Pre-Gloat Large Apple Tree Lumber

[John Michaels]

I found a source that has a large apple tree he'll be cutting up next week. I went and took a look at it yesterday. It's massive (22 inches in diameter). The lower part of trunk is straight and about five feet long. I bought some apple from him before and love the wood. I'll post pics when I bring it home.

[John Michaels]

It's not a pre-gloat anymore. The dimensions are 8 feet long, 21 inches wide and 2 inches thick.

My plan is to seal the ends with wax, sticker it, then let it air dry for two years.

I was thinking about possibly having it kiln dried, but apple is so twisty I'm afraid it will warp and crack. It might warp even air drying from what some have told me.

Any advice would help.



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[Jarrod McGehee]

That wood is beautiful. It makes me want to cut down the one in my backyard :D but the only problem is that the apples on that taste good and it's too small of a trunk. I can't help you but I'd love to get a few feet of that wood you got. Do you possibly know Jeff McGehee up in Wa.? Maybe when I go visit him sometime I could pick it up. He's in Sea.

[Gary Herrmann]

Plywood on the top stickers and then a lot of evenly distributed weight will minimize twist - hopefully. The apple boards I have are still pretty twisty.

[Rob Russell]

Cinder blocks make cheap weights to put on top of the stack to help keep it flat.

[David Keller NC]

John - I cut and dry a good deal of my own lumber, and I've been lucky enough to run into apple and pear on occasion.

Your fears about twisting/warping/cupping and checking are well founded. To dry this wood properly, it's absolutely critical that it not dry too fast initially. If you've got this inside a heated/cooled shop - get it out, right now. If you've no alternative, give the entire board a thin coat of 1.5 lb cut of shellac. This thin coat of shellac will still allow vapor exchange, but will slow it down enough to get it dry without case hardening it or developing huge numbers of surface checks.

Regardless of whether you dry it out under an outside shed or coat it with shellac and leave it in your shop, it's absolutely critical to get some weight on top of it - sticker the underside on top of a piece of plywood, then sticker the top, put another piece of plywood on it, then use whatever you've available to get 100-200 lb. on it, preferably evenly distributed. If you've no old car batteries or cinder blacks for the purpose, plastic gallon milk jusgs filled with water weigh about 8.5 lbs. each, and are cheap.

[Ted Calver]

I had a similar windfall years ago. I anchorsealed the rough cut stock and stacked and stickered it in the unheated garage under 800 pounds of sand for 2 years. The stuff still twisted so badly I couldn't get anything wider than 6" out of it. I'll use any further apple finds for turning stock, I seem to have better luck with that.

[Troy Simonton]

John

I too lucked into a large overgrown apple tree back in the early 90's. It was in my wife's grandparents yard for 50 some years. A late August thunderstorm brought the tree down with it overloaded with apples. Although not as wide as what you found, I was able to get 8- 7"x1"x8' boards from it. I had it kiln dryed with the apple loaded in the kiln first with 1000' bd ft of white oak on top of it. It still twisted somewhat. Some boards more than others. As others have said, I would highly encourage you to sticker and weight it down and let it slowly air dry out of the sun or dry heat.

I build instruments and made a sweet, but slightly tart :D, sounding mountain dulcimer out of it that I play. My plans are to build up several more instruments for each of my family to play. Here's a few pics of the MD. The subtle figure is really nice and the two-tone bookmatches well. One thing I did find is that once it's dry and resawn to instrument thickness (~.1") it is very stable. It bends well too with a thermal blanket. The grain is closed and takes a finish wonderfully.

Good luck with the piece you have. I'm always on the look-out for more apple.

olt - The scraps are awesome in the grill for smoking!

Troy

[Chris Padilla]

Troy,

Purty stuff and a heckuva first post...complete with pics and all! You'll fit in very well around here:

Welcome to Da Creek!! :)

[David G Baker]

I have 4 different types of apple trees that are over 50 years old in my yard that are on their last legs. I have been tempted to cut them down but they are so old and ugly that I don't have the heart. Guess I will let them go when a storm takes them and if there is any usable wood left I will try to get a few pieces of wood from them.
John,
Your wood sure is purdy, hope it doesn't twist on you.
Troy,
Welcome to the Creek. Awesome work.

[Jim Becker]

Beautiful stuff!! Now get that stickered and stacked outside with a LOT of weight on it and a cover to keep standing water/snow/ice off the top...apple and many other fruit woods are hard to dry and you don't want to let it get ahead of you with warping, etc. Plenty of air-flow! ;)