximity of the moon),Oppositions planetary or stingrays, the lunar nodes....Planets influence the tree's growth becouse of the light that they reflect...
i read there is university in Kazan where are studies about the effect of planets in Plants...
there a lot to know about it.
i found an interesting thing to read, but its in italian: http://www.cascinaburattana.it/corsi/la-storia-del-calendario-delle-semine-compagno-prezioso-degli-agricoltori

By the way i have this Maclura Pomifera since end of may and it has no cracks at all..

This is the first Osange Orange that i turn on lathe,
it's really hard and I could not sink the gouge as usual..but definetly i have a nice clean cut, and i have used very few sand paper only for the outside...
I think I could dare further thick, but i believe it will not crack....

i finish it with mineral oil and then beswax buffed..

i kept the Maclura chips with this top yellow,
to use by mixing with CA for filling the cracks

Cheers

Paolo

Cottonwood Crutch

I can say this cottonwood crutch have been a really fuckin piece..
I have on several shirts for this day job...begin 9 am took off at 7 pm....
No metter how i cut, that damn hair rose continuously...
It was in the lab since end of 2013, and as usually poplar dry fast..
but was steel wet in the core...

To obatain a nice clean finish i have used like 6 meter of sanding paper, from 120 to 240.. I scratched my nails too.

That how was in the beginning,
i screw the cottonwood crutch to faceplate

Found some orange red spalting lines,

Lower part the with chuck grip

I think cottonwood is underrated,
fibers are mealy, but bends easily allowing nice curling with aging...
is a timber that has good light reflection, so needs a flawless finish...

Cheers

Paolo