Orange Wood (Citrus)

[Larry R]

Hope this is the right area to ask this. I'm a estate/garage sale junkie and found what appears to be a piece of orange (citrus) wood. I've tried to find info in the archives without much luck. I haven't heard of anyone carving orange (citrus) wood and was wondering what the pros & con would be on this wood. The piece I pickup is 7 inches tall by 4.5 inches across. It appears to be very dry with shrunken bark and all. I was told at the sale that the gentleman used it as a drilling stop but not much more info there. The markings on the one end would lead you to think it's very old but then it appears to have been written with a sharpie or something similar. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

Larry

[Larry R]

Sorry, but I reduced the size of the photos.

 

Larry

[Janel]

Hi Larry,

 

The best way to find out is to start carving a piece to see how it works and feels with the tools. From the photos, it appears to be dense and tight-grained. The cracks seem to be well spaced to allow for some solid wood for smaller pieces. It sure is interesting to think about what you might find inside.

 

Fine grained, hard, dense wood is good for small and detailed carving, generally. Some woods might not be though. See how it works and let us know? I don't have any experience with it, sorry.

 

Janel

[Larry R]

Hi Janel

 

Thanks for you response. I figured cutting & carving would be the best way but thought I'd see if anybody else had carved orange wood. Looks like it's time to put the saw to work and see what kind of goodie are on the inside. As you said the cracks appear far enough apart to get some useable pieces. I'm wondering if it might not be better to split it on the crack lines. Any suggestions or recommendations? The texture of the bark is also very interesting as it has a bit of orange/red hue. I'm wondering what kind of projects it might inspire. I'll let you know what I find inside.

Sincerely

Larry

[Yuri]

I haven't carved orange, but did lemonwood. The bark looks very similar, and i imagine the wood will be that, too. The lemonwood is quite dense, and even grained, rather pleasurable to carve. Not as heavy as box, but would not be much lighter. I also turned it, and it turns very cleanly, polishes up really well. I also found, from turning a candlestick, then having a candle burn right down to the wood, that the wood is very flammable, it just about burst into flames when the fire touched it, Certainly got scorched, and as a result, had to be discarded.

[Janel]

Uuuuuu, wooden candle holders, Yikes! I could never figure out why the tinder source would be used with a candle, except that it is such a great looking material. I am glad that you were around to take care of the surprise event.

 

Larry, I had typed and deleted the notion of splitting with the cracks for the first post from me. It would be my tendency to do just that, as I have done just that with split boxwood chunks. There are times that I will use a power tool and grub out the split, but that is a case by case decision.

 

Are you going to cut it to length of imagined projects first? Do the cracks line up end to end? Is the bark stuck on well everywhere? I see some puckers where it might be easy to shiver or peal it off.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Janel

[Larry R]

Yuri

Thanks for the heads up! I'll make sure I don't use it as a candle holder.

 

Janel

Thanks for the insight. I'm thinking I'll see how much bark I can peel and go from there with the splitting. I've got a couple of project ideas but they won't be the full length.

 

I'll let you know.

 

Larry