what would you do with this?

[curtis rosche]

here is some of the oak i got from my church. it was a floor joist for 205yrs. im not sure if it is red oak or white oak. it is planed on 2 sides. the other 2 sides still have half of the bark on them. there are cracks running the length. the size is, 6 inches x 5.5 inches x 4 ft.

now heres the questions.

1. what orientation should i turn this? as you can see from the pictures there is a cool ""four leaf clover"" looking pith/center. is that worth the extra work to make it and endgrain bowl?

2. i will need to fill in the cracks, the wood is hard enough that i could get away with out filling them in. but i wanna be extra safe and i think they would look better filled in. should i fill them in clear?, or should i add some color, and if so, what color. the first picture, i put a peice of white paper on the log to try to get some sence of the color of the wood, but the color of the picture is off slightly.

[Christopher Fletcher]

If it's that old, it might make a really nice mantle for someone's fireplace. Especially since you have the live edge on two of the sides. IMHO, it would be a waste of such unique lumber to hollow out.

[curtis rosche]

that would make a shallow mantle. also i have no market or tools for one.

[Dave Schell]

How about some candlesticks? I'm thinking Rude Olsonik style:

[curtis rosche]

ok. so what about the filling?

[Richard Madison]

Black epoxy?

[Gary Herrmann]

I know this might be considered heresy on this forum, but if it was me, I'd resaw it and make flatwork boxes out of it. If that's 200+ years old, it could be virgin forest oak. It would be shame to lose so much to ribbons. Unless you can core it. And I'm thinking it's probably pretty stable by now.

Turned or milled, there's always a market for keepsake boxes. But then, I don't know what other tools you have available to you. Hand tools don't have to cost much. Post this on the neander forum, if you wind up leaning that way.

[Scott Hackler]

I hate to be a turner in agreement, but hmmm. 200+ year old growth.... I would probally resaw it as well. Skim one side true and resaw away. A bowl, vase, HF or anything else isnt going to be as nice as a box or anything flat.

With the bark on a few sides it might contain 1/4 sawn or quilting of some kind.

[Reed Gray]

Being primarily a bowl turner, the crack shows you where to cut the log down the pith, and get some 6 inch bowls from both sides. You could get one core from each one, 2 would be really difficult. I don't like to fill cracks, and that one is a big one.

robo hippy

[Steve Schlumpf]

Curtis - are you making keepsakes for the members of the church, to raise funds for the church or is this wood strictly yours to use as you see fit?

If you are making keepsakes - then you want to generate as many of the items as possible. How many of these floor joists do you have?

[Jim Underwood]

I usually cut stuff like this to make small turned boxes, ornaments, pens, or bottle stoppers. The cracks just make life miserable when making it into something larger.

[curtis rosche]

i have 2 4ft peices of this. some of the money will go to the church. i do not have anything to resaw this with. no bandsaw. and based on what the wood did when i cut the log in half with the chopsaw, there is no way you could ever cut this by hand. it actually shot out a couple sparks, and there was no nail that i hit either.

[Harvey Mushman]

How about this?.....Don't be in a big hurry to make something out of this wood. Stash it away until your skills improve and a perfect idea comes to mind. At some point, a few years from now, you'll wish that you held onto this piece. Hacking away with the immediate need to make something...ANYTHING...out of this beam will surely not be fitting to its significance. Be patient....The wood will let you know what it wants to become in due time.

[curtis rosche]

good idea Harvey

[Rusty Smith]

If it were me I would make a communion plate or contribution plate from it and give it to the church. Might have to glue up a couple pieces to make it large enough though. Then do as Harvey suggests with the rest.

[curtis rosche]

how would you suggest glueing them up?

[Rusty Smith]

You would need to find someone that could resaw a section of the log to give you a couple of 5.5" or 6" planks and have them jointed then just use your choice of wood glue to join two pieces edge-wise to yeld a 11" or 12" blank, then turn.

You could also make small 5.5" or 6" plates without gluing up. Still, you will need to resaw. I'm sure if you check your local woodturner's or woodworker's clubs you would find someone to help you out with the resawing.

[curtis rosche]

so there would be a seam running down the center?
going with the glue up idea. what about cutting off slices of the end. then glueing them up so that there are 4 peices glued together. side by side. so that when you look at it you see 4 piths, i guess it would kinda be like bookmatched but with endgrain.
how well would that work? or would the glue joints be to unstable?

[Rusty Smith]

With the wood that old and presumably stable, you MIGHT get away with that. I think you would be better off keeping the grain running the same direction though.

I think you are wanting to keep the pith, right? The only safe way with the wood you have and from what I have read (I am certainly no expert) is to turn smaller plates using end grain.

[curtis rosche]

yes i would like to keep the pith. it looks like a 4 leaf clover