Firewood salvage

[MJR]

Here are some pictures from last weekend. These little logs were taken from the firewood pile. I thought it would be good practice on small length logs. They are not what I was planning on working on, but things came up. They are Maple and Cherry. One Cherry “log” had very dark grain. I did the crotch just to see if I could (just a little over two feet long). It did have some wild grain patterns. I sprayed a little water on them to bring it out. This weekend I plan on going to my farm and start cutting the trees for my camp. The milling will be put on hold for a couple of weeks. Lesson learned, small logs take just as long and are just as much work as “normal” logs. I will save the big ones for Sawyer Rob…
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[BobL]

Cool photos and nice mini-slabs.

Whats the orange gizmo behind the log in the IMG_0201.jpg photo?

 

[Judge]

Salvage firewood

Nice lumber !! How do you like your LumberLite ? Off topic..is that a Harley ? Someday I'm putting an 883 on my bandmill !!!


Judge

 

[MJR]

The mill is Norwood Lumberlite 24. The bike is a Fatboy. A couple of times I came close to dragging the mill down the road with the bike. When I have some free time I will write down my thoughts on the mill and my learning curve. When the wifes around, I have to be painting the house...Keeping the peace...

 

[dustytools]

Nice looking lumber there MJR!!! Make her a few things from the wood that you are milling and she will be more understanding of the time that you spend on milling. Great job!

 

[MJR]

Hello Dustytools. The family and I lived in Morehead KY for a while. We loved it. My second son was born there. It is good to hear from a old neighbor.

 

[Semi-Hex]

The mill is Norwood Lumberlite 24. The bike is a Fatboy. A couple of times I came close to dragging the mill down the road with the bike. When I have some free time I will write down my thoughts on the mill and my learning curve. When the wifes around, I have to be painting the house...Keeping the peace...

She isn't fooled for a minute.

 

[woodshop]

She isn't fooled for a minute.

I agree... after 32 years I get VERY little past my wife. Gosh she knows when I'm even THINKING about new toys. As for milling when you should be painting... that's even harder to fly.

Nice little set of hardwood boards. I would paint those ends even now if they are only couple feet long. You will find that the crotch wood will often split at the bark there, but not all of it, and some might be pretty nice after dry. Crotch pieces are a crapshoot almost always.

 

[Addison]

woot

im amazed at the figured cherry form fire wood lol...great little projects keep it up hope tooo see some awesome new longer boards in the future... how much was that mill?

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

"fire wood"

Here's what I've been doing with what many would consider firewood. Some of these sell for as much as $50 at the local woodworking supply store. Some wood carvers and turners pay a premium for figured blanks especially when they can't get them for themselves.

 

[dustytools]

Hello Dustytools. The family and I lived in Morehead KY for a while. We loved it. My second son was born there. It is good to hear from a old neighbor.

Neighbors indeed! Morehead is only about 35-45 minutes away.

 

[aquan8tor]

Aggie, do you coat all sides of the blanks or just the end grain? I've been drying a couple burled pieces and I'm still getting checking on the exposed long? grain--ends and the burl surface are sealed. I just cut the log in two. I'm trying to scrape the money together for a lathe, so the blanks might sit in my shed for a while.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Aggie, do you coat all sides of the blanks or just the end grain? I've been drying a couple burled pieces and I'm still getting checking on the exposed long? grain--ends and the burl surface are sealed. I just cut the log in two. I'm trying to scrape the money together for a lathe, so the blanks might sit in my shed for a while.

It depends on a lot of things. Typically, I seal the ends and faces that show a high percentage of end grain such as burls and crotch wood but if it's highly figured, I may coat all sides lightly and the ends heavy. If the piece is large enough I try to remove all the pith and heart wood adjacent to it as this probably will check as well. Place them in an area will they will dry slowly or double bag them in paper sacks. Uncoated feed sacks also work great for this.

Even after doing all this, if 75% of your blanks are check free you are doing great.

 

[woodshop]

Even after doing all this, if 75% of your blanks are check free you are doing great.

I agree with that 75% figure. Figured wood in general checks and splits more than non figured in part because the fibers in figured wood are often going all different directions and different parts of the chunk of wood dry at different rates. Nature of the beast. Crotch figure for example, is always a crapshoot. I might even drop that number to 60% for small pieces. That doesn't stop me from trying though, as the results can be stunning.