Laburnum thought

We are in the process of dealing with a very old and probably dying Laburnum. I know the wood should not be used as firewood because of its toxicity (or at least it seems that way). However, since you can buy Laburnum blanks for wood turning, what about their toxic properties in that case?
Not that I intend using the wood for either purpose, just was interested.
The timber we get will go to the re-cycling yard.

 

I know some timbers are pretty much banned now, but never sure whether that is out of scarcity or toxicity.
Personally I dont use much Laburnum, but I dont think the toxicity would put me off using it, afterall, I'd probably not be eating it.

 

Some interesting notes on Wikipedia.

 

@shiney thats because laburnum is a very desirable tree for woodturning, especially when it is in larger dimensions as your tree obviously was. Yes, it is toxic, but not as much as most think.

If any of you ever tried to play a recorder at school, theres a possibility that it was made from laburnum. Thats one of its common uses, and there are others.

As some on here are aware, now and again I do a bit of woodturning. Even if I like items made from this wood, I try to avoid using it for that purpose. Not because of the toxicity, but because what are known as micro cracks often appear. Now and again, these turn into bigger cracks, sometimes causing the piece to explode in the lathe! To avoid this happening, many will bind it together using straps when it is being worked.

 

At the moment the pieces are mainly thin branches, not a lot of use for turning according to our son in law who has made things on his lathe before now. If the rest of the tree has to come down then we will offer it to the local Wood turning community.

 

As a rule of thumb, if there is a straight piece over about 130mm long, and over 15mm or so in diameter, it can be used for making some kind of turned object. or other kind of wooden piece. Over recent years, there has been a bit of an upsurge in making smaller items such as pens, furniture for dolls houses etc. and smaller pieces are ideal for that.

Otherwise, in some areas of the UK, there are still people working as Bodgers. The term does not refer to a poor job by someone, but an old trade in which nothing from a tree is wasted. If someone is lucky enough to have one of these in the area, then quite often they will make something from the tree and give it to the owner as payment.

 

What is 15mm in proper measurements?

 

1mm less than 16mm, 1mm more than 14mm....

 

15mm x 0.039370= 19⁄32in or 0.59375. This much ______ on a laptop screen.

Sorry, I have a personal affection to metric units

 

And so you should! Even your user name is written in the Swedish way, and thats a metric country.....

 

Well, the lack of info means that our local Wood turning group can go whistle for the Laburnum. It is going to the tip!

 

The thing I've noticed when cutting down Laburnum is the very distinct colour change between the heartwood and the sap wood.
I'm guessing that is what woodturners are looking for?

So probably the wood needs to be a reasonable diameter for that to occur.

 

Laburnum could be used to make Lace Bobbins.

 

15mm is the diameter of most copper water pipes. Some are also 10mm

I believe that Laburnum is often used in marketry ( wrong spelling) and inlay. Regarding the toxicity I must admit I have no idea asto how long after the wood has been cut etc that this remains a problem.