Milling some small Juniper in the basement

[Brmorgan]

I've been thinking of making some small wood boxes to hold the fishing flies that I've tied and I thought that Juniper would make a perfect wood for that. I'm not sure if the strong scent would affect the usability of the flies though - the wood would either probably have to be sealed on the inside, or just used for displaying. Anyway I went out for a drive with my uncle today to see if I could round up a decent tree for a trial run. Here's what I came home with:

I know, some of you guys in the southwestern States might scoff at it, but any juniper over 8" up here is a rarity. The largest log is about 5' long by 8" at one end and 6" at the other. I was going to mill the works up tonight on my bandsaw sled mill, but after trying in vain for an hour to get it to track the rip blade, I discovered that the cast aluminum housing of the band tensioner and tracking assembly is pretty much crumbling away along its pivot points so the wheel wouldn't stay straight. Cheap POS Chinese :censored: casting! I don't think it was designed to withstand the tension necessary for a 3/4" X 104" band. Gotta call Ridgid tomorrow for a new one I guess. I'm going to see if I can talk my way into a replacement for free, but if not it'll be about $20.

So since that wasn't going to work, I cut the log on the left in the photo into 2 18" pieces and one just under a foot. I squared two sides of these with the 041AVS and proceeded to mill them down with the tablesaw. This is what I ended up with:

Actually I did have four more pieces that I forgot about before I took that picture, so I had a little more than what's shown there. Everything's between 4-6" wide and all 3/4" thick except for a couple "leftovers" that are random thickness.

Got a couple nice fairly-bookmatched pieces too:

And even some really nice figured grain:

Though keep in mind that's a closeup of about a 2.5" X 3" area adjacent to a big knot. Still would make for a really nice tool handle or kitchen utensil of some sort.

 

[deeker]

Dammit.....you forgot to post the smell.

Looks great!!!!

 

[Brmorgan]

Oh yeah, I did forget to mention that they're all simmering away nicely in my kiln box right now at 90F. Since that's in the basement, the whole house smells like a blanket chest right now! I was actually headed downstairs pretty soon to check up on it before I head to bed. Which brings me to the other use I had in mind for some Juniper wood, and that is to line a blanket chest I plan on building for my mom. She's gotten into quilting quite a bit in the last couple years so it was a project idea for next year's Mother's Day or something.

It's going to take a while to learn how best to saw these logs to grade. What with the generally twisted nature of the trees and all the bark inclusions and furrows in the log, it can make it hard to read the log before cracking it open.

Edit: I also forgot to post a pic of the nice bright red noodle pile I made while ripping the sides off of the round logs. Trying to figure out a use for them.

 

[Stihlman441]

Never herd of that wood but it looks great,make afew fly boxes and sell them to ya mates.

 

[Brmorgan]

It's a member of the Cypress family along with the cedars. If you know of "aromatic" or "incense" cedar, this stuff smells and looks pretty much the same. It only grows in very dry areas and even a small tree can be decades old.

 

[Taxed Mind]

Gin anyone?

It is the berries of the juniper tree which is used to flavour plain grain spirit to turn it into gin.

 

[BobL]

Though keep in mind that's a closeup of about a 2.5" X 3" area adjacent to a big knot. Still would make for a really nice tool handle or kitchen utensil of some sort.

I'm drooling on this stuff - really really nice. How hard is it?

 

[Brmorgan]

I don't know exactly how hard it is but I'd say probably harder than all of the Spruces, Pines, and True Firs, maybe not quite as hard as Larch or Hemlock but it's up there.

 

[bigbadbob]

Brad if you are ever in the Cache Creek or Deadmans River area the juniper there gets quite large. Sure has a nice grain. My bro built a ton of fly boxes from juniper. Yours is looking good. Maybe Clearance has seen some bigger stuff around his area also??

 

[redprospector]

I'm in the southwest, and I have one rule I never break. Never, ever scoff at Juniper of any size!! A lot of what I cut winds up being 1x6, and 1x4.

The Juniper you have is a little different than what we have here, but I like.

One of my friends got some Juniper 6x6's out of Mexico because he didn't want to pay the price for it here. He got it and it's totally different than what he started with. So he either has to scrap what he's already done and start over, or buy some more from a local and start a new project with his Mexican Juniper.

Andy

 

[deeker]

We can get some pretty good sized (for Utah) around here.

A larger slab.

 

[outdoorlivin247]

Dammit.....you forgot to post the smell.

Looks great!!!!

Got to love those scratch and sniff threads...

 

[deeker]

Got to love those scratch and sniff threads...

I second that....even the wood cutting and milling ones.....

 

[pastryguyhawaii]

That is some nice looking wood! Does it keep that color when it's dried and finished?

 

[deeker]

That is some nice looking wood! Does it keep that color when it's dried and finished?

Yes, if quickly treated....polyurethane...or....if not...it fades to a brownish red.

 

[texx]

there is a lot of great pen blanks in that stuff

 

[Brmorgan]

there is a lot of great pen blanks in that stuff

Yeah that's another thing I've been wanting to get into doing. I don't have my lathe set up quite properly for it yet though, nor do I have one of the little mandrel kits for turning the pieces. Too much fun to be had in the wood shop and not enough time to try everything I want to yet. Hopefully in a couple years I'll have enough invested into equipment and will have learned enough that I can make a pretty steady income between milling and woodworking, and not have to spend 40 hours a week working for someone else.

 

[texx]

good time to start putting timber aside to dry , then when you are equipped to start turning or what ever you decide to do in the wood work dept you have some nice dried timber ready to go ,
so start stashing it away now for later
write the date cut and the timber type on any wood you stash away it will make life a lot easier in 3 or 4 years time.

 

[Ted J]

Oh yeah, I did forget to mention that they're all simmering away nicely in my kiln box right now at 90F. Since that's in the basement, the whole house smells like a blanket chest right now! I was actually headed downstairs pretty soon to check up on it before I head to bed. Which brings me to the other use I had in mind for some Juniper wood, and that is to line a blanket chest I plan on building for my mom. She's gotten into quilting quite a bit in the last couple years so it was a project idea for next year's Mother's Day or something.

It's going to take a while to learn how best to saw these logs to grade. What with the generally twisted nature of the trees and all the bark inclusions and furrows in the log, it can make it hard to read the log before cracking it open.

Edit: I also forgot to post a pic of the nice bright red noodle pile I made while ripping the sides off of the round logs. Trying to figure out a use for them.

I want to hear about this kiln box in the basement, and see a couple pictures. Unless you've posted about it in another thread somewhere else???
Ted

Oh... and that is some nice looking Juniper you got there!!!!

 

[dustytools]

there is a lot of great pen blanks in that stuff

Yes sir!! I have about 20-25 Red Cedar blanks in my blank bin down at the shop.