Hophornbeam?

Re: Hophornbeam?

Terry in Ottawa

>I've been using a piece of hophornbeam to beat on my froe for a couple of years now and it's standing up OK. Looks like a beaver has been chewing on it but it's still sound.

Re: Hophornbeam?

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>I agree with your concern that it would probably split while drying. I am looking for large hunks of hophornbeam, because I also suspect it would work very well formed into carving mallets. However, when I do the math (3" diameter blank, no pith, no bark, no knots, etc.), I get a trunk diameter that exceeds my expectations of any ironwood tree I'm likely to find in the wild. Drying time to insure success is also long.

I figure what one would need is 8" diameter logs, 12" to 14" long, split through the pith, and AnchorSealed on both ends immediately after bucking to length. That's not a lot to ask for, is it? :^)

I have made a carving mallet by gluing up 8/4 boards of seasoned hard maple, and it has held together for many years, so I would expect success with hophornbeam using that approach. That, of course, means planking, seasoning, flattening, surfacing, gluing, and turning. Sorry, I can't offer any suggestions as to the viability of other methods. That's a lot of extra work, but it should shorten the drying time considerably, and allow you to use smaller trees.

Right now, I don't have enough round tuits to consider working with pieces of smaller cross section, but I would put some away for future use. What do you want to swap for? I would also encourage others to swap with you if they want to make tool handles, because hophornbeam is an excellent material for that. That's why Lie-Nielsen uses it for their bench chisels.

If you do find pieces that are large enough to turn all at once into a mallet, I learned a technique from Dave Souza, of Keystone Woodturners, that might help with your yield. He preturns his green blanks that he will use for boxes after the wood has seasoned. He turns them in the shape of pressurized gas cylinders, cylindrical, with rounded ends, to minimize stress during drying, and with tenons on both ends for scroll chucks. Of course, they are sealed on both ends and dated after roughing. For a mallet, you could dispense with the tenons, of course, and just turn between centers.

Thanks Wm

Ellis Walentine

>I've got a lot of the stuff here, but I don't recall seeing any trees over about 5" diameter. I also a little unclear as to whether Dave turns log sections or halves into those torpedos for drying.

Maybe I'll just chunk it all up for file handles.

Whatcha got to trade down there on the Cohansey? (Soft shell crabs would be a slam dunk. :-)

Ellis

Re: Thanks Wm

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>The torpedos I examined at a First State Woodturners meeting this summer, where he demonstrated, mostly Acer palmatum, didn't have any pith in them, and that's always the first thing I check (pun unintended, but there it is). Since they are meant for boxes, spindle turned, the grain runs longitudinally, which would be right for mallets, too.

Probably I don't have a lot of stock that you might be interested in, just typical stuff like hard maple, black locust, some dogwood handle blanks that have been drying since this summer, maybe some holly and golden rain tree, if I can get it bucked, split and sealed in the next couple weeks.

Golden Rain Tree - Question

Hank Knight from SC

>William, what do you use golden rain tree for? I would have thought it would be soft and pithy, like mimosa, but I've never actually checked it out. Funny how we make assumptions. We have a lot of it down here in SC, but I've always considered it to be useless.

same here...

john jesseph

>I use a log of hornbeam that I use to beat my froe. It is getting cracked a bit, but it still is holding up. I haven't properly handled all the stock from the log that I got, but it doesn't seem to be as check and cracked as I thought. Other kinds of wood would not hold up as well in the round.

I have made a lot of handles from it, as well as a spindle scraper I made a couple of days ago. Not too bad to work with...

Re: Golden Rain Tree - Question

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Hey, the seed pods look great in dried flower arrangements :^) It makes a nice, fast growing landscape tree, but doesn't live very long. Whether it is even possible to turn any useful objects from it, much less use the lumber for constructing anything durable, I have yet to discover. I cut mine down so I could plant some apple trees, which will make much better long term use of the sun, soil and rain. I'll keep you posted as my experiments progress, but don't hold your breath for any surprises. At least, there should be some useful BTUs, mulch and ash in it.

Re: same here...

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Hornbeam, or hophornbeam? Both are good woods for such uses, but the hophornbeam has some significant advantages, at least according to the mechanical properties numbers published by the FPL. In general, both would remind you of the beeches or hard maple, and would be difficult to tell apart when not in fruit.

Re: Golden Rain Tree -Thanks

Hank Knight in SC

>I'll be interested to hear what you come up with. The seed pods do make for good dried arrangements.

Re: same here...

john jesseph

>I vaguely remember this coming up here a while back. Admittedly I don't know what mine is, but it is less likely hophornbeam, although I can't say for sure. I am daving some bigger chunks for small planes, tool handles, etc. I have enough to use for mauls for a couple of decades at the rate I am going now...

Identification

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>Hophornbeam has brown bark with loose thin peeling strips. Hornbeam has smooth silver bark with muscle-like lumps. The wood is similar.

Re: Identification

john jesseph

>Based on the bark, I am fairly sure mine is hornbeam. Nice heavy hard wood, decent to work with. May not be quite as similar to hophornbeam as I thought, I need to look over the FPL literature and educate myself...