Woodcraft

A dozen or so years ago, I came across a decent size Black Cherry tree that had been hit by lightning and fell. From the state of the bark and some of the rot, it had been down for months if not years, but I went back with a chain saw and collected about as much as I could get in my car. Some ended up as firewood, and the better pieces were cut and stacked to be dried in our garage or downstairs in the shop. There they have stayed until I recently decided to do something with them. I took a few of the pieces and stacked them so the grain was all in the same direction for a bowl blank. The weather turned out so nice today, I moved both cars out of the garage and spent a few hours rough shaping a simple bowl. Nothing fancy, and it has lots of cracks and worm holes, but I had a lot of fun.

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Making a top for a small bookcase. A friend who runs a sawmill let me know she had some thornless mesquite available--different from regular mesquite having less voids. This particular mesquite was developed by a biologist at Texas A&M Kingsville. He also built the house I now have and there lots of mesquite throughout, floors and kitchen cabinets, but none of the thornless variety.
There's a whole lot of cool things in a few sentences.
 
One less Prunus serotina on our little tract of land. There was a gnarled, partially rotted Black Cherry at the base of the steep hill in the woods below the house. I cut it down yesterday afternoon, and sealed the ends of a couple of pieces I wanted to keep to prevent checking, which happens fast in newly cut wood. This morning I finished cutting the tree into manageable chunks, saving the better pieces for future woodcraft projects, and leaving the partially rotted bits for nature's disposition. The majority of what you see here has been stacked carefully in our storage shed for drying and use as firewood a year from now. The Buck saw is extremely sharp, and made short work of the cutting.

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I spent all morning digging for buried treasure in the rain, in this case, the root ball from the dodgy Black Cherry I cut down last week. No wonder people charge so much for these things; that was tough to do, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd find all the hidden branch roots holding it in the ground. When I first began, the temperature was mild and there was just a very light drizzle that actually stopped for a while. Then the drizzle returned a bit harder, and the temperature began to drop. I probably should have stopped, but I reasoned that I was already wet and filthy, and really didn't want to wait until tomorrow and get filthy again. By the time I was done, I was cold and soaked to the skin, but I got my prize. The things we do for our hobbies.

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Here's the root ball after sealing the end grain with Anchorseal, a waxy emulsion that prevents the log from drying too quickly and developing cracks. This is a large piece, and will have to be split down the middle to fit on my lathe. When the time comes, it should make for a couple of nice bowls with some wild grain patterns.

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Yet another grab of FoG wood (Found on Ground). Another nice chunk of Black Cherry. There's a spot about 5 minutes from my house where someone is dumping tree mulch and log fragments. I cruised past this morning and found this, which will have to be trimmed several inches to fit on my lathe. Free wood is always cool.

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I ordered a chunk of Mesquite from Arizona, USA, and the seller surprised me with a smaller bonus piece in the box. Today I worked on making a winged bowl from the smaller piece. This is where I stopped for the day. I left some of the bark on the sides for visual appeal, and soaked that with wood stabilizer and left it to cure overnight. Then comes final sanding and a couple coats of Howard's Feed-N-Wax.

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Score. In the "Strolling" thread, I shared an image of some huge Sycamore logs I had come across in the woods. The site is some rural property owned by the church I attend, and apparently some people are sneaking in there and dumping some really large trees. Yesterday I went back with my chainsaw and cut a large slab from one of the Sycamore logs, as well as another from a large Beech log. The Sycamore slab was heavy enough that I had to split it further to carry the wood back to the car. Same for the Beech slab.

The trees piled at that site are a woodworker's dream, and I'll certainly be going back for more wood. However, many are piled in such a way that it would be dangerous to try to get any of the wood. I prefer to avoid being crushed by a shifting pile of logs. It's a shame to see so much quality wood being wasted.

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Score, the sequel. I went back and cut an even larger chunk of the Sycamore log. I had to slice it into chunks to even lift it, but even then it was a load of work getting the pieces out of the ravine and to my car. The things we do for our hobbies. But now I have enough Sycamore, Maple, Beech, and Black Cherry to cover several years' worth of projects, and it cost me nothing but some effort and a few aching muscles.

When my wife asks how we came to have so much sawdust and shavings in our yard, I'll tell her we've developed a serious termite problem.

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My latest woodturning is finished. I had this crooked piece of Sycamore drying in my shop for over 10 years. Nothing about it was symmetrical, and the project came out the same way. I call it my off-balance coin dish. Sycamore has some stunning grain patterns. I have several other ongoing projects that use Sycamore as a primary wood.

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Fun with firewood. I grabbed a small half-log of White Ash from the log pile, squared one side on my ancient bandsaw, and chucked it on the Shopsmith. A few hours of shaping and sanding later, I had a small live edge dish. The wood had some small cracks that had to be stabilized, and some fungal spalting, but that's part of the charm of working with "found" wood. The finish is Howard Feed-N-Wax, a mixture of beeswax, carnauba wax, and orange oil.

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