Hazel wood question

[Dakota Kid]

I cut a hazel stave last winter and it's to the point that I was able to start working on it. It surprised me a bit as an impressive wood. I decided to cut a few more, my parents property is full of them. Well, the seasoned one I cut was about 5" in diameter and had a gorgeous chocolate colored heartwood with grey and copper colored streaks.  It reminded me of some really top notch black walnut. Sadly the ones I cut today were white wood all the way through. They were a bit smaller in diameter which may come into play. I was disappointed with the lack of heart wood, but I plan to cut a few more large ones soon in the hopes of finding some with color.

My question is do hazel trees only develop heartwood as they reach their max size? Or perhaps I found an anomaly? I did find a couple old nails buried in the stave, but wouldn't expect it to cause radical coloring through out the entire length. If this is not a common occurrence I'll throw up some pics because it really is stunning.

[helmet]

I would like to see pics, I have never seen color like that but have only cut small diameter. I was just staightening a stave of hazel a few minutes ago.

[Dakota Kid]

Here's a couple shots. Unfortunately I'm gonna lose all of the heartwood in the limbs, but the fades and handle will look sweet.

[helmet]

That is really nice looking, it does look similar to black walnut.

[M-P]

That's a new one for me.  The few hazel I've cut are white all the way.  I had no idea hazel could make it to five inch diameter.  The ones I've found are big bushes.

[wizardgoat]

I've cut some hazel 5-6" diam and it was all white.  I'd bet that's black walnut

[Dakota Kid]

I'm 99.5% on my ID. The tree/shrubs grow in clusters and I cut the biggest one in that particular stand. There are no black walnut within 2 miles of where I cut that tree. The only other trees nearby are black cherry, maple, ash, crab apple, a select few elm trees, and one dogwood. Can dogwood look like that?

[Dakota Kid]

I remember cutting of the bottom 6" of the stave because the center was hollowed out from rot. Could the coloration be a result of a fungus and it was starting to rot?

[Del the cat]

I've seen some big Hazel cut and never seen coloured heartwood.
Del

[Dakota Kid]

While I was google searching I saw something similar but it happened to an ash tree that was a dead fall. It has a soft rotten spot, but when split it has brown grey coloration spreading from that area for several feet in both directions. The man who harvested the tree said the wood was sound it had just taken on color from the rot that had occurred. If I had to guess, I'd bet it was something along those lines. The darker wood in my stave is softer than the white wood part. It was probably stained by a fungus that traveled up the center of the tree. I'll look around and see if I can find another one, perhaps even one a little more decomposed just to check the color.

[randman]

Definitely not Hazel but it could be elm and you said there was elm in the area...

[Dakota Kid]

There were a few american elm, but the bark isn't even close to the same. This was growing in a stand of hazel and had matching bark. Kind of a smooth bluish grey. I know the simplest answer is a misidentification, but I can't figure out what it could be that looked the same. The leading look-a-like nearby is maple, and it's not that. It looks similar to elm but the back is smooth. The elm I cut from there has ridges on the back and the heartwood is reddish and much lighter.

I'm off to the treestand for the day, but when I get home I'll do some testing to see if I can figure it out for sure.

[Dakota Kid]

Okay, It's definitely a hazel stave. I went to where I cut it and found the stump. It was part of a 10 trunk cluster. I also reduced one of the limbs to the white wood and the coloration does not follow the grain. It passes through rings in some places, so it's not heartwood. Best I can tell is that it's staining due to the first stages of spalting. The fungus was able to travel up the center of the stave after the bottom rotted out. I've never seen chocolate colors like that from spalting. It's usually blue, grey, and purple.

I may intentionally try spalting some for other woodworking projects. I'll let you know if it works.

[Pappy]

No answer on what it is or how it got that way but it is some beautiful wood, if you think it is splatted wood I wouldn't use it for a bow, but knife handle that is another story. That will make some beautiful projects.
 Pappy

[stuckinthemud]

it is some beautiful wood, if you think it is splatted wood I wouldn't use it for a bow, but knife handle that is another story. That will make some beautiful projects.
 Pappy

if your going to carve it all away except for the limbs and fades, could you splice in a handle section to a plain hazel bow as a compromise - I'm with Pappy, its just too beautiful to turn into shavings