# Mystery wood; member of the Pea family is all I know



## Brmorgan (Jun 10, 2010)

Yesterday I dropped a little Birch tree for a friend after work; I had today off so he offered me $50 to haul it away. Easy money for an hour's work, so I hauled everything away to the rural wood waste dump. Someone else had dropped off some really interesting looking wood there so I loaded a bunch up and brought it back home. It's some kind of a yard shrub/tree from the Pea family; it already had pods and it also had the complex leaves that most Pea species have. The heartwood has the most beautiful light olive-green color. The photos don't nearly do it justice, but here's what it looks like:







I took a small piece and squared two sides on the jointer, then squared the other two off on the tablesaw. The sapwood is snow-white, but the heartwood has that awesome green color. The piece in the background is the "stump" piece, it's about 5-6" diameter at the bottom.






I split it at the pith on the tablesaw:






I don't know exactly what it is. There are any number of hedge-type Pea shrubs around here. The wood machines very well, though it is admittedly slightly wet.

I split it at the pith on the tablesaw.


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## dingeryote (Jun 10, 2010)

Brad,

Ummmm....Pic?

Ya got me curious though!!

Stay safe!
Dingeryote


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## Brmorgan (Jun 10, 2010)

Not working? Everything seems OK for me, both in Firefox and IE on two different computers?

I posted this over in the tool forum thread, but I made this draw knife today as an excuse to turn some handles from this wood:


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## thepheniox (Jun 10, 2010)

looks like Black Locust


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## boostnut (Jun 10, 2010)

Looks like locust to me. Best firewood you can get in my opinion.


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## huskyhank (Jun 10, 2010)

Nice work, tried to rep ya.


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## canoeral (Jun 10, 2010)

for sure black locust I have about 400bf drying right now awesomw wood and harder than snot
(as far as American trees go)


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## Rftreeman (Jun 10, 2010)

I also say locust...


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## Daninvan (Jun 10, 2010)

My guess is locust as well. I've harvested some of it locally, although I believe what I have been getting is honey locust. Black locust and honey locust have thorns on them, honey locust's are on the trunk and black locust's are at the leaf base. 

The interwoven bark also looks like the locust trees I have harvested as well, but to be honest on Wikipedia the furrowed bark is a characteristic of black locust! But it also says that honey locust is a "popular ornamental tree on the northern plains". So who knows. 

It's about the hardest wood that I've found locally, Janka of 1700 makes it harder than any oak, but not quite as hard as purpleheart. (Not that purpleheart is local!)

I find it stains my hands when I handle it. I made a cabinet out of it, it has some nice small ray flakes on the quartersawn pieces. Otherwise I also use it for things like jigs and bench dogs, wherever I need something hard. I've used locust on my home made chainsaw mills for the cross pieces that connect the mill's rails.

Dan


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## BobL (Jun 10, 2010)

Brmorgan said:


>



This was some black locust that I milled in 2007.





It looks a lot browner than yours Brad - could also be due to the color rendition of the cheap camera I used to that that photo.


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## Brmorgan (Jun 10, 2010)

I thought Locust at first too, but this far north? Maybe some ornamental variety, but I don't think Black Locust would grow up here. It doesn't strike me as being hard enough either. I don't have any that's dried right out, but what I do have here doesn't really seem any harder than the Birch I often work with. Also, on my second trip, the guy happened to be there at the dump dropping off his second load of this wood. I asked him if there were any thorns in it, he said he did all the cutting and loading and never saw or felt a single one. So I dunno. Finally, aren't Locust seed pods quite large? These ones were about 1.5-2" long by about 1/2" wide. 

Perhaps it is a Black Locust and these differences are just because of it being a cultivar rather than wild. My tree book does say that ornamental Locust varieties are often spineless. So who knows. I'm going to head back out tomorrow to see if any more showed up at the wood dump though.


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## dingeryote (Jun 10, 2010)

Wierd!
No pics last night, and now they are there.

First pic showing the Bark had me calling black Locust, but you said no thorns, and they don't grow in your neck of the woods.

Some sorta hybrid like you are guessing is probably right, but who plants Locust for ornamentals? Folks hate 'em around here unless they are scrounging for firebox filler.

Those handles turned out looking classy!!! Nice Job!


Stay safe!
Dingeryote


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## 7oaks (Jun 10, 2010)

My first guess from looking at the bark and then the wood was Black Locust as well. I have cut and milled tons of it so I was pretty sure then I looked at your avatar and saw you are in BC. That's pretty far north for black locust as you have noted. Also my black locust is very hard - not at all like birch. Weird!


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## ROOTSXROCKS (Jun 11, 2010)

*Red Bud*

Cercis canadensis Eastern Redbud 
I have some that I cut from a customers yard that looks exactly like that. 
Polishes up reall pretty too


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## TreePointer (Jun 11, 2010)

From the pictures and the description, it's difficult not to say it's a black locust. 

1. Black locust doesn't have to show thorns. The mature trees here don't have thorns.

2. It has been planted well out of its native range (including parts of Canada and Europe) as an ornamental and farm/ranch tree (fence posts et al.).


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## dustytools (Jun 11, 2010)

The mature Black Locust here doesnt have thorns either. The Honey Locusts have thorns from Hell.


