A Question From The New "Old Guy"??

[pochoguy]

Does anyone go out and collect or cut their wood, dry it, prepare it, and make pen blanks? If so could you give me the run down on the procedure you use. I know it is nice to have all those exotic woods on hand but living on a fixed income, I can't really afford to many of them. Most of my alloted funds go for the pen kits that I for sure can't make! The ones that I do have I try to use as accent pieces on the local wood I get and prepare myself. Thanks for you help!

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

I harvest my own wood, it can be time consuming. Of course to get started you will need a chainsaw and a pickup. BTW how is your back, green wood is heavy. Then you need to cut and store it properly.

What I'm getting at is harvesting your own wood may not be the less expensive route.

If you are on a fixed income and don't want to spend allot of time or money, I would suggest a visit to a local furniture maker and ask if he if would mind swapping his drop off for some finished pens. Most likely he has to pay to get rid of them so this could be a win-win situation

 

[tipusnr]

There are a lot of tips on harvesting wood. I think if you look through the past postings you'll find tips and jigs on how to dry the wood without cracking, how to cut the wood safely, how to spalt the wood to make plain woods more interesting, etc. I'm still experimenting myself so can't tell you the best way.

Monday I seriously trimmed my peach tree, which had grown out of control. Any limb over 3" in diameter got cut into 12-15 inch sections and taken to the garage. Tonight I painted the ends with old latex house paint to slow the water loss through the ends and, hopefully, minimize cracking. We'll see.

In a couple of months, I'll cut it down into slabs on my bandsaw and then put it in my converted dishwasher to dry. By spring it will be ready to cut into turning and pen blanks. There are faster ways but that's mine as I have other woods to play with this winter.

Also you can get some pretty interesting ones by making friends with local firewood salesmen and grabbing the twisted and knotted pieces that don't stack well - usually at a discount!

Good luck.

 

[rtparso]

My first suggestion is find a guy trimming trees. Crouch is often the most interesting. I cut everything into 1x1 strips the last log I did pushed my limits in handling safely. It was almost 24"l by 12"dia. Between the weight and the bulk it was tough to handle. I screw a piece of 3/4" ply to the bottom of the log to make it staple, then mark a straight line either with a chalk line of screwing a piece of thin ply to the top and split the log. I then cut it up into 1x1 strips and stack them with cauls to keep the stack flat. After they have dried for a couple of weeks I stack them in a bucket and check the weight every couple days when the weight is stable I start using the wood. I have used latex paint to seal the ends but once the strips are cut down to 1x1 I don't get much checking. If you use found wood that is in small pieces it is easy. All you need is a bandsaw.

http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBPP.html
http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/forums/sawdry.pl

 

[alamocdc]

Originally posted by tipusnr
<br />Tonight I painted the ends with old latex house paint to slow the water loss through the ends and, hopefully, minimize cracking. We'll see.

Bill, I used the same thing on my Maple (9" diameter, 8 - 9" long) and it didn't seem to help much. I'm thinking I'd have had better luck cutting it into 1" strips like Ron.

 

[wdcav1952]

"Crouch is often the most interesting." If it is a taller tree, does he trim it standing up? [][}][][}][][}]

 

[Bill Collier]

I don't know if anyone else has tried this, but I dry my wood in a food dehydrator. You can adjust the temp and it blows the warm air all around the wood. As long as you resist temptation to turn the heat up too high, it seems to work pretty well.

 

[rtparso]

Heck I worry about drying to fast just because I live in the desert. 110 daytime with 15% RH. But then I microwaved some pieces so I could turn some test beads and they turned out ok

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Oil paint works better than latex paint.
Latex paint can cause mold in a log.
Achorseal works best of all.

Check out one of the big box stores and ask if they have any rejected cans of custom mixed paint. Many times you can pick up a gallon of paint real cheap.

You need to seal the end grain quickly after cutting or the log can crack, I'm talking like 10-15 minutes... tops!

Fruit trees like apple, pear and cherry split the quickest.
Branch wood, because of the stress, is the least stable part of the tree.

 

[ed4copies]

Check out one of the big box stores and ask if they have any rejected cans of custom mixed paint. Many times you can pick up a gallon of paint real cheap.


Ron, you frequently amaze me!!! (That IS a compliment)

 

[Bev Polmanteer]

Too bad you don't live around here. There is a big nut tree (not sure if it is pecan or walnut) dead and down on an abandon farm near here. Easy to get at, can drive right up to it!

 

[Rifleman1776]

I have recovered and resawed quite a bit of wood from trimmings, unwanted trees and a pile in town where professional trimmers dump wood. So far, I haven't kiln dried any, just wait it out after storage in a dry spot (my garage that has never seen a car in it). The ends are coated with Anchorseal https://www.uccoatings.com/ . Often, I'll square off the wood in my bandsaw exposing the side to air for quicker drying. It's a fun pastime and, of course, cheaper than buying. Right now, I have persimmon, box elder, dogwood and osage orange waiting for projects.

 

[smoky10]

I got a root ball from a guy that was digging stumps out of his yard yesterday. At first I thought it was box elder because it was blood red but it is too heavy and dense to be box elder. I have been drying some in a micro wave and sealing ends with candle wax heated in a three dollar crock pot. I have picked up wood along river banks after a flood. There are a lot of ways to get free wood.