Wood Gloat

[Marcel in Longueuil]

Hi,

Just thought I'd gloat on something that happened to me today.

A neighbor, about 5 houses down, had to cut a tree in his front yard this week, there was a huge cavity in the trunk that made it unsafe.

Driving in front of it yesterday, I noticed 2 things: There were some nice sections of trunks neatly stacked next to the stump, along with all the branches that were cut. There was no car in the driveway. Well Ok there was a third thing: the tree is a Poplar .

I did not steal the logs . This afternoon I walked over and rang the doorbell. The lady answered and when I asked if the wood was already spoken for, she said yes, but to take it

I don't know if the other party jumped ship or why I got the wood, but I went home got the trailer on the car and drove there bringing my back support belt and work gloves.

I managed to get a few nice logs from the place, they are around 28 inches in length and I identified one that is 10" in the picture for reference.

Next is the chainsaw if required followed by the bandsaw, Stacking and drying. All in all: A nice little hoard of free wood.

Happily,
Marcel

[bearfretworks]

Nice haul there Marcel!!!

Man, you need a lathe.....I see bowls, platters, goblets, etc... Sell those and buy kiln dried thin woods....

[BobD (Archive)]

Marcel.
Hold off on the chainsaw! I'd split them first, and let them dry. If you split them, they are much less likely to check!

Then you can re-saw them on the bandsaw!

Bob!

PS, I'll be posting some photos of quilted (my wife calls it flaming, based on the grain figure) hickory that I got for free! It's AWSOME!

Bob

[CanadianScroller]

Way to go Marcel.
I am happy for you neighbour
I may have to hop in the car and come for some Timmies and Poutine

[William Young (SE BC)]

Very nice haul;
I got a phone call last night about some black walnut that was cut down yesterday and I need to go and see it today. Black walnut is a rare wood in these parts .
I agree with bearfretworks. Lots of excellent turning potential there and no need to go through all the re-sawing and drying and milling down into scrolling wood . I have found that milling down 8/4 (2"thick) planks and such into scrolling wood causes a lot of waste but milling down logs like that into scrolling wood creates an enormous amount of waste. But then it's free so if the waste and time doesn't bother you ,and you have a good jointer and planer and bandsaw go for it and have fun doing it.
Remember you are looking at a rule of thumb of one year to each inch of thickness for drying before you even start to mill it down into panels.
Whereas for turning, it is perfect right now while it is still juicy green.
You may want to share some of it as is with a local turner. The knots and crotch pieces will not make good scrolling wood but would make some awsome turnings.
Have fun ripping it into boards and sticker drying it and milling it down into usable panels and a year or so from now we would love to see the panels you were able to get out of it.
When you rip it into boards and sticker it outside to dry be sure to put a LOT of weight on top of it because that poplar will warp and twist like crazy if you don't. And seal the ends with anchor seal to prevent it from cracking in about 6" from each end. If you don't have anchorseal, then several coats of old odds and ends of latex paint will help a lot.
Good luck and have fun.
W.Y.

[minowevie]

I just wont to thank Bill for his post. I really learned alot from it. I didn't know that about , one year per inch. thick , I think you meant. and painting the ends, i didn't know that eather. thanks. on the turning thing. i have heard. that on green wood, you should cover the wood on the lathe, with plactic or something. inbetween the cutting times. like over night. is that so? and if so. why? i would guess so it doesn't dry out so fast. also. is that why some wood places coat there wood with parifine.?? or wax. seems like are bowles crack all the time. how can we keep that from happening.? just learning. thanks. Evie

[William Young (SE BC)]

Here is the walnut that I referred to in the above post. I jumped in my camper van with my chain saw after lunch and went to check it out.
I cut nine pieces off a 12" diameter limb and could have got a whole trailer load. This tree was over three feet across at the trunk.


And here it is an hour later after I took the chain saw to it and cut it into eighteen bowl blanks and sealed the ends with anchor seal. This should make some awsome looking bowls with the almost white sap wood and the chocolate brown heart wood.


