Buckeye wood useless for gunstocks

[WadePatton]

Is buckeye timber/lumber/wood totally useless?

I found a busted stump yesterday that shows the tightest curl I've seen.  It's about 8 per inch.

But the lumber company won't buy buckeye logs.  I have some giant buckeye trees, but have never cut any up to see if the wood was any count for any thing.  Since my neighbors cattle started getting sick on the nuts, he's dropping all of his and letting them rot.  So there's plenty of it on the ground to experiment with, just don't see any references to it for gunwood.

And that curl got me stirred up.

further research reveals:
ahhh, these guys: Neelands, R. W. 1979. Important trees of eastern forests. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Southeastern Area State and Private Forestry, Atlanta, GA. 111 p.

say this: The wood is light and soft and is used for pulpwood, woodenware, and occasionally for lumber.  

And from Purdue: http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-299-W.pdf

Short, end of story:  It's worthless, except for producing squirrel-favored but cattle toxic mast.

[heinz]

Too soft for gun wood.  Excellent for bowls, spoons and trenchers.  Probably make and interesting horn plug

[rich pierce]

Not worth burning.  About as good as willow or box elder as firewood.

[WadePatton]

Yes, that's what the research i quoted at the end of my original post says in more "scholarly" words.

If the squirrels weren't so thrilled by the mast, then I'd cut 'em to make room for trees of substance...

odd how they poison domestic animals and wild ones don't appear to suffer.

I still have a lot of cherry and walnut and maple and ash to sort out anyway.  It's sawing season again.  

[Kermit]

We used to refer to wood like that as "summer wood." Burns hot and fast, and then goes out. Good for the cookstove when you need a fast cook fire but don't need to heat the kitchen. Cooking on a cast iron range is mostly a lost art. My mother and grandmother discovered bottled propane, and the cookstove stayed idle until cooler weather.

[axelp]

In my area the buckeye is a smallish tree, but one of my favorites, because its the first tree to green up in the spring and the first one to go dormant in winter. I set my calendar to it. Also the bark is kind of smooth and spongy and I used to like to climb them as a kid. And i have heard its a good wood to whittle because it is soft. But they are never very big in the Sierra foothills of central CA.

[dannylj]

Here in North Louisiana I've never seen one bigger than a big bush.

[David R. Pennington]

I remember reading in some of the old original documents about using buckeye for tableware. It is nice for whittling and carving. Makes excellent kindling. Burns like its got kerosene in it. Would not make a good gunstock.