Harvesting from Storm-Down tree

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CapitalGGeek

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Aug 28, 2012
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One of my neighbors had a tree come down recently, and I would like to get some pieces to turn.

But I have no idea what PART of the tree would be the best to cut from. It doesn't have any obvious burl that I can see.

The tree fell over, so some of the roots are exposed. It was big - more than 2 feet across at the base. Unfortunately I only have a 14" chainsaw, so cutting slices just isn't going to happen.

Where would the most interesting grain be - roots, branch clefts? Any help would be appreciated.
 
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Justturnin

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Trunk wood and Crotches. Branch wood is unstable and will likely check on you.

14" chainsaw can cut a tree about 20", just gotta cut from both sides.
 

The Penguin

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if the tree is on the ground, you can cut it up fine with your saw.

what kind of tree is it?

the problem (IMHO) with roots - you have to get the root ball out of the ground first. Then pressure wash it to remove as much dirt as possible - then try to cut it.
 

GoodTurns

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So the root grain isn't special enough to bother with?

depends...in my experience it varies with each rootball/species

Chittam (Smoketree) rootball blanks are gorgeous, Koa rootballs are stunning...the pieces I have gotten have incredible gnarling and figure. The harder the wood has to work to grow, the better the figure, so the roots CAN be fantastic.
 

keithkarl2007

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I see bowls in your near future :biggrin: If you have a chuck rough turn a couple of bowls from some of it. If you cut it all into smaller pieces you won't get any nice sized bowls. Nothing more fun than rough turning green wood.
 

CapitalGGeek

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I see bowls in your near future :biggrin: If you have a chuck rough turn a couple of bowls from some of it. If you cut it all into smaller pieces you won't get any nice sized bowls. Nothing more fun than rough turning green wood.
I've not been able to get anything to hollow properly yet. Not sure what part of my technique is lacking, but I've ripped some fair-sized chunks of wood off my faceplate.

Haven't tried turning any dry wood, as the dry wood I've found has cracks & splits. And I'm not willing to spend real money on wood until I have had some success with cheaper stuff.
 

Jim H

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"The tree fell over, so some of the roots are exposed"
I am very inexperienced so take this for what it's worth, but if you are inexperienced with a chainsaw get some help from someone who knows what they are doing. Cutting up fallen trees can be very dangerous. I have seen a root ball stand back up and toss the guy who was working on it. Luckily the chainsaw landed a few feet from him.
 

low_48

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Peoria, IL, USA.
Knock off some bark and see what the log looks like. Bumps, spikes, or curly grain will show up just under the bark. Then look for compression curly grain. Almost always under big limbs, and around the buttress flare before the roots. You should see curl in the bark in those areas. Roots and root balls came be a mess. Lots of dirt, sand, and imbedded rocks will all equal destroyed chains and if you get into a lot of sand, ruined bars. I took a slice off a palm tree once. Cost me a bar and a chain! A 14" bar can mean a 28" cut. If you are pretty good with the saw.
 

CapitalGGeek

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Virginia
"The tree fell over, so some of the roots are exposed"
I am very inexperienced so take this for what it's worth, but if you are inexperienced with a chainsaw get some help from someone who knows what they are doing. Cutting up fallen trees can be very dangerous. I have seen a root ball stand back up and toss the guy who was working on it. Luckily the chainsaw landed a few feet from him.

I've had quite a lot of experience with a chainsaw, and have a proper respect for it. I cut & split enough wood that my father heated his house almost exclusively with it for years. Just never paid any attention to the asthetics of what I was cutting.
 

robutacion

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Australia - SA Adelaide Hills
One of my neighbors had a tree come down recently, and I would like to get some pieces to turn.

But I have no idea what PART of the tree would be the best to cut from. It doesn't have any obvious burl that I can see.

The tree fell over, so some of the roots are exposed. It was big - more than 2 feet across at the base. Unfortunately I only have a 14" chainsaw, so cutting slices just isn't going to happen.

Where would the most interesting grain be - roots, branch clefts? Any help would be appreciated.

What about, you take some pics of the tree so that I can put it on a editing program and mark where and what you should cut the best pieces from...!!!

If you know the tree species, that would help considerably on what you can expect from the inside/wood and a 14" petrol chainsaw is capable to cut almost any size tree, is only a matter of knowing how and have a saw that has a little power and off-course, a sharp chain.

