Intro & wood ID

[johnm]

Hi everyone & a Happy New Year to you all.

This is my first post on this forum so please be gentle with me!

Firstly a little bit about me. I am John a retired joiner living in the shadow of the Malvern Hills and now keep myself out of mischief woodturning as well as restoring classic motorbikes & cars (especially Landover's), all as hobbies. I am fortunate to live in a rural location so find some lovely pieces of timber to play with lying around in the fields & hedgerows. This is really what led me to post this. About 5 years ago I picked up the pieces pictured below from a local meadow, I think they may be old roots ? Does anyone have any ideas and also the actual wood ? I have been thinking about what to do with it so as an experiment I cut a piece off and just turned the ends and made this small vase, I left the side as is & then oiled it. You can see in one of the photos the cut end from the main piece. The rule is 12inch.

So- questions - is it root? what wood is it? (It is quite hard), any suggestions as to what to do with it?

Many thanks & apologies for rabbiting on a bit, I am sure there will be more posts to come. Cheers.

 

[Adam W.]

I'm guessing it's pleached hazel from a hedge. It gets very hard once it has dried and I have been using a piece as a maul for riving wood for over 5 years. It has lasted far longer than the last maul I had, which was made of holly..

 

[johnm]

I'm guessing it's pleached hazel from a hedge. It gets very hard once it has dried and I have been using a piece as a maul for riving wood for over 5 years. It has lasted far longer than the last maul I had, which was made of holly..

Thanks for the reply Adam, I dont think it is going to be an easy one to ID, but could well be Hazel.