Anything special about turning dogwood??

Chuck Ellis

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Location
Tellico Plains, Tennessee
A friend called a couple of days back that he had some dogwood if I wanted.. had to wait until the rain let up and we had time to run over.
He had a trunk piece about 8-10 dia x about 7 ft long plus 3 other pieces from 4-6 ft all about 3-4 in. dia.. got it cut and painted today, so need to let it cure a bit... might try to turn some of it green.

Anything special about Dogwood.. it looks like some nice wood, but it's a new one for me.
 
May as well turn it while you can. It's one of my favorite trees (there are a couple in the yard), but I don't hold much hope for them. The blight gets more and more each year.

Not that they'll disappear entirely, as non-native resistant varieties are being introduced. But it's just not the same... :(

They'll survive in landscapes in regions where dogwoods don't normally grow, But the native understory trees in the eastern forests... well, it's anthracnose, and there's no real cure... :doh:

http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/dogwoodanthracnose/dogwood anthracnose.htm

Thanks,

Bill
 
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Chuck, I've seen pics of several pieces of turned dogwood. As far as I know, there are no special tricks to turning it, although as I understand things, it can move quite a bit when drying.
 
..... can move quite a bit when drying.

When I was turning it was my favorite wood. Easy to turn but will crack like crazy. Split wide open actually. But it's colors can vary from tree to tree. I have a couple of pink pieces sitting in my shop waiting on a project.

I found some limbs that had spalted blood red! No joke.

Just dry it carefully. Learned of the DNA late and never tried it on dogwood.
 
Sharp tools are a must...don't want it to Ruff :D:rofl:. Sorry...Tony and Royall rubbed off on me. I have a chance to get some Dogwood too...lemme know how you like it.
 
Turning Dogwood

The story that I have heard was that many dogwood trees in the south were harvested in times past to make weaving loom shuttles due to their durability (supposedly from the cross-linked growth pattern).

The mythology is that the dogwood was used to make Jesus' cross, and in regret, the dogwood never grew large enough to make a cross out of it again and began growing flowers in the shape of the cross tinged with blood on the ends....
 
The mythology is that the dogwood was used to make Jesus' cross, and in regret, the dogwood never grew large enough to make a cross out of it again and began growing flowers in the shape of the cross tinged with blood on the ends....

That's the second time I've heard this.. true or not, it's a great story.. I have one little dogwood growing on my property, it's about 2 or 3" at the very base and usually has a few blossoms when it blooms. Bad thing is it's in the treeline behind my shop and along the neighbor's driveway, not where we can see it.

Jeff,
I use the DNA soak pretty regularly on my Bradford Pear... still had a piece of that split, but for the most part it works very well.
 
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