Milling over Thanksgiving

[qbilder]

Got to go north to Ohio to visit family for turkey day. Only had a few days but managed to mill a little. Had a giant old cherry to mill, produced 5 - roughly 10' logs, 30" at butt log & 18" at first branch. Got LOTS of dimensional lumber and a load of live edge slabs.

Me laughing at my brother, who's trying to man handle one of the logs:

The mill set up in the mud, elevated on rail ties. Ready to rock & roll.

Wifey posing in front of one of the upper end logs. Had some curve in it and I thought it may have a lil figure so I slabbed it. Not really any figure (log not wife) but really pretty (log and wife).

Old rotten maple section off the old man's fire wood pile made some interesting slabs. These two are 18"-20" wide:

All in all, very good trip. I cut a LOAD of hard maple, all straight clean logs, quarter sawn for my cues. I cut probably 1000bf of it. Planning to go back up in January for some more. Thanksgiving with the fam was pretty good, too

 

[john taliaferro]

nice mill ,i like the tractor also . So you build cues ? for pool ? were gonna need more pictures , you use a lathe and steady or what . Thanks for the pictures but ya started something ha ha . John t

 

[RedArrow]

I like the maple!

 

[qbilder]

Yuppers, I build cues for pool. Nothing more satisfying than walking the woods, choosing trees, harvesting them, milling, and creating a functional item from it. I love pool so cues are something I get to do with my wood. I also build rustic furniture with my wife. I just love wood :biggrin:

Here's a few. I have built several hundred over the past 10 years. Some from exotics, some from trees I cut.

 

[deeker]

Great pics!

Nice logs/slabs and ques!!

And by the way you DID marry up!!

Great job!

 

[Old Blue]

Your ques are beautiful

Wow. My eyes are having a hard time processing all of that highly figured wood. I used to shoot a lot of pool and appreciate a well balanced hardwood que :msp_thumbup:

Nice mill, nicer ques ! Do you sell any of them? Dare I ask how much? Give my best wishes to your beautiful wife, your a lucky man.


Old Blue
Punitive taxation without representation in
Kali-bone-ya

 

[StevenBiars]

Nice mill, nicer ques ! Do you sell any of them? Dare I ask how much? Give my best wishes to your beautiful wife, your a lucky man.

I second this comment, plus I'm wondering if wouldn't happen to turn handles for chisels and such, would you?

 

[qbilder]

Thanks for all the comments :smile2:

I have a wood lathe that could easily be used for turning tool handles, but I haven't used the thing in a decade. My lathes for the cues are more like machine lathes with fixed tooling. They do great for intended purpose but useless for other wood turnings. I have been thinking of getting a tooling kit for my wood lathe and putting it to use for some bowls & stuff. I'll sure turn you some handles then.

 

[qbilder]

Wow. My eyes are having a hard time processing all of that highly figured wood. I used to shoot a lot of pool and appreciate a well balanced hardwood que :msp_thumbup:

Nice mill, nicer ques ! Do you sell any of them? Dare I ask how much? Give my best wishes to your beautiful wife, your a lucky man.


Old Blue
Punitive taxation without representation in
Kali-bone-ya

:hmm3grin2orange: Yeah I like the crazy stuff. The bizarre & weird figured woods make for some pretty stuff. I actually get some woods from Cali. I drive out there once or twice a year with wife & kids and spend time on the beach & Lego Land. Kids play in the water, I walk the shore looking for washed up burls. It's mostly manzanita burls but sometimes I find something really good. This last time I found a pretty large holly root burl system, solid & sound. Stuff always stinks like the sea but it looks good!

 

[Can8ianTimber]

Here is some currly walnut I cut about a year ago. I end up with odds and end pieces of really highly figured walnut from time to time and don't know what to do with them. I don't have the patence to inventory little stuff and put it on Ebay. I could make you a really good deal on some small stuff for cues if you are interested. I just want to see it get used for something cool like those cues you made. Those are awesome!!!View attachment 209375

 

[qbilder]

Here is some currly walnut I cut about a year ago. I end up with odds and end pieces of really highly figured walnut from time to time and don't know what to do with them. I don't have the patence to inventory little stuff and put it on Ebay. I could make you a really good deal on some small stuff for cues if you are interested. I just want to see it get used for something cool like those cues you made. Those are awesome!!!View attachment 209375

Make me a deal!!!! I'm interested in gun stock sizes for shotguns, too. I have a Beretta I want to make a stock for but need some really nice walnut. But for cues, anything 1.5" x 1.5" x 12"+ is awesome or anything larger than any of those dimensions. Make me a deal!!!! Thanks much

 

[mikeb1079]

nice post q. looks like you guys had a good time milling. i love black cherry, such a nice wood to cut and work. any specific ideas for the dimensional lumber you cut?

 

[qbilder]

nice post q. looks like you guys had a good time milling. i love black cherry, such a nice wood to cut and work. any specific ideas for the dimensional lumber you cut?

I'm gonna build myself a gun cabinet. My brother in law is gonna build one for him, plus a kitchen table. There'll be lots left over, though. I cut mostly 5/4 but also cut several 4x4's & some 8/4. Stuff cuts so nice I don't think it could ever dull a blade.

 

[mikeb1079]

Stuff cuts so nice I don't think it could ever dull a blade.

amen to that. black cherry is really hard to beat for appearance and workability, especially if using hand tools. make sure to post some pics down the road when you make those projects.

 

[WadePatton]

Is that buckeye burl in the first stick? i love that blue burl-saw it first shopping for pistol grips.

now i'm building a long-rifle (old school BP, 5' long) from curly maple, and have an Alaskan in the mail so i can start collecting, saving, selling the highly figured woods that normally get left to rot.

fantastic walnut there too CT. i need my stock blanks to be 12/4 and 6'. local sawyers don't do much of that. so i'm in! (mill is on order)

 

[qbilder]

Is that buckeye burl in the first stick? i love that blue burl-saw it first shopping for pistol grips.

now i'm building a long-rifle (old school BP, 5' long) from curly maple, and have an Alaskan in the mail so i can start collecting, saving, selling the highly figured woods that normally get left to rot.

fantastic walnut there too CT. i need my stock blanks to be 12/4 and 6'. local sawyers don't do much of that. so i'm in! (mill is on order)

You bet, it's buckeye. It was a large guitar blank a friend & I secured from fleabay, paid around $400 for it and then another couple hundred to have it resin stabilized. I have about $300 in my half, which is roughly 6 cues worth. This cue returned my investment by more than 10x so not too bad. The rest of it will be all gravy.

I'd love to see what you're doing with gun blanks!!! I'm looking in to doing some shotgun sets.