apricot

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APRICOT

Prunus spp.
Prunus spp. of the family Prunaceae (also sometimes listed as belonging to the family Rosaceae, the rose family). The genus Prunus contains hundreds of fruit trees, with the apricots including at least Prunus fremontii (desert apricot) and Prunus armeniaca ("normal" apricot)

A fruit tree and, like many such fruit trees, generally of a size not conducive to the production of lumber but well favored by carvers and turners for small projects.

When I was cutting up the log shown below, I found the wood to be very easy to work but seriously subject to chipout and the splitting off of small edge sections.

my samples:
NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K)
colors will vary under other lighting conditions

Note: the following three images are my own samples only in that the pics were give to me. My thanks to John Scariano for these images and also for the log section shown below. John tells me that these are Prunus armeniaca.

slab and closeup

plank

Both ends of a log segment given to me by John Scariano, whom I thank. John sent me the log and when it arrived it exhibited no signs of cracking and John tells me it was air dried for over a year in an arid South-West climate. After several days in a warm, moderately moist, room in my house, it developed severe cracks on the end that was upright to the air. The moisture absorption must have been fairly severe, since when I moved it out to my cold garage and left it sitting on my belt sander for about 1/2 hr before I got around to sanding the end that had only minor cracking, it left a circle of moisture on the sanding belt. I rough sanded one end and I will now leave it sitting in the same room with that end up and I expect that it will develop cracks in that end. Once it has stabilized, I'll slab it and take some pics of face grain and end grain closeup, and if I can salvage any sizable pieces (and I think I'll be able to) I'll use it in some of my bowls.

a couple of closeups of the end grain on the end that has been rough sanded.

some small planks/sticks that I recovered from the log. The 2nd pic shows some of the pieces moistened with water to show how the wood looks with a finishing agent applied. Many of the pieces show edge flaws due to the wood being very subject to chipout/splitting when cut.

planks and end grain, all recovered from the log above

three end grain closeups from the small planks directly above. You can clearly see the rays that make for such a nice flaky quartersawn surface (sample directly below)

END GRAIN UPDATE of a different plank than the closeups, but from one of the same set of small planks directly above (the one in the upper right corner of the 4-plank shot)

HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of another plank somewhere on this page, done to get another pic for the anatomy pages.

closeup of a quartersawn surface

closeup of a flat cut surface

both sides of a sample plank of apricot / Prunus armeniaca --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the closeup pic shows too much red/purple

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR --- both faces of this sample have a light coat of clear paste wax
both sides of a sample plank of apricot / Prunus armeniaca --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of Siberian apricot / Prunus sibirica --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

web pics:

planks specified as Prunus armeniaca

planks just listed as apricot

slabs listed as Japanese flowering apricot / Prunus mume

closeup of a quartesawn surface, moistened for the pic

slab

apricot planks and turning stock, all from the same vendor and all with both levels of enlargement present. This vendor routinely over-saturates the red in their pics so the color shown is too rich.