Wood for Handles

[thecrow]

I wanted to ask if these were good wood for handles? Does
anyone have any experience with these woods? They are:

Acer Negundo, aka Manitoba Maple, or Box Elder

Catalpa Trees (Large leaves, Bean like fruit, White Flowers in
June).


I am dropping three trees, and was wondering if the wood
is worth anything to anyone. Most likely it will go for firewood,
although I have heard that the Manitoba Maples aren't good
for burning. Any thoughts?

[Mike Hull]

Box Elder Burl is very popular, when it is stabilized.

[thecrow]

What is a burl? Is that a specific part of the tree or is it a type of variety? I am not too familiar with the terminology.

[Mike Hull]

Burl, is found in the growths on trees, that have variegated grain. The term is also used for the root ball area too. Parts of the tree with startling grain growth, compared to the plain vanilla areas.

[Crex]

Maple should be fine as would be the the box elder (alder). Both will perform better stabalized. Should be able to find some figure in bigger limb crotches and in root sections at base of tree (stump wood) - tough on tools because of sand and other grit. If these are yard trees of any real size 12 " or better DBH (diameter breast high) use a metal detector! I've got an old aluminum Hard hat with serious damage from sawing up yard trees at a small saw mill back in my school days. People nail, spike, and wedge all kinds of stuff into yard trees. This particular piece of metal appeared to be an old gimbrel hook buried deep in a 48" red oak. I'm just proud that my daddy was short and passed it on to me! Never felt it hit my hat.
Forget the caltalpa, unless you can get it pro-stabalized. It's just one step above balsa wood; easily compressible both laterally and tangentially. Just to soft and no figure to be found! Good for making Native American replica artifacts such as fake bone pipe beads for breast plates and for smoking pipes. Has a natural hollow, pith filled center in the branches and limbsl They are better for shade (if you can keep the worms off), but if you fish you want the worms (caterpillars).
Oh yes, don't burn the caltapa in your fire place - it flash burns hot as bad as pine and can start a flue fire if you have any cresote build up at all! Therm out-put is lousy due to the fast burn rate, but a little for kindling would probably be OK.
LOL
Carl Rx

[B K]

were you planning on selling the wood? if so i might be interested in some Catalpa for a non knife project.

[Chuck Burrows]

I'm looking for pipe stem material (1-2" in diamater 30" long).
Be willing to pay a bit if you're willing to sell/ship it - no bugs though

Chuck

[Gary Mulkey]

I agree. Unless there are burls on the trees, there probably not going to make very pretty handles. However, here's a way that you might create something worthwhile if you want to play with them:

Cut pieces of the maple & box elder that are easily handled. Leaving the bark on them, paint them with a combination of half water and half used motor oil and store them any where out of the way inside of a plastic leaf bag. This will do two things to the wood. First it will suffocate any insect eggs which might be on the bark. Also, many times woods will absorb unusual colors when dried this way leaving a unique piece of lumber. If it were me and I wanted to experiment this way, I would repeat the process of painting on the oil/water mix once every two weeks for three or four applications. This will give it a better chance of pulling color into the wood. If you can get them to spalt, the maple will get black streaks and the box elder will get beautiful blood red stripes and possibly other colors as well. After they have been in the leaf bag for two to three months, remove them from the bag and let the wood dry naturally.

This is a long process but doesn't require a lot of labor and sometimes will produce outstanding results. Good Luck!

Gary