Monkey Puzzle Tree Worth Anything?

Alanvtec

Had this in the wrong thread so moved it here.......:rolleyes:



Hi just wondering about a monkey puzzle tree that fell into our garden there last Wednesday with the crazy winds. The tree its self is about fifty years old, one of the bigger ones I have seen.
It was blocking our drive so we had to chop it up but as we where doing this the ESB were out fixing the power lines that had being knocked by another tree.
One of the workers came over to us and asked could he have some of the timber because his brother does wood turning and I said work away.
We asked was it any good for burning in a stove because that's exactly what we were going to do, and one lads said it would be after about two years, and another said it would be worth a lot more to sell to someone that does wood turning.

My question is, is it worth anything our should we just hold onto it for ourselves and burn it?

If it is worth something who would i get in contact with because I didn't see much about it on the web or any for sale on donedeal ?

Any help would be much appreciated because it would be a shame to just burn it if somebody can use it for something.

Wibbs

As far as I recall monkey puzzle wood is considered quite valuable by woodturners and carvers as it's a very dense wood. I've even seen wine glasses turned from it and they were translucent. If I were you I'd maybe look around for some woodturner forums based in the UK and ask there. It might be worth your while from a (small)financial point of view and as you say it wouldn't just go up in smoke. Plus I'd be a little careful burning it. It may burn too hot for a standard fire. IIRC hawthorn wood is like this and can cause chimney fires.

Alanvtec

Wibbs wrote: »

I've even seen wine glasses turned from it and they were translucent.

You have got me intrigued by the sounds of this. I "wood" :P love wine glasses made out of the tree that used to be in our garden..... who wouldn't.

I'd rather give the timber to an Irish wood turner instead of the hassle of trying to get it transported to England.

So if somebody knows anyone that would be interested or even a place I could ring myself and see if they would like it

Prenderb

Where are you based, Alanvtec? Does the timber need chopping?

Dubl07

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=443206 'woodturner' was looking for fallen trees subsequent to the storms.

Alanvtec

^^^^^^ I live in clare near the M7. Well most of the timber is around 3ft in length and the thickest piece is 16" in diameter we were told to cut half way between the knots as that was the area that was used by the wood turner.

Prenderb

You might (if you felt the effort was worthwhile!) get someone from either the Limerick or Galway chapters of the woodturners' guild who'd be interested.

Wibbs

I'd love a small lump myself TBH(and I drive a Vtec ). Sadly I'm stuck in Dublin, so there goes that idea anyway. Odd fecker that I am I have over the years collected lumps of unusual wood. Nothing big, not trunks or anything. Sometimes I carve them for my own amusements.

Fascinating tree the Monkey puzzle(Araucaria to give it it's fancy name). Real living fossil, around since the earliest dinosaurs. Only the Gingko would be older. One notion has it that they have such viscous leaves because that evolved so dinosaurs wouldn't eat them. Similar for why as they age they drop their lower branches and head for the sky to get out of reach. Stress does that to them too though. I know of one, a real beauty in Wicklow that is one of the earliest planted in Ireland and it never lost the lower branches because it sits within a 100 odd feet of a small river so never went dry, no matter the weather.

A wood that dense would be great for carvers I'd imagine. Netsuke carver types go mad for it I gather, because of it's fine grain and different colours, depending on the part of the trunk they take. Woodturners should get hard ons for it because of the very unusual figuring in the endgrain of the wood. EG









It's just my humble Alanvtec, but I think a wood that nice it would be a shame to throw it on top of firelighters.

woodturner

Wibbs wrote: »

I'd love a small lump myself TBH(and I drive a Vtec ). Sadly I'm stuck in Dublin, so there goes that idea anyway. Odd fecker that I am I have over the years collected lumps of unusual wood. Nothing big, not trunks or anything. Sometimes I carve them for my own amusements.

Fascinating tree the Monkey puzzle(Araucaria to give it it's fancy name). Real living fossil, around since the earliest dinosaurs. Only the Gingko would be older. One notion has it that they have such viscous leaves because that evolved so dinosaurs wouldn't eat them. Similar for why as they age they drop their lower branches and head for the sky to get out of reach. Stress does that to them too though. I know of one, a real beauty in Wicklow that is one of the earliest planted in Ireland and it never lost the lower branches because it sits within a 100 odd feet of a small river so never went dry, no matter the weather.

A wood that dense would be great for carvers I'd imagine. Netsuke carver types go mad for it I gather, because of it's fine grain and different colours, depending on the part of the trunk they take. Woodturners should get hard ons for it because of the very unusual figuring in the endgrain of the wood. EG









It's just my humble Alanvtec, but I think a wood that nice it would be a shame to throw it on top of firelighters.

It really is a beautiful wood, similar to Norfolk Island Pine. If you look up photos for woodturned Norfolk Island Pine you will come across some amazing work.

Wibbs

BTW AlanV check out this donedeal ad. Now it is donedeal so fantasy on pricing is all too common, but they have a point in that it is rare enough. And this site in the UK might give you some idea of "value" to woodturning types. Though I'd measure value differently and figure a few bottles of vino or beer or a slap up meal should be the way to go, so it goes to the right guys and gals.