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## 820wards (Jun 12, 2010)

Brmorgan,

I posted this over in the tool forum thread, but I made this draw knife today as an excuse to turn some handles from this wood:


Brmorgan,

What did you use, and how did you make the brass pieces?

jerry-


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## Brmorgan (Jun 13, 2010)

820wards said:


> Brmorgan,
> 
> I posted this over in the tool forum thread, but I made this draw knife today as an excuse to turn some handles from this wood:
> 
> ...



Sorry I missed this reply the other day. The brass collars are just crimp-on air-hose ferrules that I got from an industrial hose shop down in Kelowna last fall. They have every size under the sun and the "average" sizes like what I used here are fractions of a dollar apiece. I don't remember exactly but I figure these were probably 25¢-40¢ each. I picked up a few of each in probably 8-10 different sizes at the time. I still haven't been able to find a good source locally, which I find intriguing since we have more heavy industry in this small town than in the city I got them from, and I wouldn't think they'd be that uncommon of a request.

I've also seen really nice handle collars made out of plain old copper plumbing pipe. Probably a bit more work than what I do, but cheaper no doubt. I do plan on trying it sometime, but the size selection wouldn't be as good.



I went back out yesterday to see if there was any more of this wood worth taking, and did come away with a few more usable pieces. I took a closer look at the smaller branches and foliage, and did in fact find a few thorns on some of the branches in the 1/2"-1" dia. range. Also, it's turning out to be a bit harder than what I first thought. The pieces I cut last week have dried out a fair bit more, and I'd say it's pretty similar to Oak now. They've stayed surprisingly stable and split-free too, considering how much they pulled away right at the sawblade as I was cutting them off. It would take a long time since I have a whole pallet of this stuff now, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't mill all of the most usable pieces up right away to avoid having them split wide open as they dry. I had this happen with a really nice piece of ~3-4" Lilac wood; I painted the ends and even kept it in a plastic bag to slow the drying, and it still got a split almost half an inch wide from end to end right to the pith by the time it was dry.


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## 820wards (Jun 14, 2010)

Brmorgan said:


> Sorry I missed this reply the other day. The brass collars are just crimp-on air-hose ferrules that I got from an industrial hose shop down in Kelowna last fall.
> 
> 
> ** I'll have to check with our local hose shop to see if they have the brass ferrules. Never even thought of those.
> ...




** I have some camphor wood I milled a few weeks back that seemed to be doing fine until the weather here got dry and hot. The boards started to warp, but no cracks. I put them on the floor and stickered them with some heavy weights to try and stabilize them.


I worked on my router table today getting the aluminum dust collection fitting I made mounted and the doors hung. Next I'll be doing the electrical. Here is a few pic's. Yes, I could have bought a dust collector fitting, but figured what the heck, I'll make one. Used some 3031 aluminum.

Thanks for the info on the brass ends.

jerry-

Aluminum dust collection fitting.






Fitting mounted







Router table w/doors mounted


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## 7oaks (Jun 14, 2010)

Brad...

If it is black locust it is very stable in log form and after milling. I have logs that I milled that had been down for years with no checking. The grain on mine is very tight and some I have milled is larger branches that have stress. It is great wood and quite beautiful though I use it mostly for beams and in places where I want to avoid rot. On my place here in WV there are fence posts made from split black locust logs that have been in the ground nearly 90 years and still pretty solid - solid enough that I have to use the tractor to remove them when clearing a fence line.


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## betterbuilt (Jun 14, 2010)

I have some Black locust slabs that I milled about four years ago. The Slabs are seven feet long and at least 23 inches wide. I dried them really slow and not one of them has a single crack. I was really surprised they didn't explode or warp. My experience with locust board form is that it depends on the log. I try sticker locust near the ground so it doesn't dry to quickly. I than load it up with any other wood I mill. I also use ratchet straps to keep everything together. I had almost perfect results with that trio.

The old timers used to say that locust would last two years longer than stone.


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## DaltonPaull (Jun 14, 2010)

Black locust is an invasive species here in Oregon and grows quite a bit up in North Idaho too so I could imagine it growing further north. I read somewhere that it was planted along the railroads to be used as ties and spread from there. I'm not sure how true that is but I have seen it growing near the tracks.

I milled a locust a few years ago and I like the way it works/looks. I'd like to find another good log to mill.


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## yukon7 (Jun 14, 2010)

I was wondering if it could be Catalpa? When I lived in Southern BC we had one in the yard, they have pods like your describing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa

Jon


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## Brmorgan (Jun 14, 2010)

No, I've seen those trees before in various yards around here though. They are nice trees too. This is definitely in the Pea family as it has the signature pinnate leaves of such plants. The more I look at the wood and various sources of information, I'm more inclined to say it's a cultivated Black Locust. Definitely not a Honey Locust since it doesn't have those long clustered thorns from hell, just short curved ones right on a few branches.


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## vincem77 (Jun 14, 2010)

I would agree with the black locust. I cut and split some this spring with the same green look to the heartwood. 

Do you have any larger pieces, what I split had about 1" thick bark in some area's. I can split a piece tomorrow and get a fresh picture.


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## Brmorgan (Jun 15, 2010)

Nope, the largest piece is in that first photo and is about 5"-6" at the butt. I'd love to have seen the root burl below the stump though.


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