almond wood goblet

[triw51]

Saw an ad for free almond wood in a local craigslist. The tree was dying and the lady said if I cut it down I could have the wood. A friend and I spent a few hours cutting it down. This is one of the branches from the tree, turned the bowl and hollowed it out. Then the finished goblet. The wood reminds me of olive wood rich colors and nice grain patterns.
Please comments and suggestions welcome.

 

[Wraith]

Looks great.

 

[ironman123]

William, that looks really nice.

Ray

 

[Dan Masshardt]

Nice looking goblet. I really like that wood.

I hope the branch was dry enough that it won't crack.

 

[triw51]

Nice looking goblet. I really like that wood.

I hope the branch was dry enough that it won't crack.

Dan this branch was well seasoned and was nice to turn.

 

[robutacion]

Nice looking goblet. I really like that wood.

I hope the branch was dry enough that it won't crack.

Dan this branch was well seasoned and was nice to turn.

Yes, the wood is beautiful and if you're lucky and from the size of that branch, he tree has to be fairly big (for a fruit tree) the main trunk and particularly the crotch pieces will have some amazing grain. The older the Almond tree (any tree) the richer the colours are, it take a lot of years for the heartwood grain and colours to develop and that's where you will find your "treasures".

Almond tree wood does crack severely unfortunately, the younger the tree the worse it will crack, the best way to void most of the cracking is to process the wood immediately, turn as many rough pieces as you can and seal/treat them (many ways to do this) if you can't turn them all, cut your logs 4" longer than its diameter (2" will be wasted on each end) and them split them through the "pith", at least that and you are helping the wood to dry without going nuts and crack/rip the log into almost unworkable wood, even for getting pen blanks out of it, I sometimes wast 70% of it, just crazy, it is.

I know that this thread is about your Almond wood and not mine but, allow me to show everyone some examples of what one can expect when cutting and storing a mature Almond tree wood logs, from the most beautiful and bazaar to the worse case scenario. Oh...! and if you are really lucky, you may find a burl hanging from one of the logs, half in, half out, that's gold in my eyes...!

Some of these pics are quite old and show my failed attempts to stock a large amount of 28 years old almond plantation trees that were bulldozed out due to pour nut prices.

I know that I made a Internet thread about these almond trees, I'm not sure if was here or before that, when I was with the Australian Wood-Worker forum, lots of stuff in there so, point I'm making is, there is a considerable wast with Almond wood, make as many pieces as you can, you will lose some but you won't lose them all...!

Best of luck...!:wink::biggrin:



Cheers
George

 

[triw51]

Thank you George: What I did was cut the logs into sections (wish I heard the 2" rule first but such is life) then I painted the cut ends with latex paint to seal. Will this work or should I cut them and turn them?

 

[Rob73]

Nice score. That wood looks real nice.

 

[robutacion]

Thank you George: What I did was cut the logs into sections (wish I heard the 2" rule first but such is life) then I painted the cut ends with latex paint to seal. Will this work or should I cut them and turn them?

If you can, rough turn as much as you can about 1" thick and coat them with the best sealer you can afford, if you can't turn it all, a least rip the logs through the centre (pith) and then seal the ends. You said that you already sealed the ends so, rip then in half and re-paint about 1" over the end-grain, as I shown you on one of my pics.

This one case where boiling the rough turned pieces, would be one of the best ways to endup with the highest percentage of turned pieces, without any major cracks.

One of the big problems with fruit trees is that, they are difficult to dry without twisting, buckling or cracking, the bigger the surface/volume/size of the wood piece, the worse it behaves. It should also be said that, fruit trees are capable to produce some of the best grains and colours of any trees, out there so, you game some, you lose some...!

PS: the 2" rule for each side of the green log, is one of the greatest lessons I have acquired dealing with woods for wood-turning and pen-making, it does saves yiuy from waiting a lot more, later on...!

Cheers
George

 

[Bob Wemm]

Just love those colours. Well done.

Bob.

 

[Fishinbo]

Beautiful goblet! Great shape, has pretty and interesting grain patterns and colors. Great turning!