Sap wood question

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Penultimate

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Greetings
I have a piece of very old walnut with the sap wood on it. I would like to remove the sap wood so I can make something. Do you have any recommendations on how to get down to the heart wood? My bandsaw is only a 10" saw with about 4" cutting height.
IMG_3915.JPG
It's about 10"wide x 10" deep x 3.5 high.
Thanks in advance.
IMG_3915.JPG
 
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magpens

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Firstly, I don't get your stated measurments of 10 x 10 x 3.5 .... The 3.5 is obviously the vertical dimension in the plane of the computer screen.
But the 10 x 10 ??
Perhaps the piece is 10" thick in the direction OUT of the screen (or supporting table).
But your tape measure in the pic seems to indicate more like 20" horizontal dimension, left to right. . Please clarify.

I'll assume your pictured piece is 10" thick in the direction out of the screen, with a pretty flat bottom perpendicular to the screen.
I would lay the flat bottom on your saw table and cut slabs of the exact shape shown in your pic, and with a thickness of about 7/8".
You should get about 10/0.875 = 11 such slabs after 10 such cuts ( saw blade kerf of about 0.04" ?? )

I do not like cross-cut grain for pens, so I would recommend cutting parallel to the long bottom (straight) edge after you have "slabbed" it.
That will get you 7 - 10 standard size blanks from each slab -- up to 4 or so with fairly straight grain and the rest with angled grain.
A total of close to 100 pen blanks ???

Of course, you may have something totally different in mind and not such a large number of pen blanks.

Maybe one oval-shaped bowl about 20 x 10 top opening with a depth of about 3 " ????
Should be able to rough that out with your saw.

But don't ask me how to turn such a bowl ? ... LOL !!
 
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Penultimate

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Hi Mal
Thanks and Happy New Year. The wood is rough cut to about 10x10. Sorry the tape didn't work out as well as I hoped. I think it's a depth of field issue. I would like to cut it half along the 3.5 " height. Then make either a sloping bandsaw box or a small set of bins to hold office stuff like paper clips. That's why I'd like to get rid of the sap wood but leave the rest intact. (Shoulda 'splained it better).
Thanks, I thought about blanks but I need to organize my WFH desk.
Regards
Mike


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jttheclockman

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A couple things showing. There is alot of internal stress on that piece by the obvious cracks so be careful with those if you are turning a bowl. Also many people like the sap wood mixed with the heart wood so depending what you want to do with it. If cutting into blanks of any kind you will cut it away anyway. So do not sweat the small stuff. Now if you are not going to work this in the near future I would not strip it at all. Just my opinoins.
 

Buckmark13

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Aug 14, 2018
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In answer to your question about getting the sap wood off, an axe or hatchet will work very well. Absent those, using a chisel shouldn't take much time either, but I'd remove the bark with a pry bar first. I assume you don't have a draw knife, but that's a good option as well.
 

howsitwork

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Why not use a hatchet into the end grain then tap with a mallet NOT HAMMER on the back of the hatchet (or use wedges ) to split it down a bit?
 
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