Need Advice On Alder

[William Young]

A neighbor a few miles away called and said he dropped an Alder tree that was in his way and would I like to come and cut it to any lengths I want and bring it home.
This is a first time experience for me with green Alder . I have worked with dry alder lumber and it is brown in color.
Apparently it starts to turn orange as soon as it is cut and he said it will turn much darker orange very soon before it turns brown .
What I am wondering is if anyone has turned bowls from Alder and if it was just plain ordinary wood or was it attractive in some ways.
I am going to saw some in half lengthwise for both plain edge bowls and natural edge bowls. I am wondering if by waiting until it gets to its deepest shade of orange , if I rough turn them and do the D A soak thing , will it retain its orange color or loose it.
Time will tell.
If it does indeed turn darker orange I will take a comparison picture.
I just brought this home half an hour ago and the tree was cut down one hour before that so it is in prime shape for turning green bowls with and the rest will be firewood.

W.Y.

[bearfretworks]

I hate alder...................................except for smoking fish. Don't know how it turns, just climbed up and thru WAYYYYYYYYY to much of the stuff on the way to goat/sheep country to even want to think about turning it.. But the best turning wood is free wood............................

[PeteB]

Alder is gaining popularity for cabinetry as it is a fast-growing 'renewable' wood. It has an even grain and cuts nicely, like cherry. It would probably be an ideal scrolling wood were it not peppered with knots.

Found these comments about staining alder that may be helpful:

Staining Alder

[William Young]

Thanks Pete.
Yes , so far I have only seen alder used for cabinetry and it was light brown and had tiny darker streaks in it that was all a part of the grain pattern. That might have only been characteristic of pieces I have had in my shop though as lumber from a mill.
Actually the knots and / or crotch wood might be better utilized for turning for certain types of turnings.

Yesterday I chain sawed all the big pieces lengthwise and got 22 bowl blanks. They are on my shop floor sprinkled with water with a tarp over them to keep them green and prevent splitting until I get a chance to turn them.
The rest of the pile I split and threw in a heap as shown. The wood was almost white on the inside yesterday and here it is just 24 hours later turning orange .
Will be interesting to see when it stops turning orange or how much deeper orange it will go before it starts turning brown as my neighbor predicted it would.

W.Y.

[PeteB]

I have used plywood with an alder core and it was very light, like birch, darkening to a tan with no sign of orange, so that color comes as a surprise to me. Maybe it's a particular variety?

Looking at alder wood items online, I see some that are a pronounced orange.

Betcha it will turn like butter!

[William Young]

Yes Pete , it does turn like butter but then most woods do in their green state .

I just now went out in my shop and rough turned both a 8" plain edge and a 9" Natural edge bowl just to see how it behaves compared to other woods that I am more familiar with. Full face shield and shop apron were required because of the juice spraying from it.
These two are now soaking in DA and will be wrapped tomorrow and ready to put back on the lathe and final turn in a few weeks.
Hope I can preserve the characteristic knot and nice coloring on the edge of the plain edge one . Some CA in the knot when final turning will no doubt take care of that.
I have 20 more blanks to turn like that but I have had several orders for pens come in from far and wide just recently so I must get at those first and rough turn the rest of the bowls later .

W.Y.