Felling trees--need some advice

[Narayan Nayar]

Hi everyone.

For a variety of reasons, I'm taking down a couple of trees in my backyard. They're not huge by any means--8"-9" diameter trunks. I plan on keeping the trunks and using some of it for turning and some of it for flatwork. And no, I'm not doing the work myself--the trees are a good 25-30' tall and pose some interesting problems for the arborist.

Anyway, I've never made lumber from a tree before. I think the general advice for people doing flatwork is that anything above the first large branch is garbage, since the large limbs at the bottom cause a lot of stresses in the wood. That's fine, I'm not looking for a huge haul here.

But turners on the other hand seem to love crotch pieces. So I'm wondering if you guys could help me figure out how much of the tree to save (the arborist will take away the rest of it). If possible, take these pics and mark the top and bottom of the save.

Thanks.

[Narayan Nayar]

Tree 1: top just above the crotch, bottom about 6" off the ground
Tree 2: top just below the second branch, bottom about 6" off the ground

[Ryan Baker]

If it were me, i'd keep everything 2" or bigger in diameter.

I also wouldn't bother trying to get useable flat stock out of it. In this case, it wouldn't be worth all the effort for the minimal useable stock. YMMV.

[Jerry Gerard]

Either cut it as low as you can or dig the root out if possible. There's some nicely figured wood at the base worth the work .

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I'd save the whole trunk too. Well, not all of it, nothing smaller than 6 inches. I'd also pass on trying to make lumber, or flat work. Much better to cut it into disks and make bowls, boxes or peppermills or what ever.

From your pics, those trees look much shorter than 25 feet. Should be easy to cut down. That fence would be a problem though.

[Narayan Nayar]

No, they're pretty tall. 25-30 feet from ground to top, maybe even more (they're taller than my neighbor's 2-story house). They're water gum trees, if anyone cares. Tristaniopsis laurina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristaniopsis_laurina), the arborist tells me.

There are electrical wires running through one of them, and yeah, there's the fence. Even if this is an easy job, I'm leaving it to a bonded and insured pro. Who now knows I'm into woodturning and has offered to bring me some nice stuff from a job he's on currently :).

[alex carey]

thats certainly the best way to get wood, just make friends with a tree cutter.

[Narayan Nayar]

Thought I'd provide a quick update:

Here's the first bowl to come from the trees. Interesting wood. This is the first "green" wood I've turned, so I don't have anything to compare it to. Leaves a kind of resin or sap on the gouge if you stop turning for a minute, and it's really hard to remove. Ended up grinding it off most of the time, though I think I'll explore other options going forward.

Some brief notes on my blog, which I apparently I can't link to (?) but which you can access through my profile.

[Marc Himes]

Looks like it will be a nice bowl, Narayan. Did your tree cutter ever come through with some wood? Sometimes a gift of a bowl can help create a good and worthwhile relationship.

Marc Himes

[Narayan Nayar]

Hey Marc.

Assuming they turn out OK, I'm going to give him a few bowls from the wood he left: one from the water gums and one from a bradford pear rootball he brought by :).

-n

[Jim Kountz]

Looks like you did well with it, free wood is always nice!!