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Jere39

Jere39

Outdoorsman and Pup
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
1,169
Location
Chester County, PA
Today, I took a break from my firewood splitting, hauling, and stacking to help out a friend of my Son's. He is about to get married, and his future wife sent him off to get 42 12" round 1" thick wood disks. She wanted a rough bark, and a smooth grain. Can't think of much to do with Tulip Poplar, now I know of a perfectly good use for it:

Centerpiece cuts.jpg

Looks like my assistant, and future groom is just not quite into the importance and solemn duty he assumed for this mission into the woods:

gauging the centerpieces.jpg

On inspection, it looks like a perfect fit:

As designed.jpg

Just when you think you've maxed out the firewood cutting business, I found a new line of business. I understand the Wedding Planners set the price at $5/disk. Should net out to a little over $185/cord eh?
 
Jere39

Jere39

Outdoorsman and Pup
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
1,169
Location
Chester County, PA
I'm liking that woodlot of yours. What were those big trees behind you, ash? walnut? Like Ron above said, let him enjoy now before reality sets in. :D What part of PA are you in?
The big trees are all Oak, 90% are Red Oak, there is one dead White Oak way in the background with a red survey tape around it marked for near future felling. The smooth bark small tree right behind me is a Beech, there are plenty of them in my woods, still a vast minority of the trees though. Otherwise, there are Black Birch, but they never get as big as the Oaks.

Me, and my woods are on a hill top in the northern tip of Chester County. Looks like this from the air in the late Summer:

My Aerial.JPG
 
cantoo

cantoo

Addicted to ArboristSite
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Jan 14, 2002
Messages
4,799
Location
North of Goderich, Ontario, Canada
Jere, I was given the same task by my now daughter in law. My tree of choice was wind blown down poplar. We cut about 30 cookies from a 16" tree and set them in the shade to dry. 1 week later every single one had split all to crap and were unusable for her. The splits were from 1/4" to 1 1/2" all the way across. I ended up making center pieces from 10x 10 old barn beams. Drilled 4 holes at 2" IMG-20130803-00244.jpg and set glass candle holders in them and a 4" square in the middle for a flower arrangement. I also built the barnboard backdrop.
 
Jere39

Jere39

Outdoorsman and Pup
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
1,169
Location
Chester County, PA
Jere, I was given the same task by my now daughter in law. My tree of choice was wind blown down poplar. We cut about 30 cookies from a 16" tree and set them in the shade to dry. 1 week later every single one had split all to crap and were unusable for her. The splits were from 1/4" to 1 1/2" all the way across. I ended up making center pieces from 10x 10 old barn beams. Drilled 4 holes at 2" View attachment 324728 and set glass candle holders in them and a 4" square in the middle for a flower arrangement. I also built the barnboard backdrop.
Ouch, that doesn't sound good. Your Barn beams look good on the table though. I'm sure I'll get an update on the state of the cookies. The poplar cuts easy. I'll make an update here either way. Thanks for the heads up.
 
pennsywoodburnr

pennsywoodburnr

supreme scrounger
Joined
Dec 23, 2012
Messages
652
Location
Northeastern P.A.
The big trees are all Oak, 90% are Red Oak, there is one dead White Oak way in the background with a red survey tape around it marked for near future felling. The smooth bark small tree right behind me is a Beech, there are plenty of them in my woods, still a vast minority of the trees though. Otherwise, there are Black Birch, but they never get as big as the Oaks.

Me, and my woods are on a hill top in the northern tip of Chester County. Looks like this from the air in the late Summer:

View attachment 324704

I'm not sure where Chester county is, but it sounds way west of where I'm at in Munroe. Forgive my horrible tree diagnosis there, the bark looked ash-like to me, but I'm bad with photos. I ran into some black birch early this year when a friend of mine was clearing out some land for a horse pasture. I had no idea what it was at the time, but I found it in my tree book eventually. I burnt through the last of that about 2 weeks ago. It throws out some nice heat! Dries quick too.
 
Jere39

Jere39

Outdoorsman and Pup
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
1,169
Location
Chester County, PA
Chester is South Eastern PA with a little bit of Md border, directly east of Lancaster County where I grew up. Touches on Delaware County, Montgomery County, and Berks County too.

pennsylvania-county-map.gif
 
Whiskey_Bravo

Whiskey_Bravo

Tool Box Buzz Crew
Joined
Mar 3, 2013
Messages
85
Location
Connecticut
I did the same thing for my wedding 3 months ago. My wife to be wanted red oak cookies for the tables with lanterns, flowers, candles, etc... We cut down an 18" diameter red oak, cut about 30 cookies that were close to 2" thick, dried them for 2 weeks, sanded them, and then applied 3 coats of polyurethane to the best looking 20. Everyone wanted to take them home after the wedding. We were left with almost all of the flowers and centerpieces, except for the slabs. I am just now getting reports of cracking.
 
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