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Shad... ever hear of it?

Bob N

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There are small trees that grow in my area that the locals call "Shad". The wood is extremely hard. When I searched for it online the closest I could find is a shrub/tree called Servicewood or Shadbush. Has anyone heard of it or has had experience using it in carving carving projects.
 
Sorry for the double post, I thought I hadn't given it a title. Getting old 😒
 
If you have service trees growing as saplings then nurture them, they’re extremely valuable timber, loosely related to rosewood. If you’re tempted to eat the berries then make sure to spit out the toxic seed/pit.
I have never heard of them being called shad, I thought that was a type of fish.
 
I have never heard of them being called shad, I thought that was a type of fish
Right, we have shad (the fish) here as well. I'm not originally from this area, one of my neighbors who grew up here said that everyone up there (Catskill Mountains) called it Shad. The ones on my property aren't very big but it does seem to be pretty prolific. the largest one I've found so far has a trunk diameter of about 4 inches.
 
Hmm, I have small trees but not heard of them called shad before!
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John 👍
 
There are small trees that grow in my area that the locals call "Shad". The wood is extremely hard. When I searched for it online the closest I could find is a shrub/tree called Servicewood or Shadbush. Has anyone heard of it or has had experience using it in carving carving projects.
Do they have spines on them Bob, We have hawthorn over here, they are very hard due to slow growing and are often used for carving, turning,
walking sticks and the like.
 
I wish I had a picture of one with me, as I'm at my downstate home now. The bark is smooth on the thin younger trees, lets say 2 inch diameter size. The color is kind of a grayish beige coloring. Another characteristic is that it's very often not perfectly round in diameter. It almost looks like it has muscles under the bark running the length of the trunk. If that's what you mean by spines...
 
I never went after them myself but I had a buddy who use to fish for them in the Delaware River.
 
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