Can you tell what it is yet?

[Random Orbital Bob]

Riddle me this. My pal screams into my drive on Wednesday sporting the wooden aftermath of hurricane Katie in the form of several bits of future Woodturning suspects

He promptly reports the one I can't id as Lime. Why? Because it smelt like Lime in his car on the way over. Now I've only had one batch of lime before and that was from a tree that had been down for years and the ends were nigh in black from weathering and muck

What's conspicuous about this "alleged" lime is its a very lime like blonde when fresh sawn but within hours goes a pretty dirty orange colour, quite strikingly so in fact. Now don't ask why but I'm thinking willow and not lime.

I've no pics, leaves etc and the bark is a bit non descript

Any ideas? Number clue I would think is this shift from very pale to orange on exposure to air

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Dunno. You know why hurricanes have women's names, don't you? It's because when they come they're wet and windy, and when they go they take the house and the car.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You try could planting it - if it grows, it's willow.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Thanks for your input Phil!!

 

[Cinimod]

Could it be alder or hawthorn both of which oxidise to orange..........dom

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

definitely not thorn, not hard enough but might be Alder.

 

[Lons]

I doubt that's lime Bob. I've had a lot over the years and never seen that happen.

I cut down a couple of large red alders last year but the fresh cuts were yellowish and turned orange over a couple of days and a very large willow (don't know which variation which was white when cut and turned orange almost in front of my eyes. Within an hour the bloody things were covered in wasps eating the sap.

Bark was quite different and probably your best bet at identification. I have logs of both I could photograph if I can get to it.

cheers
Bob

 

[PAC1]

Goat willow goes orange after felling, I took three down two years ago. I can now say it burns well!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

It is sounding more and more like Willow because the orange effect did happen within 2 hours. My understanding from the club folks is it's rubbish for turning.

 

[paulm]

I've had some lovely pieces from willow Rob, I wouldn't discount it entirely.

A lot cracked and split and wasn't suitable, but a few large bowl blanks came out beautifully.

Was a little tricky to turn large with thin walls as the wood would flex more than most so a light touch towards the end was essential, as were very sharp tools (as always) to avoid a woolly finish.

It was always fun watching people pick up the large bowls, expecting them to be quite heavy, and then the look of surprise as they were actually so light !

Cheers, Paul

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

The logs are really light, like Balsa wood

 

[sunnybob]

sell it a cricket bat maker if its willow.