robutacion
Member
That's right folks, I don't drink anymore (oh, maybe a couple of drinks a year...!) but I got "****ed" a few days ado while working on some French and American Oaks, from 2 barrels I got from a job I've done for a friend from the town next door, McLaren Vale...!
Anyway, I have been very quite up here, not because I don't have anything to say, believe me I do, and I have a few more wood stories from recent salvaging works, the wife and I done. We have been very busy cutting and gathering mostly new woods and slicing/processing when home, and in between trips out.
I just haven't had much energy to be typing, however, I come here every day and read a little before I retire to bed. We haven't yet finish the number of places where we have something to do in there but, there is one more tree that has to come down, not for timber salvaging but a mistake a mate of mine made when planted a Gum tree 1 meter from his septic tank 6 years ago.
Well, if you never seen a crazy Gum tree grow 3 times the rate of its normal rate, this one is the best example, particularly when the root system found its way through the tank...!
Obviously, most trees like that stuff and Gums are a bugger to strive on it so, all of a certain this small tree, has become not so small and the septic tank has been ripped of the ground into the surface and the roots around it look like a giant Octopus...!:biggrin:
This house is in the middle of town next door, and the smell is also starting to cause some questions from all the neighbors that all live within a arms reach from boundary fence to boundary fence. The new style building and living in new suburbs, so they say...! bull..........!
So, I was talking about me getting drunk while working with these Oaks, after I bought a couple of wooden barrels, one made with French Oak and the other with American Oak, from another friend in McLaren Vale that had a large Pepercorn tree with a large limb snapped from the wind.
He buys these barrels from a local winery that imports them to cure Port wine on both types of Oaks...! He normally cuts then in half and sells them as large pot plants, seen everywhere around here. He also sells them as is, if you want to cut then yourself or use them for something else.
The wife wanted 2 barrel halves for the garden and I though I would enjoy using some of the wood from the other 2 halves, as I gave her 1 half of each barrel type Oak.
When I cut the barrels in half, I got a mouth full of strong wine/port vapor/dust/gas, what ever you want to call it, the french Oak barrel was quite dry but the American Oak one was still wet/timber soaked with Port, and lots a sediment paste/gunk everywhere inside.
I didn't mind the smell afterwards (still quite strong as we speak), but that mouth full I got from the American Oak barrel, was a little much to bare, in one go...!
So, I got the barrels cut and in no time I had my 2 halves dismantlement to work with on the bandsaw. I've made the mistake to start working with the American Oak barrel ribs as they were a lot thicker than the French ones so, not wanting to waist my time washing all then with the water pressure gun, I got cutting a few ribs into 130mm length pieces (normal pen blanks length), then, I decided to rip the into 21mm strips, so far everything was OK, until was time to cut a slice from the wood where the Port has soaked in, as the wood was concave from the barrel's inner shape.
The cut was dead smack trough the middle of the Port soaked wood and still wet/fresh, producing at first a strange smell, a little smoke in the mix and after about 30 of the 50 or so blanks I had to do, I started feeling my face hot, the head spinning, the legs wobbly and seeing 2 blades on my bandsaw...!, that's when I knew, I had "ingested" a little too much of booze, in the form of gas and smoke...!
Obviously, I could recognize the signs (from many years back) and stop the bandsaw to seat down for a bit. Funny was that, my wife, decided to bring me a coup of coffee from the house and she saw me seated on a log, looking "out of it", as she said...! She reckon's that my eyes were red and I was "mumbling" senseless works...!:biggrin:
Now, I really need to ask to our friend Jim, the Whiskey barrel man, if this is the reason why, he likes so much to cut pen blanks out of whiskey barrels...!:wink: Tell me, please...!:biggrin:
Finish the rest of the wood with a good mask next day, and the smell just isn't going anywhere down in the work-shop/sheds :bulgy-eyes:
All for now...!:wink:
Cheers
George
Anyway, I have been very quite up here, not because I don't have anything to say, believe me I do, and I have a few more wood stories from recent salvaging works, the wife and I done. We have been very busy cutting and gathering mostly new woods and slicing/processing when home, and in between trips out.
I just haven't had much energy to be typing, however, I come here every day and read a little before I retire to bed. We haven't yet finish the number of places where we have something to do in there but, there is one more tree that has to come down, not for timber salvaging but a mistake a mate of mine made when planted a Gum tree 1 meter from his septic tank 6 years ago.
Well, if you never seen a crazy Gum tree grow 3 times the rate of its normal rate, this one is the best example, particularly when the root system found its way through the tank...!
Obviously, most trees like that stuff and Gums are a bugger to strive on it so, all of a certain this small tree, has become not so small and the septic tank has been ripped of the ground into the surface and the roots around it look like a giant Octopus...!:biggrin: This house is in the middle of town next door, and the smell is also starting to cause some questions from all the neighbors that all live within a arms reach from boundary fence to boundary fence. The new style building and living in new suburbs, so they say...! bull..........!
So, I was talking about me getting drunk while working with these Oaks, after I bought a couple of wooden barrels, one made with French Oak and the other with American Oak, from another friend in McLaren Vale that had a large Pepercorn tree with a large limb snapped from the wind.
He buys these barrels from a local winery that imports them to cure Port wine on both types of Oaks...! He normally cuts then in half and sells them as large pot plants, seen everywhere around here. He also sells them as is, if you want to cut then yourself or use them for something else.
The wife wanted 2 barrel halves for the garden and I though I would enjoy using some of the wood from the other 2 halves, as I gave her 1 half of each barrel type Oak.
When I cut the barrels in half, I got a mouth full of strong wine/port vapor/dust/gas, what ever you want to call it, the french Oak barrel was quite dry but the American Oak one was still wet/timber soaked with Port, and lots a sediment paste/gunk everywhere inside.
I didn't mind the smell afterwards (still quite strong as we speak), but that mouth full I got from the American Oak barrel, was a little much to bare, in one go...!
So, I got the barrels cut and in no time I had my 2 halves dismantlement to work with on the bandsaw. I've made the mistake to start working with the American Oak barrel ribs as they were a lot thicker than the French ones so, not wanting to waist my time washing all then with the water pressure gun, I got cutting a few ribs into 130mm length pieces (normal pen blanks length), then, I decided to rip the into 21mm strips, so far everything was OK, until was time to cut a slice from the wood where the Port has soaked in, as the wood was concave from the barrel's inner shape.
The cut was dead smack trough the middle of the Port soaked wood and still wet/fresh, producing at first a strange smell, a little smoke in the mix and after about 30 of the 50 or so blanks I had to do, I started feeling my face hot, the head spinning, the legs wobbly and seeing 2 blades on my bandsaw...!
, that's when I knew, I had "ingested" a little too much of booze, in the form of gas and smoke...!Obviously, I could recognize the signs (from many years back) and stop the bandsaw to seat down for a bit. Funny was that, my wife, decided to bring me a coup of coffee from the house and she saw me seated on a log, looking "out of it", as she said...!
She reckon's that my eyes were red and I was "mumbling" senseless works...!:biggrin:Now, I really need to ask to our friend Jim, the Whiskey barrel man, if this is the reason why, he likes so much to cut pen blanks out of whiskey barrels...!:wink: Tell me, please...!:biggrin:
Finish the rest of the wood with a good mask next day, and the smell just isn't going anywhere down in the work-shop/sheds :bulgy-eyes:
All for now...!:wink:
Cheers
George
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