A pile of Sissoo (Dalbergia Sissoo, AKA Indian Rosewood) sourced from Boyce Thompson Arboretum yesterday. The big piece on the top is actually a big crotch piece.
The butt end of the crotch piece. I assisted taking this tree down, sectioning it up, and cleaning up the mess yesterday. It had some frost damage (yes, it does sometimes get below freezing in AZ) and the Arboretum decided it needed to be removed.
Tonight I ripped the crotch in half to prepare it for turning. I was not disappointed with what I found. I'm now thinking about ripping a platter blank off of the face of this blank to best preserve this amazing grain. The bowl made from the remaining wood would be shallower and slightly smaller diameter but the spectacular platter would be worth it.
There's 1 more piece at the arboretum with my name on it. Their chainsaw broke down before the last cut could be made. There's also 5 or 6 pieces about 8" diameter and 4' long but I'm not as interested in them. Lastly there's another very similar tree that they plan to take out soon. I'm already on the short list to help them take that one out.
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What a great source of unusual woods!
ReplyDeleteQuestion...ever turned any root before? As in the root of a tree. I picked up a piece from a construction site today and it was surprisingly light. I thought it would be heavy with moisture. Not sure how long it's been dug up, or what species it's from. Any concerns with cracking or splitting that are normally associated with piths? (I'm assuming there isn't a pith in a root)
ReplyDeleteI've turned a few roots, here are a couple of previous posts turned from Desert Ironwood roots. I have some Redwood Burl root and some Olive root right now. No plans for them at the moment.
ReplyDeletehttp://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-251-tesota.html
http://agoodturndaily.blogspot.com/2011/04/catch-up-ii.html
I Didn't observe any unusual cracking or movement in the roots I've turned. One thing to watch out for is embedded dirt and rocks.