Marcel, I don't know how much experience you have had with processing wood like this so I hope by showing this it will be helpfull to you.
Like Bob said, you should split that nice haul of poplar you got right away That will save a lot of problems than if you leave it for a while . Notice I sawed my pieces as close as possible to the pith in the center of the wood. That will relieve stress's and prevent cracking in the center.
If I was going to make this into scrolling panels I would be sawing it into strips across the 4 to 5 inch edges and then sticker dry it and and then joint the edges and glue it up into panels. With some carefull sawing you can get some nice quarter sawn wood like this or at least some rift sawn which makes much more stable panels than flat sawn.
I will be turning as many bowls as I can with this walnut while it is juicy green.The tree was just cut down yesterday. Whatever I don't get around to turning , I will mill it down as explained and turn it into panels for scrollsawing or boxes or whatever.
This may be all old hat to you but just in case you were not familiar with the process that some of us use, I thought it might be helpfull to you. I wouldn't want to see you waste any of that nice haul you got by not being familiar with how to process it.
Just cutting these logs from the tree and then cutting them into bowl blanks had made me realize that when you are 70 you can't do stuff like this all day like I used to. A couple hours feels like a days work.
W.Y.

[minowevie]

Bill that is some nice wood allright. but now i am still learning. and i would like to ask. what does sticker mean? and is that in the way you layer it, to dry? also what does rift sawn and flat sawn mean? also, I thouth i understood what quarter sawn ment. but looking at your stack , now , I'm not sure. can you exsplain? thanks. wanting to learn. Evie PS. my hubby just turned 70. and he can work cercales around me. and I am wayyyyy younger.. so you are doing great.

[William Young (SE BC)]

evie;
Stickers are strips between layers to allow air circulation as shown in the bowl blanks picture.
Quarter sawn is when the grain is straight up and down when looking at the end of a board. (as in an acoustic guitar top for extra strength and warp resistance as well as for best sound) Rift sawn is when the grain is on an angle up to about 45 degrees. Flat sawn is when the grain is running predominantly crossways.
There is a lot more waste when milling wood in a quarter sawn fashion but it is well worth the effort for the extra strength and stability that can be acheived.
All my solid wood clocks were made in quarter sawn wood which I milled myself because some were taken to many countries from tourists passing through here and I wanted them to be able to handle evirommental differences like dry/hot and wet/damp situations that vary from one country to another.
W.Y..

[minowevie]

evie;
Stickers are strips between layers to allow air circulation as shown in the bowl blanks picture.
Quarter sawn is when the grain is straight up and down when looking at the end of a board. (as in an acoustic guitar top for extra strength and warp resistance as well as for best sound) Rift sawn is when the grain is on an angle up to about 45 degrees. Flat sawn is when the grain is running predominantly crossways.
There is a lot more waste when milling wood in a quarter sawn fashion but it is well worth the effort for the extra strength and stability that can be acheived.
All my solid wood clocks were made in quarter sawn wood which I milled myself because some were taken to many countries from tourists passing through here and I wanted them to be able to handle evirommental differences like dry/hot and wet/damp situations that vary from one country to another.
W.Y..

Now Bill ,, I sure had Quarter sawn down rong. i thought it was cut at a 45. dang. but that is called Rift? and flat is against the grain??? boy do I have alot to learn. wwwwyuu. I do have some old quarter sawn wood. and looking at it. i thought for sure it was cut at a 45 across the grain. boy what you don't know when you don't come to town. thanks. Evie back to schoole for me.

[Marcel in Longueuil]

Thank-you all for the information

Thanks for all the information Bill,

I was aware of the 1"= 1 year drying time, the stickering and the end painting of the pieces. I knew from the start that I wouldn't be using these for a couple of years.

But you did add to my knowledge with your post and I'm grateful for it, as I'm sure others are.

As to the sawing style, I'm not sure which I will opt for, but my first need is to get a chainsaw to make the first cuts.

Bob, you mentioned splitting them instead of sawing them. I don't have a log splitter, and I have no clue on how to do it with a wedge and ax: I'd probably end up cutting my foot off .

I'll see what I can come up with and keep you posted.

Regards,
Marcel

[BobD (Archive)]

All you need is a wedge and a sledge...hammer the wedge into the center of the log until it splits <grin>.

An axe cut makes it easy to start the wedge, but, I've done it without. But you should be able to pick up a splitting maul at a flea market or auction for very little. It may need a handle, but that's an easy fix.

Poplar is easy to split; not like, say...knotty pine or hard maple...In fact, you may be able to split it with just an axe...

A quick trick for fitting the handle onto the splitting maul...use a sharp paint scraper to do the quick shaping to fit the handle to the head. Then coat the handle with linseed oil; put the head in place and using controlled drops, bang the handle on a concrete floor. It will drive the handle into the head.

Once the head is in place, cut a slot long-ways with a hacksaw for the wooden wedge. Drive the wooden wedge in as far as you can, and then cut off the top part of the handle (That is sticking out above the maul head. Then drive the metal wedge across the wooden wedge (short-ways) to finish locking the head in place.

(My parents heated with wood, so I broke my share of handles <grin>)

Bob