Lilac a beautiful flower, a shrub and eventually a tree

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Lilacs are Springs' beautiful lavender flowers. 

What is less well known is that lilacs are actually trees but very slow going trees.  The shrub form happens when the homeowner trims and maintains the form that produces the most flowers.

If one leaves the shrub (Siberian or Common lilacs) unattended or let to mature on its own, it will grow a trunk.  In a scant 40 years you will have a tree.  Not a huge tree.  a rather funny looking lilac tree that doesn't really flower.

This is the outside of the trunk which is about 6 inches around.

It's not terribly attractive and it feels very punky, soft and flaky.

But the inside is another matter completely!  Yes, it's violet! Red violet! red violet is the color of inertia! Absolutely 100% natural!  Okay enough (!).  But seriously, how cool is that?

What we have made are a good lots of handles for the shave bowls, a shave brush and are just beginning the finishing of a shave brush.

Handles for shave bowls:

Shaving Brush:

Another Handle for a wet shaving soap bowl

 

Etsy listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/233617831/badger-brush-for-shaving-free-engraving

Below are another couple of pics of the lilac shave brush.  The swirls are completely independent of the way the trunk stood.  It is really quite magical. 

 

For the Wet shavers who pop by, the knot is a silvertip 65mmx22mm and has not bloomed yet.  In other terms, the brush part is 65mm tall and 22mm across the bottom of the knot.  Silvertip means it is a badger brush made from the natural hairs of badgers. 

The knot "not being in bloom", is that the brush part called the knot, appears kind of narrow and the bristles do not yet fall in an arc like they do after the shave brush has been used for a little while. 

This brush lives in NYC with a serious wet shaver.  He also has a shaving bowl or shaving scuttle the has a lilac handle.  It is very rare that one is able to harvest a lilac trunk that is this big.  We are very fortunate to have the bush that it came from in the side yard.  Someone must have planted it when the house was built in the early 1900's.  It was left to it's own devises for many, many years.  We are so fortunate to able to harvest it in a normal yard, in a normal small town in Pennsylvania.    

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