BTW part Two Alanvtec, it's actually the knots that the wood turning chaps would be more interested in cos that's where you get the really funky patterns coming out, so don't throw them out. :eek:

Wibbs

woodturner wrote: »

It really is a beautiful wood, similar to Norwich Island Pine.

Yep same family of trees WT. There are a few of them out there, though the "monkey puzzle" is one of the few that will happily grow here, most of the others are frost delicate. Though some can surprise, like the recently discovered in Australia "living fossil" the Wollemia. Even though it only survived in a small grove in much warmer climes, it will thrive here. I know of two people who have them for a few years and they brushed off the snow of a few years back like it wasn't there and they were only glorified saplings. All this talk of unusual wood, I must check on my three feet of tree fern trunk I left up in my shed a few years back. It'll be interesting to see how that "wood" turned out slowly releasing it's moisture.

woodturner

Wibbs wrote: »

BTW AlanV check out this donedeal ad. Now it is donedeal so fantasy on pricing is all too common, but they have a point in that it is rare enough. And this site in the UK might give you some idea of "value" to woodturning types. Though I'd measure value differently and figure a few bottles of vino or beer or a slap up meal should be the way to go, so it goes to the right guys and gals.

BTW part Two Alanvtec, it's actually the knots that the wood turning chaps would be more interested in cos that's where you get the really funky patterns coming out, so don't throw them out. :eek:

It's not that the trees are rare. It's because they take between 50 to 80 years to reach maturity. They are extremely slow growing.

Wibbs

Oh definitely. You're dead right. Sorry WT as usual I was about as clear as mud . As you say they grow VERY slowly. Well at first. The first 3 years they do nothing. The next 10 they do nothing very slowly and then they start to spurt a bit. I have one in my garden and it's there 8 years and only now is it looking like it's growing. And I suspect they are rare in the wood trade, because it usually takes a fair whack of wind to take them down. If they're in good ground they're usually pretty solid, though the slightest root disturbance can kill them off.

woodturner

Wibbs wrote: »

Oh definitely. You're dead right. Sorry WT as usual I was about as clear as mud . As you say they grow VERY slowly. Well at first. The first 3 years they do nothing. The next 10 they do nothing very slowly and then they start to spurt a bit. I have one in my garden and it's there 8 years and only now is it looking like it's growing. And I suspect they are rare in the wood trade, because it usually takes a fair whack of wind to take them down. If they're in good ground they're usually pretty solid, though the slightest root disturbance can kill them off.

You're grand. It'd be a sin to see it being burnt. I have seen some beautiful wood cut up for firewood, elm, sycamore, yew and lime. All of them were huge trees.

kadman

woodturner wrote: »

You're grand. It'd be a sin to see it being burnt. I have seen some beautiful wood cut up for firewood, elm, sycamore, yew and lime. All of them were huge trees.

You are right, its a sin to burn it. And you would probably knock up some kind of sweat trying to split that for the fire, with all those knots:D

Its also a sin to let someone loose at it with a chainsaw, unless he knows what he is doing. He could ruin an ample supply of timber in a short space of time, if he chops it all into rings, whereas you could get it planked for furniture as well, so do the homework first. You will get someone with a chainmill , that could plank it for you. So thats an option.

Its not that rare either, country is full of them, but a nice tree all the same.

woodturner

kadman wrote: »

You are right, its a sin to burn it. And you would probably knock up some kind of sweat trying to split that for the fire, with all those knots:D

Its also a sin to let someone loose at it with a chainsaw, unless he knows what he is doing. He could ruin an ample supply of timber in a short space of time, if he chops it all into rings, whereas you could get it planked for furniture as well, so do the homework first. You will get someone with a chainmill , that could plank it for you. So thats an option.

Its not that rare either, country is full of them, but a nice tree all the same.

It's usually turned from the rings. I don't know what it would look like planked.

kadman

woodturner wrote: »

It's usually turned from the rings. I don't know what it would look like planked.

Cant say I,ve turned monkey puzzle planked, but you would have useable timber if some was planked as well.

I normally used to turn most of my elm, sycamore, ash ect from planked timber , as opposed to rings. Some as large as 40" +.

woodturner

kadman wrote: »

Cant say I,ve turned monkey puzzle planked, but you would have useable timber if some was planked as well.

I normally used to turn most of my elm, sycamore, ash ect from planked timber , as opposed to rings. Some as large as 40" +.

To have the knots showing on the same axis you mount the log between centres with the grain running with the bed of the lathe

recipio

:rolleyes: Ciaran Forbes, the Monk/woodturner in Glenstal Abbey uses a lot of monkey puzzle. He would advise you on how to market it. Fallen trees have surprisingly little value - all the expense goes in processing the tree afterwards.

Alun

I'd certainly love a couple of pieces. Didn't know about turning it with the grain along the axis of the lathe, but I suppose considering it's unique patterning due to the branch knots it makes sense.

kadman

woodturner wrote: »

To have the knots showing on the same axis you mount the log between centres with the grain running with the bed of the lathe

Planked Wych Elm Bowl.

Round blank cut from a 9 " thick piece of Wych Elm. Hope that explains it well enough, grain runs from side to side in this pic, as opposed to base to top if it was a cut log blank.