catalpa

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NOTE: there is rarely any "standard" or "typical" look for a wood so take what's in this table with a grain of salt
the REST of the pictures on this page will give you a better overall feel for this wood

catalpa / Catalpa spp.
Catalpa spp. of the family Bignoniaceae. Includes at least Catalpa bignonioides and Catalpa speciosa and that is for the species in the USA. Worldwide, there are numerous other Catalpa species.

2" x 2" flat cut, 2" x 2" quartersawn, 1" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

The catalpas that are native to the USA are Ring porous with 3 to 8 rows of large earlywood pores with heavy vasicentric parenchyma and latewood pores that are usually much smaller than the earlywood pores but sometimes not much smaller but in either case they usually have significant vasicentric parenchyma. The transition from large earlywood pores to smaller latewood pores is often quite gradual. There are usually wavy tangential bands of pores in the last part of the latewood, with confluent parenchyma. Rays are barely visible at 10X and are tightly spaced.

Some of the other catalpas, for example Cuban catalpa / Catalpa punctata and Haitian catalpa / Catalpa longissima which are both shown on this page, are diffuse porous and have slightly more prominent rays.

That raises the question of how the species that are ring porous and those that are diffuse porous got lumped into the same genus but I have no doubt at all that the answer has to do with the external botanical characteristics of the tree and zero to do with the actual wood produced by the tree because that, sadly for us woodworkers, is how botanical classification works.

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

both sides and both ends of a sample piece --- the color in these pics is slightly more yellow/green than the wood, which is a light tan with a tiny hint of red

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above. Note the hexagonal pith shape. There is some discussion of this with a sample further down the page.

sample plank and end grain listed as Southern catalpa / Catalpa bignonioides

end grain closeup of the piece direct above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a small plank of southern catalpa / Catalpa bignonioides --- 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

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

sample plank and end grain listed as Northern catalpa / Catalpa speciosa

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of Northern catalpa / Catalpa speciosa --- 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

first face and the end grain of a sample of Western catalpa / Catalpa speciosa --- This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION G

the second face, before and after sanding it down a bit, showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of Haitian catalpa / Catalpa longissima --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. I note that although this was not listed as curly it does have a light curl. This is one of the diffuse porous catalpas

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above. I note that the growth rings are very thin and vague compared to all the other catalpa samples I have.

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of curly Haitian catalpa / Catalpa longissima --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This is one of the diffuse porous catalpas.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of curly Haitian catalpa / Catalpa longissima --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was contributed to the site by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. I think this was cut from the headboard piece shown directly below. This is one of the diffuse porous catalpas.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

a section cut from a headboard made from curly Haitian catalpa / Catalpa longissima --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The curl is extremely obvious in the wood and shows up reasonably clearly in these pics. This is one of the diffuse porous catalpas

face grain closeup and the end grain of the piece directly above

end grain closeup of the piece directly above. Because of the size of the piece, I did not do an end grain update on this one.

both sides of a sample plank of curly Haitian catalpa / Catalpa longissima --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This is one of the diffuse porous catalpas.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of Cuban catalpa / Catalpa punctata --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This is one of the diffuse porous catalpas mentioned in the notes at the top of the page.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

first face and the end grain of a sample of catalpa. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION B.

the second face, before and after slicing off 1/8" showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above. Note the hexagonal pith area. I believe that this is common in catalpa but have not been able to substantiate that through research. Hoadley has an example of exactly this (Identifying Wood, p. 58) but when he comments specifically on pith shape of various woods he only mentions the SIZE of the catalpa pith and does not comment on the shape. Similarly, I have found various information on pith shape in different woods but none with any mention of catalpa. I also note that the first sample at the top of this page also has the hexagonal pith.

turning stock --- end grain is sealed with Anchorseal, but the enlargements do a good job of showing the grain. Color is very accurate

turning stock and end grain closeup --- this is the smaller of the two pieces directly above but cleaned up and sanded

both sides of a slab of catalpa. The first side has a patina and the second side is freshly sanded. HUGE enlargements are present

both ends of the piece

end grain and END GRAIN UPDATE of one end of the piece directly above

This section has pieces all from the same tree.

This is the batch. This pic has a bit too much yellow and all of the following pics should have a bit MORE yellow.

I was using a not-very-sharp saw to cut these and you can see how readily the end grain is crushed on this very light and grainy wood.

face grain shots

two surfaces of one of the pieces

side grain shot of a piece from right at the outside of the tree showing the transition from heartwood to sapwood to bark

face and side of a particularly swirly piece.

three surfaces of the piece directly above

side grain shots of several pieces

face grain closeups

end grain closeups --- the pores would be much more prominent if I had used a razor-cut instead of sanding these surfaces.

END GRAIN UPDATE from one of the pieces above

The Wood Book pics

flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides, aka bean tree and cigar tree) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are present for all 3 views

Seems to be another case where the wood samples that these images were take from had darkened quite a bit over time and I don't know for sure but I'd guess that the purple color is more an effect of the photography than it is true wood color.

web pics:

slabs

planks

turning square and closeup

bowl blanks and end grain

curly catalpa bowl blanks

pen blanks made from crotch wood

bowl turning blank

Northern catalpa bowl blank

curly Haitian catalpa

turning stock from a moderately dishonest vendor who makes all of her wood pics far more red than the wood really is.

interesting crotch area --- this is where a branch was cut-off or broke off and then smaller branches grew out in and around the area. These pics were contributed by William Bachtel whom I thank.