persimmon wood

[emmett]

After hurricane IKE made a visit, I have two persimmon trees down. They are about 10-12" in diameter. My question is - Is persimmon wood good for carving? I have only been carving for about ten years and always used basswood, cataulpa, cottonwood bark, and cypress knees. Any help wood be greatly appreciated as I will be gettin rid of the pile soon. clean-up etc.
Thanks again, Emmett

[Claude]

I have no idea, but cutting it up into 1 to 2 foot lengths, splitting down the middle (to help drying), and painting the ends of the chunks, is good exercise and even if the wood is not good for carving, which I doubt since it's a hardwood, it'll make great firewood. At worst, you're only out the time and money involved in painting the ends...

Claude

[Paul_Guraedy]

Persimmon is really nice looking wood and is good for carving; but, is hard. I think it is in the same family as ebony.

[Kenny_S]

A hard wood and hard to carve, Keep your tools sharp, However, the fruit makes for some de-lick-able jellies. Wink

[Ron T]

Emmett, it is very nice wood. I was given a piece by a friend and really liked carving it. While it is hard, like most fruitwoods, it holds detail very well and, as Paul said, beautiful.

Worth saving or maybe trading.

[Paul_Guraedy]

Kenny is right! The fruit, once ripe, is incredibly delicious and sweet. It is one of the top pleasures of fall for me.

A few years ago I had a Rottweiler who loved the fruit as much as I did and each morning we made a jaunt to the nearest persimmon tree. The problem was that we had different methodology for determining ripeness. If not ripe a persimmon will cause a pucker that takes a week to relax. It is unwise to pick the fruit from the tree. So, I picked up the dropped fruit and used palpitation to determine edibility. The Rotty threw caution to the wind and licked them. The Rotty with four legs was much faster than me. My problem upon arrival was which fruits had the Rotty licked? Oh well, every dark lining has a silver cloud. Besides a dog's mouth is supposedly.....and that fruit was worth it.

Anyway, we put a lot of the pulp in the deep freeze for winter cooking. Makes a wonderful sweet bread.

[arbarnhart]

Paul,

And if someone marvels at how good it is and says you must have some secret ingredient, do you tell them?

[Paul_Guraedy]

Andy, I am sitting in a campground in OK with tenuous wifi but will try and get this through.

The secret ingredient, other than Rottweiler spit, is to use a good banana nut bread recipe and sub persimmon pulp. I will ask my wife to post her recipe. It is an old family treasure, at least that's what the recipe book she got it from said.

I am off to do some woodcarving at the seminar.

[chuckbolton]

ive never carved persimmon-- but do know its the wood used in golf clubs-- so its very dense and very hard----i dont golf either so have no clue what the grain looks like--

[mike410]

Hi Emmitt,

I carved a little doxie for my grandaughter out of a piece of persimmon. It is a hard clear wood that takes detail well and finishes nicely. The only problem that I had was it warped a little. I was told that it was laying around in a garage for a couple of years, so it should have been dry. So, instead of the doxie sleeping...his head raised up a bit! If I could figure out where the heck to get the "url" number, I would post the picture.
Mike410