You can find just about everything on eBay- even high quality, reasonably priced wood turning blanks. Melanie bought a couple chunks of Boxelder. The red coloration is commonly thought to be caused by the infection of the fungus Fusarium reticulatum; however, recent research indicates that the staining seems to result from non-specific wounding, mechanical or otherwise. Considering the rapid growth rate and short life span, it seems to me that growing Boxelder in a managed setting could make it a rather lucrative tree- especially if the red staining considered to be desirable could be encouraged manually.

Anyway, I bought a chuck so I could try my hand at bowl turning. The process facinates me and I can't wait to try it out. To that extent, when Grizzly backordered the chuck, I canceled the order and hopped over to eBay. I'll probably order from the Grizzly catalog in the future; their customer service was prompt and friendly, and the prices are low. lab notes:

Comments

heavy pie
Thu, 03/17/2005 - 15:17
Acer Negundo
Or fresno de Guajuco for all you Spanish speaking folk out there. (bienvendido!!!) Believe it or not, the Boxelder is actually a Maple. The ashleaf maple to be exact. You should try your hand at a box elder or two if you ever gain the means (land... time...) Especially since they grow fast and re-sprout vigorously. And if the lovely discoloration comes from any damage, you could distress all of the little saplings that pop up. Imagine a veneer of 20 or 30 discolored little saplings... I suppose it'd take a bit of work, but I bet you could do it. I suppose it'd be more of a boxelder shrub more than a boxelder tree at that point... On the other hand, you'll probably have your hands full of boxelder bugs. Hey! They also eat silver maple! No wonder we have so many of the little buggers every year...

Other time... other space.

bruce42
Sat, 03/19/2005 - 14:02
Robini pseudoacacia
Fortunately, box elder bugs don't do any damage to the trees; they're definitely annoying, though. Actually, I was curious about other native "weed" trees and a few have properties that make them rather useful. Black Locust, for example, is a rapidly growing tree, but it has strong, rot resisitant timber. Combined with other species in a managed buffer strip, a person could grow a large variety of valuable trees- black cherry, oak, walnut, a variety of maples, red cedar, willow, osage orange, catalpa, black locust, poplar, mulberry, ash, birch, hackberry, buckeye, sycamore, basswood, butternut, hickory, etc. I really wonder why more farmers haven't taken advantage of the idea. I wonder if it would be possible to selectively damage boxelder trees as they grow; nothing drastic, just drill a few holes here and there; and encourage the coloration. Considering how quickly they grow, you could knock down one of the test trees in ten years and cut some turnable chunks of lumber. Obviuosly not large enough to make a large bowl, but pen blanks, small bowls, cups, and other small items would work. I don't suppose you could get me a trunk diameter measurment on a couple silver maples in that age range?
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heavy pie
Mon, 04/25/2005 - 14:57
Count the rings
10 Year Silver Maple trunk diameter? That one fell down last year. I can measure a three year... Actually I'll have to survey a bit, I dunno if that was the only one planted a that time or not. I think it wasn't the only one planted, but it was the only one that survived the deer that winter. I'll see what I can do. (Possibly determine an average growth rate at the least)

EDIT: Actually, I could still measure the diameter of the trunk.
Other time... other space.

bruce42
Mon, 04/25/2005 - 15:18
Cool
Sounds like a good idea.
This brand makes the thing which a consumer is satisfied with. - engrish.com

heavy pie Fri, 05/06/2005 - 14:26
Metlzor
You should have a look at it when you come up. We've purchased a bottle of stump rot chemicals so if there's something to cut out of it we'll have to do that before we start melting it.
Other time... other space.