What to do with the logs now now and later use, will be explained later, first things first...!:wink:

Most roots are capable to provide you with grain patterns and sometimes colourations that you wouldn't find anywhere else, tree species are a factor but not only, you only need to look at some of my work to see that can be done with tree roots...!

Warning:
"Most" tree roots contain lots of soil and possibly rocks/stones and other foreign materials attached, sometimes in inner pockets that you can see until you find them with the chainsaw and on bandsaw. There is a lot of work that go with utilising tree roots but, is most cases (not all...!) the results are very worth it, so be aware...!:wink::biggrin:

Good luck,

Cheers
George
 

CapitalGGeek

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Virginia
What about, you take some pics of the tree so that I can put it on a editing program and mark where and what you should cut the best pieces from...!!!

I'll see what I can do about it.

If you know the tree species, that would help considerably on what you can expect from the inside/wood

The larger tree is a white oak. It is hollow, and looks like insect damage. The other is a poplar, I think. Nothing exotic grows around here unfortunately.
 
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Bowl Slinger

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Mar 25, 2012
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Seattle, WA
Every specie of tree has beauty in it, you just need to bring it to the surface. There are countless ways to make a plain piece of wood absolutely gorgeous. When Im choosing pieces from a tree I always gravitate to the crotches and natural defects. You say that the white oak has bug damage, most of the time the solid wood next to the damage has different color characteristics and some have spalting. I love bug damaged pieces for making fusion pieces for bowls, boxes, bottle stoppers and pens. I am a lover of wood in all forms so its pretty easy for me to see a beautiful piece of art in a stick of fire wood.
This vessel was turned from a hunk of an alder tree that blew down in a storm. The pictures were taken right after I "green" turned it. I know that you dont have much alder back there but out here it grows everywhere and its not a very interesting wood. This particular vessel was made for my sister and she has it sitting as the center piece on her dinning room table, filled with dried flowers and potpourri.
Bottom line is that you can make almost any piece of wood into a keep sake for someone. :biggrin:
 

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CapitalGGeek

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Joined
Aug 28, 2012
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Location
Virginia
What about, you take some pics of the tree so that I can put it on a editing program and mark where and what you should cut the best pieces from...!!!

Here's the tree. Upon closer inspection the main trunk is closer to 36" across.
tree.jpg

It broke off at the base. The root ball is not exposed. Here is the hollow trunk. I can probably get some fair sized slabs from that - the wood is about 3" thick there.
trunk.jpg

Is this what I'm looking for - where the younger tree had a branch that has since covered over.

burl.jpg

There are a few of those that I can get to.
tree with burl.jpg

This one is about 10" across.
burl 2.jpg

As you can see, it's a large tree. If I had a need, I would cut the entire thing up, but very few houses around here have fireplaces. If possible, I'd like to get the 'good' off of it without too much extra work. I'm lazy like that :biggrin:
 

robutacion

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Australia - SA Adelaide Hills
Thanks for the pics...!

Most of those "bulged"/"sacks" you are referring as "burls", are not so. Those formations are in 95% of times due to tree "repairing" itself after a branch has snapped and or cut at that location. You will find a curled/twisted type of grain formation but, is no guarantee that it has any special colourations on it, sometimes those sacks are full of sapwood...!

Burls CAN form from a tree defect such as these, the burls themselves are a tree attempt to release the chemical reactions from a disease of some nature or form, pretty much like a cist/furuncle(boil) is formed in animals such as humans and others...!

So, the best way to deal with those is to do what I shown on pic-1, just in case the area has some interesting grains and colours caused but that flaw. The log is then slip/rip through the pith (logs centre) where that flaw/sack stays attached to one half of the log and at is centre for further processing...!

Crotches do offer some of the most intricate grains at the fork junction, those full forks/logs are then split/ripped through its pith, in the up-right position so that you endup with the "y" shape on both halves...!

Pretty much all the information contained in your pics that I edited on, is self-explanatory and easy to follow, it all depends of how much wood you want to take out of that tree and you 14" chainsaw in more than enough to do the job, if you start with a sharp chain and keep it sharpened as you go...!

After you get your logs, we can go through of how to process each one, depending on what you want to turn from them or prepared/seal them for later use...!

Good luck.

Cheers
George
 

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