Anyone ever use Birch?

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I've had a hand full of blanks laying around for a couple years, they don't look interesting enough to waste a tube on. Maybe some birch is better than what I have.
 
Ron Birch is one of the best woods to show spalt figure on , because it is relatively plain . Lovely black line , sometimes green line , rarely pink line , sometimes mottled brown . Cut it , seal the ends very well , leave it on the ground , preferably out of the direct sun , for a year , evaluate it . If done to your liking , remove the bark , cut off checked ends , reseal , put it under cover . Slower the drying the better if you want unchecked pieces . Check for checked ends on a regular basis . If not done , leave for a few more months . Just remember that the process probably accelerates once begun . Also remember that birch bark is waterproof , hence the absolute need to remove the bark once spalted to your satisfaction . Small( 1-3 inch )dia braches may give you nice crotch figure , and will spalt and dry much faster than a 6-18 inch log . Wayne
 
Nice if spalted

I wrap it in a plastic bag and let it sit in a warm area. In a month or two it will be spalted. 3 or 4 months it will be to soft to use.
 
I agree with the others about spalting, but do use birch for other turnings and items. Birch makes a decent tea lite holder, when turned with some beads and coves, and then dressed up with burnt wire lines. Birch can be dyed to make intarsia items. I have turned small vases and weed pots out of birch and then decorated them some. I have some curly birch that when dyed made some decent pens. I sometimes use birch to augument segmenting work and seems to do well.
 
The plain birch might look good with burn lines, dark engraving and inlays, or as a contrast wood in segmented blanks. Free wood is always good if for no other reason than to practice with.
 
Birch is a plan looking wood but if you cut some of the forks, 2" and larger cut down the middle both ways you will find some very beautifui wood. Try it. Some one brought me white oak forks and I made some very nice looking pens. An eaiser way than trying to deal with cutting up large pieces of wood and noy look as good.
 
I have milled up thousands of boardfeet of birch in the past couple of months. We are in the middle of building 250 bookshelves (3' wide, 8' high) and using birch.


Birch is a beautiful wood, but not for pens (unless spalted like mentioned above, it's lovely).


Birch makes VERY, VERY nice bowls, platters, goblets, lidded boxes, etc....


A nice danish oil or Tung oil finish on birch is STUNNING.


Be sure to save the parts of the tree where major branches came off--- especially huge branches, may yield some interesting figure or maybe even crotch wood.
 
I found a little limb of birch that a beaver had used in his dam.. about 3' long x 5 or 6 in dia... used part of it to make a peppermill.. it's a little plain, but really polished up nicely.
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