Certified Arborists a Good Resource?

[Fireengines]

Here is an idea, again from a newbie's point of view...

Last week we lost part of our three. We called a Certified Arborists to see if the tree could be saved. The Arborists as agreed to save parts of interesting trees she works with so I could come my about once a month and pick up the wood.

First, good idea or bad. Second, what size do I need if I am only turning pens?

 

[D.Oliver]

I'd say any contact that helps get you wood is a good contact. Is she gifting it to you or do you have to pay for it? If she is gifting it to you a nice pen might be a good way to say "Thank you". How do you cut your pen blanks up. I use a band saw and I can hadle piece that are just a smidge over eight inches in diameter, but you may have bigger or smaller bandsaw or an altogather differnt way of cutting them up. How you prepare them will dictate the size you want. Also realize that most wood an aborist deals will be from either live or recently live trees, which means it will have to be dried. If you are going to pick the wood up once a month it may have checking it in. Ideally you would like to have the ends sealed soon after cutting, which she might not be willing to do. It would be best if you could pick them up with a couple days of being cut. If you can't do that it still may be a good deal as aborist work with a wide variety of trees, you'd just have to waste a little wood where the checking occurs.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

For pens, checks aren't a huge deal, are they? You could just cut around the checks, or use them as interest after filling with epoxy or resin...

 

[nativewooder]

Woodturners who come bearing gifts to Arborists alway win! All wood is good! If you don't want it right now, you may be able to trade for something more useful at a later date. And how much of your three did you lose, one or two?!:biggrin: (Little humor there!)

 

[Ed McDonnell]

Tree trimmers are a great source for urban harvested wood. An additional benefit is you can also tout the fact that you saved the wood from the landfill if you are selling your pens. A couple of things to watch out for:

Check the wood for metal. I've found bullets, nails, spikes, barbed wire and all sorts of things. Metal detectors aren't that expensive. Finding these things with your chainsaw or expensive bandsaw blade is a downer.

Check the wood for bugs before you load it to bring home. Buggy wood can be an interesting material to work with once the bugs are all dead. Bringing home bug infested wood and having the bugs go to work on your house or your healthy landscape trees is a downer.

Small equipment will dictate that you take smaller pieces of wood. But the most interesting wood is likely to part of the much larger chunks. Small branches will be almost all sapwood. Large crotches will have wild and crazy grain patterns, but they will be large. Large trunk pieces will allow you to harvest a nice mix of sap and heartwood where the two contrast. Investing in a chainsaw will let you carve out smaller pieces of the best.

If you plan on bringing home large chunks of wood you will quickly discover how heavy wood can be. Investing in a ramp (even a cheap HF model) will save your back.

Fresh cut wood will ooze more sap than you ever imagined. Some of the sap (particularly in tropical woods) is almost like epoxy. If you don't care about getting sap all over everything, then no big deal. Otherwise put down a tarp in the vehicle and wherever your are going to store the wood until you process it.

Ed

 

[Fireengines]

As it turns out, she has a large are where she brings the threes she removes. She said I could come out anytime and take my pick of what I want.

My problem is not know what questions to ask. I guess the simple answer if it looks good, take it.

 

[StephenM]

Certified arborists, tree removal companies, wrecking companies, architectural salvage companies, etc. Anyone who deals with wood.

We had an elm taken down and a mulberry thinned out and I gave the guy a pen made from very old Missouri oak. He recently took down a Bicentennial tree and dropped a few slabs off at my house with a note telling me who it came from and if I made them a pen, they'd make me a copy of the Bicentennial Tree certificate for provenance for any pens I made from the wood.

Develop all the contacts you can and when they come through, be sure to make them a nice pen and tell them where the wood came from. Just think of it as an investment - you might get a couple of hundred blanks of 250 year old wood for the cost of 1 pen kit and a little of your time.

 

[TerryDowning]

I snagged a nice piece of Maple from a large maple going down on my way to work. My only obstacle was another guy collecting firewood.

14 inch truck, about 20 inches long. The tree removal guys were even nice enough to halve it for me.

Read up all you can on green wood processing. The trouble with urban harvesting is you have to be patient and have the room form drying either the wood or the turned pieces. an't beat the price though.

Don't forgot roots and root balls as well., lots of good interesting stuff under ground as well.

 

[KBs Pensnmore]

Where possible try to find out the name of the wood, so that when you sell a pen, you will be able to name the timber it was made from!!!!
When you get it home it takes about a year to dry per inch thickness. If you are able, cut it into 1" thick slabs and put stickers about 1/4" thick between them to allow air to circulate around the timber, store in a dry place. Weigh the pieces and write the weight of it on the end, when the weight stops going down it has equalised and should be ready for use :biggrin:
The reason I cut to 1" thick is to allow for shrinkage and warping.
You might be able to swap/sell larger pieces with other turners so don't cut it all into small pieces.
Kryn