Box Elder Question

Dan Mosley

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Location
Palm Springs, Ca
From last post I said I met someone that offered to bring some fresh cut logs that they were clearing to build. Today he showed up and dropped off to me a nice big load of mostly Box Elder (of which alot of it has the red or Flame as they say). Alot of it was no good and I have been cutting it up into firewood.
But I managed to save about 8 good size logs of Elder and 2 of Willow........Still I paid him some money for the time and effort to bring it to me.
Question: I read on AAW about the red in the box elder and trying to keep it from turning brown. There was alot written about a bleaching process but im not going to bother with it as its to much effort. Anybody else do anything to keep the red in it ????

Thanks Dan
 

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Dan I have finished numerous pieces of box elder with antique oil and all still have the red. Some are 5 yrs old. I think the big thing is to keep the pieces out of the sun. My sister has a piece that came out of the same piece I have on my mantel. Her sits on the table near a window. Hers has turned a light brown color and mine is still red. I have talked with a few of the pro turners and they said even with UV screens in the finish it won't stop the color turning when in the sun.
 
I don't know for sure, but from what they tell me here in TN, you won't like the Box Elder as firewood... they say it smells.

I picked up a good sized log of Box elder that had some fantastic red through it... most of what I got turned before it got too punky, has kept the red in.... I finish most of my work with wipe on poly.
 
Chuck...............I have some wipe on poly to and will give it a try also thanks for the tip..........alot of it was rotten in the middle and black making it not usable so I spent the day cutting up the bad stuff and stacking for drying for next winter...............a few were still good and solid so i sealed them up and put them in the shade in full log lengths............I do not have storage room so it will have do for now.................Did get 4 logs of willow which are very solid................small punky areas i can deal with using CA but the ones I was talking about are not usable.............as far as smells when burned I can only hope that Calif box elder does not smell ............if it does ill get rid of it to somebody but thanks for the advice................

As far as turning the stuff - I tried some today and it was not that easy to cut because it was so green - even tore out here and there so im going to let it dry out a bit longer before cutting anymore of it - I even used my Ci1 on roughing it and it wouldn't cut it was so wet -
 

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First time I turned some of the box elder I picked up, I needed a rain coat... I had a line of water 6" wide for about 6' across my shop and the left sleeve of my turning smock was soaked... even after the logs had dried some, I still got some tear out... and it turned punky pretty quickly... I don't have inside storage either, so I stacked it back of the shop, covered with HF tarps and hoped for the best... I started cleaning up a little of the bad wood back there last week and some of the Box Elder was almost a wet sponge from all the water that had leaked under the tarps and even though I had the logs up on rocks/bricks to keep it off the ground, when I picked up a couple of the logs, they just crumbled in my hands.

What I got was pretty though...
 

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Chuck...........wow.......yep your right about the water comming off of it - I used my Ci1 and it still did not cut real great but at fast speed I got it shaped - when hollowing it out that went fine and I only sand down finger level anyway - I looked down inside and the tear out was about the same but not to bad.......I did cut up alot of it that was bad - rotten centers, black and mushy like - very punky around that black area for more than 1 inch so to me it was junk.............I have the one hollow form I did above and will post pictures later after I have done something with it. I can easily see starting with 60grit for sure due to the tear out - I was hoping and still do that some of it will turn better once it has dried some but time with tell - The willow on the other hand (which I have not turned yet) seems to be a very dense hard, tight grain type of wood and I may try some of that today...............Ill post more later if I get to it .........thanks
 
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