[Colin_Partridge]

I have posted this just as a matter of interest. Last year when I was carving a lot of Sumac I received a bunch of questions about it. Most of the people that emailed me said they had lots of it but it only grew to at the most two inches in diameter. It can get really big here where I live. Yesterday I was out searching for some to carve when I came across a huge thicket of it. In the middle of the thicket were some huge tree's some probably eight or nine inches in diameter. Sumac here is a weed it grows everywhere and no it is not poisonous at all. In fact the native Canadians used to use it for medicinal purposes and even made soup out of it. Here is a picture of a log that I brought home. I put it up against the wheel of the truck so you can see the size. This piece was seven inches in diameter.
Colin

[GeorgiaCarver]

That is a nice piece of wood. I guess it is a soft wood to carve? Dont think that I have ever carved any.

Greg

[Kenny_S]

nice piece Colin but that doesn't look like any of the sumac here in SEK. LUCKY YOU.
aWhat are you planning on carving?

[workinforwood]

Every so often I drive by one in south detroit that is 32" in diameter and I'm guessing at about 25' tall. I think I read that that tree is the biggest one in the country. Once in a while I'll find a 10" trunk, but usually 6" is what I'd call pretty big. There's tons of those here in Michigan, even in my back yard. It is easily recognized by the red flower cones on top which are the deer's favorite late winter snack. Supposedly they are the favorite food of a deer, but the deer leave them till late in the season because the flowers last on the tree's almost through to spring. I do love the wood, I have several logs in my barn. I paint the ends and dry them in log form. It takes about 5 yrs to dry a 4-6 inch thick log. Generally I use them to make leaves in my intarsia's. It's a very soft wood, easy to shape but difficult to sand because it is very fiberous/hairy. I hacked off a chunk of a dried log and tried to carve a spirit into it. My spirit is kinda dumb looking, but hey, I"m not that good at carving. I didn't find it to carve nearly as easily as I thought it would, but my tools may have had something to do with it as I don't have many and they are pretty cheap chisels.
Drying sumac as a board tends to cause a whole lot of cracking. In ontario, a company in Burlington called Exotic woods inc sells dried logs of sumac for $5 each.

I have also found that ants love the wood too. They drill in and then straight up the center of the heart. My theory is that lots of insecticides, especially ant killer, is key to developing large trees, as well as of course thinning out the area around the tree as they tend to grow in large patches.

[tnartist05]

Sumac is one hard wood once its dryed & smaller ones dig up the main tap root for a walking cane handle already on the cane.When really dryed it becomes light and hard.It only grows on the edges of wooded areas than into the woods around here. Red berries on till fall,best cut after the slap has dropped.{will help cracking} Cuts a little fuzzy.

[Ron Davidson]

You better watch out for those Dragon's in the woods. Remember the last time you went sumac hunting!!