# Chinaberry Wood (Melia Azedarach)



## Connbush (Apr 12, 2018)

I live in Orange County CA. I had a large Chinaberry tree removed because of the toxic berry mess it makes. Apparently its a pretty good wood to work with as its a type of Mahogany. I had a mobile miller look at the tree before I took it down and he was very interested in the wood. I would love to mill the wood and keep it on my property for later use but in Southern California the lots are small and I can't takeover my garage with stacked wood. I had the guys cut down the tree as to save anything 12 inches in diameter, as long as possible. The main trunk of the tree is 28 inches in diameter by 8 feet long but its not perfectly round, it kind of grew a long divot/crevice in the middle on either side making it maybe 16 inches wide at the closest. I have many large pieces around 4-6 feet long and a variety of diameters from 12-24 inches. It was cut down yesterday and I painted all the ends. The mobile miller guy wants the tree for free. I don't want to get taken advantage of but don't expect much either. How much would something like this be worth? Is anyone in the Southern California area interested in this? I will try to upload pictures later...


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

Chinaberry trees here in Texas are very soft wooded trees. 
The wood does not resemble Mahogany in any way.


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## Connbush (Apr 12, 2018)

This is where I found my info...

http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=64978.0


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## Gary Beasley (Jan 21, 2009)

The wood has nice looking grain, Ive used it in segmented bowls with good results.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I don't have any idea of the value. If you have the logs milled into lumber keep in mind it takes a minimum of a year for every inch the wood is thick before it's dry enough to use. Drying it outdoors will take longer.


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## 35015 (Nov 24, 2012)

Steve Neul said:


> I don't have any idea of the value. If you have the logs milled into lumber keep in mind it takes a minimum of a year for every inch the wood is thick before it's dry enough to use. Drying it outdoors will take longer.


Or...

You can use it green in many applications and not have to wait at all...Like chairs, tables, benches, workbenches...

It is a reasonably stable wood, to begin with, and takes well to many of the same use applications and techniques of working it as the rest of the Mahogany family...

It's typically in the same price range (sometimes more depending on a slab/tree) as is imported Mahogany...



Toolman50 said:


> Chinaberry trees here in Texas are very soft wooded trees.
> The wood does not resemble Mahogany in any way.


Swietenia mahogani (Common Mahogany) and true China Berry are virtually identical in hardness and to a great degree in workability as well...They both have a Janka hardness range of 900 to 960 depending on environmental and age conditions...Any softer than that, its another species...and not a China Berry...


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Jay C. White Cloud said:


> Or...
> 
> You can use it green in many applications and not have to wait at all...Like chairs, tables, benches, workbenches...
> 
> ...


The problems associated with working with green wood is why it has become a standard to dry the wood first. Wood movement is enough an issue without asking for it by using green wood.


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## 35015 (Nov 24, 2012)

Steve Neul said:


> The problems associated with working with green wood is why it has become a standard to dry the wood first. Wood movement is enough an issue without asking for it by using green wood.


Steve, please stop suggesting every time I post that there are problems associated with green wood. I'm not going to stop confronting that nonsense.

I make a living with green wood, as do many others. That's not a fantasy, or a problem or even an opinion...it a simple fact both now and historically... 

If the human relationship with wood, by comparison of volume green vs dry, is examined fairly it has been worked green for the majority of our history with it...Some of us still do and know how too.

Can everything be made of green wood fresh off the stump, of course not? I never said it could be. Yet to keep insinuating all the time that folks have to wait for one year for every inch of wood to dry before they can start creating beautiful and useful things from it is simply false, as well as unfair and misleading.

Yes, wood moves...but instead of dismissing history and the actualities that are green woodworking, perhaps learn how to first use it yourself before dismissing it...so the conversation about "working wood" can be a complete and inclusive one to all the methods that are available to woodworkers...dry or green...


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

Jay C. White Cloud said:


> Or...
> 
> You can use it green in many applications and not have to wait at all...Like chairs, tables, benches, workbenches...
> 
> ...


