Wood identification please

henton49er · 29 May 2013

I got hold of some timber yesterday for turning. I was advised that it was laburnum (which it clearly isn't, from the bark).

The pieces in the first picture are 3", 5" and 6" in diameter, and the others are of similar size although one piece is up to 9" across. There are quite a number of side branches even on the smaller pieces.

What do you think it is? To me it looks very similar to juniper and other conifers we have in the garden, but any advice would be helpful.

Chrispy · 29 May 2013

Acacia or false Acacia, often found in large gardens, greenish, teakish kind of wood.

henton49er · 29 May 2013

Chrispy":3fgpdcm7 said:
Acacia or false Acacia, often found in large gardens, greenish, teakish kind of wood.

Looking at images of false acacia bark and grain pattern on Google, you may well be right.

Neil Farrer · 29 May 2013

I'll go along with that diagnosis one hundred per cent, it looks just like the remaining one and a half ton of the stuff I have in my back garden! One of the distinguishing features is the black line between sap and heart wood and in the branch wood the timber tends to be a more lime green rather than the darker green of the trunk wood. Smells like freshly cut nettle beds when turned wet. Great timber to turn, wet as it doesn't move too much. AKA Black Locust it is a native of the southern shores of North America. Grows rapidly in the first thirty years oflife, lasts over a hundred but is susceptibale to heratrot. Planted a lot by the victorians in their love of ornamental gardens and due to its speed of initial growth, planted a lot by the Hungarians as a fuel. Loved by the Freemasons in the belief that it is the wood that has ritual properties with their organisation but it isn't actual a member of the Acacia family, the latin name Robinia Pseudoacacia making that quit evident. It is also called Robinia.

If you are going to store the 9 inch diameter piece then you should take a cut at least half an inch away from the pith either side, in which case you will have two smaller quarter cut boards ideal for box lids as they will suffer little or no cupping and the movement across the board will be very small, best to dry it anyway but wet movement will be minor. The bigger the piece the less it will have moved in life and the less it will move during drying, inversely true as well.

BRYAN · 29 May 2013

I believe the leaves and twiggy bits are deadly to hosses.

Neil Farrer · 29 May 2013

Not deadly Bryan, but it can cause neuro instability and the physical signs include incontinence, so the moral of the story is if you must keep horses in your workshop dont feed them robinia trees, not that I think they would be their food of choice! However the Italians and the French eat the flowers deep fried, there really is no accounting for taste!