Box Elder?

Looks like the bark and wood of the local _Acer negundo_, or box elder to me. The red seems to be more a result of circulation problems in the tree caused by damage or twisting grain that anything else. At least that's where it's found normally around here. Yours looks straight as a string and vigorous. Better climate or better sunlight down there, I guess.

Great stuff to learn on, as it cuts like butter when wet, and behaves well after drying. Finishes like glass.

My best advice is to rough it into bowls as soon as possible if you want to preserve the pale color. Put them in the basement after roughing at or above 70% RH and let them cure. You'll want to give them about 3/4 of an inch wall thickness for 12" bowls, and don't make the sides too steep nor the bottoms too broad. You'll lose about a half inch in diameter across the grain, which will allow you to turn the black mildew, if you have any, off the endgrain. You'll be able to turn stable wood after September and have them ready before Christmas, easily. If you have a compressor, blow the excess unbound water out of the wood (inside out) after roughing to help it through the mildew-growing moisture range. I've had good success with the technique on soft maple, where black mildew can really ruin your day. Tip is from a Packer Backer, but it seems to work anyway....

My first reaction is that the wood looks like locust wood - both the internal color and the way the aged cut ends look.

Anyone else thinking that?

Locust trees have small serrated opposing leaves.

Some of the locusts have thorns.

I'm thinking you have an all American chunk of slippery elm. Take a cut. If it stinks like a horses behind, that's what it is.

Ignore the smell ... the wood has tightly interlocked grain that looks REALLY great when you turn shallow curves into it (think platter with shallow sides rather than popcorn bowl). The grain will remind you of the pattern of feathers on a partridge breast.

I've used oil with polyurethane over it to good effect.

Bill

Not sure what this wood is.......but am almost certain it is NOT Box Elder. It looks more like Osage Orange to me.

Definitely not box elder. I'd say yellowwood or osage orange.

Woody

I am not sure what kind of wood you have but that is not Box Elder. Ted

My osage orange has more deeply fissured bark than the one pictured.

Jerry

What you have is not box elder. I know this not by looking at the picture, but because you say your friend cut it down. If it was box elder, it would have fell down itself.

It's probably orange, too.

Bark looks pretty good. Wood description seems pretty close. Though the entire genus is pretty similar, really. Locust is ring-porous with good rays, and this doesn't seem to be. Bark doesn't look as close, either. Big plates in locust. Does it smell like smashed ladybugs when you cut it? As referenced, it's a weed species with little to recommend it besides rapid growth, which makes it pretty weak as a tree. Absent damage or the beetle to infect it and trap the fungus that makes things red, best to say of it is that it does have traditional maple figures like curl, burl and quilting occasionally. Went through my "waiting" turnings, almost sure I had some still, but no joy. I have had some neat burl and some reasonable curl.

Hi Bob

I had to look twice, but I'm quite certain that you have Mullberry there, both the bark and the wood grain/color are typical Mulberry, as someone was calling it Osage orange, he was close, but no sigar ;-)) I have turned a lot of Mulberry I also have pictures in my Photo albums, pic' of Osage is in the next one, have a look

There's also a Boxelder log picture in there, shows the wood color some. Anyway, Mulberry has been one of the nicest native woods I've turned, but it does like to split more than most woods, and you really have to make sure the wood dries very slowly, especially the first couple of weeks, rough turn or finish turn it thin and then place in a brown paper bag, set in your basement or other cooler place without draft, thats what has worked best for me. The wood is quite yellow when newly turned, but in a year or two it will be a much nicer dark honey yellow, most mulberry wood tents to have a shimmer in it when finished well.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

That would be a good fit. Mulberry bark looks about right, explains the coarse grain suggested in the picture which is atypical of Boxelder or other Acer sp.. Domestic plantings rather than forest ... why not?