I find this very surprising. I grew up around Chinaberry trees. Their Limbs would be the first to break in a high wind. Dangerous trees for kids to climb because their limbs would so easily break. I’ve never been around a Mahogany tree but I’ve built numerous pieces from Mahogany. Mahogany is one of my favorite furniture woods. I’ve always considered it a very strong hardwood. 
I don’t dispute your Janka hardness numbers. I’m just really surprised.


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## 35015 (Nov 24, 2012)

Toolman50 said:


> I find this very surprising. I grew up around Chinaberry trees. Their Limbs would be the first to break in a high wind. Dangerous trees for kids to climb because their limbs would so easily break. I’ve never been around a Mahogany tree but I’ve built numerous pieces from Mahogany. Mahogany is one of my favorite furniture woods. I’ve always considered it a very strong hardwood.
> I don’t dispute your Janka hardness numbers. I’m just really surprised.


Hi Toolman50,

I think perhaps this is a case where we could both be right...

I was just down in Katy Texas on a Barn Restoration, and the tree around there they called China Berry was as you described but did not look like any that I had worked on in the past nor were they large enough to harvest substantial wood from. The limbs on the tree they called China Berry did present as very brittle, but the tree itself looked nothing like M. Azedarach that I had seen or serviced.

There are color contrasts between new wood and old in actual China Berry and the creamy colored sap/early wood could well have a different hardness compared to the heartwood. So that is another possibility. 

If you like Mahagony, you would like China Berry if you got your hands on some nice plank or board stock...I think. I put China Berry right up there with some of my favorite American Exotics that most don't even bother looking at or trying to get. China Berry reminds me of being like the other North America faux Mahogany. One that actually had the moniker at one time in the 18th and 19th century of "American Mahogany" of which the large seed would be given away as a "prize" if you bought a certain about of product from some wondering Carpet Bagger. This is the primary way the "Kentucky Coffee Tree" got spread around so far outside its normal range. It is a remarkable wood, with high rot resistance (locust family) and a characteristic almost like glass when fresh off the stomp. The wood chatters into little bits if shock loaded, yet is very strong and durable when dry?

Regards.

j


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## woodworker56 (Jan 24, 2018)

Cornbush: 
You said: "It was cut down yesterday and I painted all the ends. The mobile miller guy wants the tree for free. I don't want to get taken advantage of but don't expect much either. "

Why don't you ask the sawyer to split to wood with you. You help him mill the lumber, and you keep an amount reasonable to store in your garage? Then you get some lumber for just a few hours work, and he gets lumber he wants. Either way, you will have a good day seeing the lumber as it comes off the saw.


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## Admin (Jan 4, 2010)

A gentle reminder for all of us.
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f33/when-we-disagree-198506/


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

Jay C. White Cloud said:


> Hi Toolman50,
> 
> I think perhaps this is a case where we could both be right...
> 
> ...


Jay, 
I agree. There must be two trees tagged with the name Chinaberry. That explains it for me. The Chinaberry in Texas is a very fast growing tree with slick, thin bark. It has non-edible yellow berries that are messy. Most consider it somewhat of a junk tree although it doesn’t get mistletoe like a Hackberry and it’s actually a pretty nice shade tree. I’m about 260 miles north of Katy.


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## 35015 (Nov 24, 2012)

Toolman50 said:


> Jay,
> I agree. There must be two trees tagged with the name Chinaberry.


Yep, since the last post here I have tried to educate myself a bit more about this species and to see if I had been mistaken about anything I thought I knew about it?

I know often for me (or other posters that do it) when I post the Latin name it may come across as "highfalutin" or elitist...It's not meant to at all...

I give the Latin name because so often the vernacular names can have many unrelated meanings...This one is a perfect example...

Since the last post, I learned that in Texas and other regions of the South, this species is also called the "Tree of Heaven," (which is actually Ailanthus altissima) which clearly it is not that species only similar in appearance...but...this new common name has stuck none the less.

Bark









Bud









Bloom









Leaf









Wood


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## Tennessee Tim (Dec 15, 2010)

AND Spalted!!! BUT our bark looks slicker in TN. You forgot to mention WHY it has so many "nicknames"....as usual, nicknames are usually opposite of the actual....tree of paradise, tree of heaven, etc., etc........IT STINKS when sawn. It seems to go away after drying.


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