Dogwood for carving?

[kb4mdz]

This is just a shot in the dark.

This weekend I took down a dogwood tree in my front yard, mostly because it was not thriving (probably some blight) and had only one halfway decent branch on it. The main trunk is probably about 6 or 8 inches in diameter near the ground.

After I got done with my chainsaw madness, I looked at the pieces and wondered if the wood is any good for carving? It seems pretty dense, but I have zero experience doing carving, so what do I know?

If anybody can use a few of these pieces; I have about a half a dozen, of random length & diameter.

Email me:

kb4mdz - at - earthlink.net
Chuk Gleason
Cary, NC

 

[Bill Clemmons]

As you mentioned, Dogwood is very dense because of it's slow growth. I have used it to turn handles for chisels and other similar tools. I'm not a bowl turner, but I suspect it would be nice if you could find a piece big enough. :dontknow:

Bill

 

[kb4mdz]

Bill -

Thanks for the reply; glad to know I was on the right track.

So there it is; anybody wants these pieces is welcome to contact me and pick them up for free. And if my wife happens to be here when you pick them up and she sees that someone wants them, so much the better! ;-)



Chuk

 

[CarvedTones]

Don't suppose you have a 6' section left (?). Dogwood makes excellent archery bows.

 

[cyclopentadiene]

Dogwood is great for turning. It turns very well when green and afinished bowl has very nice color. As you mentioned it is very dense and very hard when dry. I am sure if you have a power carver and cutzall burrs, it would work fine but I would not attempt with conventional carving tools when dry.

 

[kb4mdz]

Sorry, no, not that long. Wife fussed at me for going chainsaw crazy anyway, making different size smaller pieces; Don't even think even uncut there was anything that long, but still straight & unmarred by blemishes/crotches/etc.

But you're welcome come see !! And Take whatever you want!! (winkwink nudgenudge)

Don't suppose you have a 6' section left (?). Dogwood makes excellent archery bows.

 

[Bugle]

I carved a couple of spoons, a fork, and spatula for the wife from dead, dry dogwood. Pretty hard wood to carve when it's dry, but with sharp tools it carves nicely. I probably put at least five coats of mineral oil on them (because it was so dry) and she uses them almost every day. When they start looking a little pale, we just apply more mineral oil and they look great. I actually have 2 small (4" diameter) dead dogwoods on my lot that I am cutting down tomorrow and will probably make some more spoons and possibly a walking stick or two. The walking sticks turn out looking great, but tend to be a little heavy.

Hope someone can take advantage of your generosity.

Here's how they came out. The fork has some interesting spalting.

 

[gritz]

The blight is probably Dogwood anthrax. It's slowly killing most native dogwoods all across the south.

 

[Gofor]

Because of its denseness, dogwood makes great mallets and mauls.

Go

The one in my avatar is dogwood, and is currently being used as my froe maul.

 

[CarvedTones]

Yeah, I thought about that also. I have a mallet and 2 mauls that are dogwood. I put tung oil on the mallet and it looks 18th century.