Brmorgan
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This last weekend I went over the mountains to McBride, BC, to visit some friends and family there. I met an old fella that goes to my cousin's church there who is into penmaking; we got to talking wood and whatnot and he insisted on giving me one, so i told him I'd have to cut up a few nice pieces of different wood for him for payback. Perfect timing too, since I just got the shop bandsaw back online. I started out small but got a little carried away; here's the care package I'm going to send his way:
L to R; top row: Black Locust, birch burl with a spalted piece on top, poplar (aspen) burl, and apple; middle row: Western Juniper, White Spruce compression wood, Western Red Cedar knot/burl, Douglas Fir old-growth root wood, and mistletoed birds-eye Pine; bottom row: 4pcs Lilac, 3pcs Douglas Maple, 1pc unknown but I think a cherry yard tree based on the bark; and Mountain Ash.
I have quite a bit of apple wood that I've saved from yard jobs and the wood waste dump. Some is better and nicer than others. This darker stuff on top smelled like crap when I cut it; not apple-like at all but you could tell it was definitely from a fruit tree. The lighter stuff below it was somewhat dryer and had really no odor at all. The Black Locust came from just a small bit of the stuff I found at the wood waste dump back in early Summer. I just love the olive-green color of that wood.
The aspen burl is still quite damp but the grain sure pops with the camera flash. It's pretty soft and has the odd punky spot, so will likely need some CA glue before turning. The Birch burl is mostly birds-eyed with some quilted grain around the edges; the shorter pieces (mostly hidden) were cut end-grained so we'll see how they turn out. That spalted piece came from the center of a small crotch I'd been saving. It's actually really solid still and is quite a gem of a piece IMO.
The Douglas Fir pieces came from a big root that I cut off of a beach stump out at Quesnel Lake last year. It has some really wild grain and interesting pitch and mineral color streaks. Smells pretty nice going through the saw too. The cedar came from a knot and burl I cut off the side of a log a while back. The knot is hard as a rock and was harder on the bandsaw than the black locust or apple. It has some slight curl and figure to the grain in spots too but it doesn't pop out at you, at least not without any finish. The Spruce compression wood is about as hard as oak, if not harder. It has enormous stress in it. A couple pieces pinched the tablesaw so badly it stalled out the 2HP motor (no, I don't have a riving knife!).
The three Mountain-Ash (not a true Ash) pieces on top came from a crotch I saved from a pruning job last year; it was near the end of a dead branch and has started to decay a bit, hence the color variation compared to the pieces on the bottom, but it should be plenty solid enough to turn.
I'm not sure what the reddish piece in the middle is. It came from a small chunk of a yard tree I picked up at the wood waste dump last year. The bark looked like either cherry or maybe a smaller crab apple; it was quite dead so I have no idea if the color of the wood is natural or due to decaying processes or what.
L to R; top row: Black Locust, birch burl with a spalted piece on top, poplar (aspen) burl, and apple; middle row: Western Juniper, White Spruce compression wood, Western Red Cedar knot/burl, Douglas Fir old-growth root wood, and mistletoed birds-eye Pine; bottom row: 4pcs Lilac, 3pcs Douglas Maple, 1pc unknown but I think a cherry yard tree based on the bark; and Mountain Ash.
I have quite a bit of apple wood that I've saved from yard jobs and the wood waste dump. Some is better and nicer than others. This darker stuff on top smelled like crap when I cut it; not apple-like at all but you could tell it was definitely from a fruit tree. The lighter stuff below it was somewhat dryer and had really no odor at all. The Black Locust came from just a small bit of the stuff I found at the wood waste dump back in early Summer. I just love the olive-green color of that wood.
The aspen burl is still quite damp but the grain sure pops with the camera flash. It's pretty soft and has the odd punky spot, so will likely need some CA glue before turning. The Birch burl is mostly birds-eyed with some quilted grain around the edges; the shorter pieces (mostly hidden) were cut end-grained so we'll see how they turn out. That spalted piece came from the center of a small crotch I'd been saving. It's actually really solid still and is quite a gem of a piece IMO.
The Douglas Fir pieces came from a big root that I cut off of a beach stump out at Quesnel Lake last year. It has some really wild grain and interesting pitch and mineral color streaks. Smells pretty nice going through the saw too. The cedar came from a knot and burl I cut off the side of a log a while back. The knot is hard as a rock and was harder on the bandsaw than the black locust or apple. It has some slight curl and figure to the grain in spots too but it doesn't pop out at you, at least not without any finish. The Spruce compression wood is about as hard as oak, if not harder. It has enormous stress in it. A couple pieces pinched the tablesaw so badly it stalled out the 2HP motor (no, I don't have a riving knife!).
The three Mountain-Ash (not a true Ash) pieces on top came from a crotch I saved from a pruning job last year; it was near the end of a dead branch and has started to decay a bit, hence the color variation compared to the pieces on the bottom, but it should be plenty solid enough to turn.
I'm not sure what the reddish piece in the middle is. It came from a small chunk of a yard tree I picked up at the wood waste dump last year. The bark looked like either cherry or maybe a smaller crab apple; it was quite dead so I have no idea if the color of the wood is natural or due to decaying processes or what.
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