I was wondering if anybody has ever used or knows anything about Gingko ” Maidenshair tree ” for furniture ,or any projects for that matter. I have an oppertunity to mill some boards that could be nearly 36- 45″ wide by 5-7′ high with some nice figure ,but I have never used the wood before .I was also wondering if any one has ever purchased any boards of this wood so I can get an idea of what it may be worth if I dicide to sell/trade some of it .I also would like to know if anyone has ever heard of a fruitless cherry tree ? I would be greatful for any help/info anybody has!
Thank you
Replies
Burly, technically ginkgo is a "softwood"...meaning it is a gymnosperm. It's not a member of the Conifers that produce virtually all other commercial softwoods, but the wood itself is somewhat similar to true fir in appearance. It is creamy white in color, but it has vivid yellow streaks in the heartwood and it is exceptionally fine textured. It has outstanding shaping characteristics for a softwood, although it is rather weak for furniture use. Its density is only slightly higher than that of eastern white pine.
Ginkgo is the only surviving species of an ancient Botanical Order that first appears in the fossil record after the close of the Coal Age, almost 300 million years ago. It had managed to survive in small pockets (stands or groves) in eastern China, possibly aided by the fact that it was used as a cultivar on temple grounds. Whether it truely exists in the wild is questionable. In modern times it has been used as a landscape species, because it is extremely hardy in the sense that it's virtually pest free and can withstand smog and other city hardships. It's a slow grower with a rather primitive and inefficient reproductive system, so it's not plentiful enough anywhere to be an important timber producer...although it's used sparingly in the Orient for small decorative items (boxes, etc.) I was able to get a small supply of it years ago and enjoyed working with it. It appeared to have good stability and its working properties were more like those of aspen than pine or other softwoods. As for its value, there really isn't an established market, but it's rare enough that it should be worth a slight premium ($4 or $5 per board foot) to wood workers who like to experiment with unusual species.
As for your question on cherry, there may be some fruitless hybrids, but none that I'm aware of.
Thank you for all the facts about Gingko. I think I will try to mill it know because there was some burl and other interesting figure that might make for some nice light wieght panels for an cabinet I plan to build in the near future. Thanks for all your help.
Burly
We have two cherry trees in our yard that bloom like crazy but seldom produce fruit, ditto with the pretty cherry trees at various businesses on the island (WA State). I've always assumed they were ornamental trees that do not produce fruit. Maybe some other NWers can pitch in and comment.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thank you for the info on the cherry tree. If that is the case then I think I may have a fruitless cherry tree.
And all this time I thought Ginko was some herb they use for better eyesight or strongerbones ... or was it fingernails???
Jeff
It's for memory enhancement . . .
That's Gingo Bilboa . . . or is it Rocky Balboa ???
I think they're the same . . .
Memory's the second thing to go . . . can't remember the first.
Re the fruitless cherry...
Here in central California there are lots of landscape trees that are called fruitless cherry. The flowers look like fruiting cherry, although they flower a couple months earlier than fruiting cherry. The bark doesn't look like cherry. Most different is that the tree is not deciduous. It keeps its leaves throughout the year. I've never figured out whether the tree is some wierd cultivar of real cherry, or it is some exotic that happens to look somewhat like cherry. The trunk rarely has a diameter more than 12", so it'd be difficult to get furniture lumber out of it. For that reason, I've never seen lumber from it, and can't tell you whether it looks like real cherry.
WHat does the #### in the title refer to? Is this some more mindless auto-puritanism by the folks that run the list?
>> ... mindless auto-puritanism ...
Extremely mindless. Sometimes an 'a' at the end of a line gets censored. It stopped happening to me when I started using the auto-wrap, but some people see it even then.
This tree is 36" in diameter so I dont know if this is the same type of tree,but the description has some simmilarities.
I think that there is only on ginko species, ginko biloba.Gardening, cooking and woodworking in Southern Maryland
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