Anyone worked with Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven)?

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CDPeters

CDPeters

Master of None
Chris
Yes, that nasty invasive, fast-growing, nasty-smelling Tree of Heaven!

The LOML and I are taking Virginia's Master Naturalist course and our presentation last night was by Harvey Darden, the Director of State Lands for the VA Dept of Forestry. In talking about invasives, he mentioned that Virginia Tech had done some research on charcoaling it and also pelletizing it for wood stoves. He also mentioned that some woodworkers around Charlottesville had done some woodworking with it.

Just wondering if any of our illustrious group had ever worked with it - specifically if the nasty odor dissipates with drying. I did find some old posts from DaveO and jeff... about it, but they had more to do with IDing.

What say you group - any experiences to share?
 
AllanD

AllanD

Allan
Corporate Member
I have no experience with the wood but I do have what I believe to be one growing behind my office. I think the odor is mostly from the male tree's flowers but I may be wrong and the wood may have some too. One of the problems apparently with any of the trees that grow tremendously fast like this tree and Paulownia is that the growth rings the first few years are so wide compared to others that it makes an unstable wood when dried. But again I have had no experience with the wood itself. Some have used Paulownia wood for woodworking though. In fact, the Woodturning journal I just received had a photo of a bowl turned from it. Good Luck and maybe someone with actual experience will chime in.
 
CrealBilly

CrealBilly

New User
Jeff
Yea... I cut some 8/4 a long time back. Pretty soft atleast when green off the log, super wide growth rings, kind of light green and tanish in color fresh off the log, open grain like red oak and smells like S _ _ T when it's drying. I did successfully air dry some and it seemed pretty stable (didn't split, warp or cup to bad), but that's as far as I got with it. I left it in NC when I moved several years ago - it most likely became firewood.

More info ---> http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/ailanthus.htm

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/ailanthus/
 
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AllanD

AllanD

Allan
Corporate Member
That paper was interesting. I would have never figured that the wood from such a fast growing tree would be harder than Red Oak. Hmm, learn something every day I guess. I am curious about another aspect. The male flowers smell terrible apparently to attract insects which I would have thought would be mostly flies but the paper says honey bees also partake. Does bad smelling flowers result in bad tasting honey? I know we have quite a few beekeepers on here that may know. Apparently there are some pretty good stands of the tree up there.
 
CDPeters

CDPeters

Master of None
Chris
AllanD said:
Apparently there are some pretty good stands of the tree up there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there are. Curiously, if you look at the occurrence map, you see it largely along the spine of the Blue Ridge and the I-81 corridor. I suppose we may have VDOT to blame for that... they have a reputation for making very poor choices when it comes to right-of-way "landscaping". Example: who in their right mind would plant prolific berry-producing (think bird-attracting!) shrubs and trees in the center median of major highways?

Oh - and BTW, that lonely red dot in the SE area is very near my location...
 
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