[Thomp]

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Inspired by the size, mid level/layer bark coloration,& weight. i started to peel this stick

the ease of corky bark, removal as i peeled the stick, with knife and mid sized block plane... the bark was peeling on its own nearly so i couldnt save it. i was thinking what a loss, the bark was mottled with light and dark colors running from mahogany to cream, beautiful..... but I considered it loose..

Aparently a native tree to louisiana, but unknown to me. honey locus? is my guess

continuing to plain off level bark big knots and bumps,
and then the spald, grain and knots reviel after second smoothing plaining with a small fiddlemakers block plane, and gentel sanding,

my eyes bout popped out in disbelief, as i vaccumed off the sanding dust, this lightweight stick my son-in-law brought me, originaly it was 7 foot long Unknown wood.

smells, bitter, like peach pit or green pecan hulls, & spicy, ucilypis?, this stick was found between roots of a hickory tree but im telling you it aint hickory!! its not hardwood.
its soft 1 1/2" to 2" thick but weight of a 1" dowell same leingth,, the ends was weather worn like it had been dead couple years.

A little spalded, A little termite eaten, and great figuration of small knots and grain i started seeing wizards owls foxes and with a pencil i worked some into view for everyone to see, and soon oh yeah,

let me tell you i didnt have to make more than 3 or 4 lines for some to pop out, the spald or grain provided shading on some of the items on this 34" stick so far 10 found faces

im thinking of a handle shaped like a 7 running down the side over the top to help support the handle or hand hold carved like a dragon head... with flaired nostrils being on the final under the heel of the hand... maybe honduris mahogany,becuse thats what i got,

so far i did a little bit of relif carving, but like the eye knot i shaded it with my pyro-station optma1 speartip p2 tip.

[TravisJHuval]

Meliaceae azedarach , is a type of Mahogany that grows in Louisiana. Local names are Chinaberry, Chinatree, Chinaball,Pride of China,Umbrella tree, and I'm sure many more names exist for this tree. Source: "Louisiana Trees and Shrubs " Author: Clair A. Brown. Another interesting tree that grows in LA is Ebony Better Known as Persimmon. Yet I have not found any that's just Black . But still a nice wood with every color of the rainbow occurring in it including black .

Looks like your going to have one beautiful cane .

[Thomp]

well travis,

i would have never thought chinaberry, but birds do travle everywhere....
last chinaburry tree i remember seeing is in sreveport,bout 30 years ago, it was bout the size of a buick at the trunk, and nearly out of sight tall.. the woman living the house said she planted it over 50 years ago then, she said it was a mistake the china burrys were a nusance, like wearing roller skates all the time.

if this stick is chinaburry, and the tree is like this it would be interesting to carve, its like layers of paper or something, a knife will dig deep and fast then when strained the chip pops out like you would think eggshell layers would.


percimmon wood Hummmm

ill have to ask my brother in law about any he knows about in the woods..

thanks

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

persimmon is very, very hard...its used for the "woods" on golf clubs...doubt yours is persimmon

[Thomp]

kenny,
i never thought it was percimmon,
but a rainbow of colors to black.

neibors got a percimon tree she wants cut down...

but if its that hard boy will it make custom pipes, pens and walking sticks...

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

yes it would make great pen blanks!

[TravisJHuval]

Whoops! Sorry I wasn't insinuating that the wood was Persimmon. I was Just mentioning that I think its interesting that a tree in the Ebony Family grows in Louisiana and in other areas through out the USofAmerica.

See I was looking for a tree that had black wood and grew in Louisiana . I asked around did some research and stumbled across this . Yet just because a tree is in the ebony family does not mean that the wood will be black . I'm trying to keep this short so i'm not going to go into detail about plant identification and naming, etc..... What I did find out is that some older Magnolia trees posses black heart wood . Still don't Know what type of Magnolia this occurs in .

as for Persimmon ive worked with some branch material while it was still green. So no difficulty their .the wood was bright yellow and heavily figured color is some where between that of Osage orange wood and Mulberry wood... Recently I acquired a stump of an old persimmon tree About 11" diameter at its widest and 8" at the narrow end. and about 6' in length approx. This wood has many color variations in it. Ive only cut it up for drying I haven't worked with any of it yet.

I would love to send pictures but I have yet to buy a camera .

hope this helps.
Enjoy the waking hours. Travis J Huval

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Travis,

Dont be mistaken, i didnt think for a minuet that this was percimmon. unless its totaly doty..
but its sturty i couldnt break the 2-3 inch staff with my 250lb fanny on it so i dont think its dotey.. its light weight maybe 1/4th the weight it should be if it was hardwood.

so im thinking china burry is a great choice, ill call it that till better known. my brother in law is a self professed woodsman, he raisws plants as well he should know for sure.

the percimmon, a fruit tree, should be much like peach or plumb wood, hard if dry and nearly workable if green but considered hard wood. but a small percimmon tree producing the large apple sized fruit is 2 doors down,, we also have a (minature possum percimmon here) with small fruits here about 1" x 1-1/2" in size... All bitter fruits unless seasoned after a good freeze..

sorry for not spellchecking i havent found a google bar for foxfire...