Sad Wood Gloat

[Jonathan Harvey]

It's a sad wood gloat but it's wood none the less.

I was out with my neighbour looking at cherry trees in his bush. He is taking out a lot of cedars for fence posts and is going to put in a trail through that part of the bush. There were a few big cherry trees in there and wanted to know if I wanted to buy them. It was a no brainer for me as I've wanted to get my hands on some cherry for a while. One of the cherry trees even had a nice burl on the side of it. Anyways long story short he cut them down and brought them to my house this afternoon and they are FULL of CRACKS all the way through the tree. I don't see any salad bowls or any bowls for that matter in this whole tree with all the cracks. The cracks are so bad that when I cut the ends off of the logs to clean up the cut and anchorseal them the off cuts just break into three pieces. This was a living tree when he brought it down today so I don't know how it cracked so bad. He even said that the tree had a fairly soft landing as it rolled off of other trees on the way down.

Any ideas what else besides bowls I can make with this? It's lots of pen blanks if I wanted to cut them up and sell them. I guess pepper mills and such but All I want to make is bowls....my addiction is bowls :-)

Pictures attached. As you can see the one cherry log is massive. My chainsaw sits in front of it and it has a 20" bar on it.

Now I have 300.00 worth of logs in my yard and I can't even make a bowl out of them. :-(

See what I mean it's a sad wood gloat.

[charlie knighton]

that is sad :eek: , i am not sure if that would be wind shakes or not

[David E Keller]

You may be able to salvage some bowls from those logs if you cut it into workable lengths and then split it along the cracks. The only cracks I see are extending out from the pith... think of them as guides to the size of your blanks rather than cracks. The sad part is that you had to pay for it, but I think you can get a lot of blanks from what you bought.

[Eric Kosanovich]

Jonathan,

You have a lot of good bowl wood there. Wow 20" even tho it has cracks
use them split the wood down the cracks. 1/3 of that is what someone do the math.
That is still vary respectable for a bowl. Most of the Cherry i have is only 6" to 8" logs.

Good luck hope to see some bowls soon
Eric

[Steve Kubien]

That looks a lot better than you describe but seeing them in person is a different, I admit. I would look at peppermills, boxes and end-grain hollowforms if it is no good for bowls.

[Prashun Patel]

When life hands you lemons, make smaller bowls.

[Rob Damon]

Sad..Sad,

I was out working in the backyard yesterday and the neighbor that lives behind us came over. We park are cars in the rear of the back yard. She said they would going to have some trees taken down this week and we might want to move our cars out of the way, just in case.

There are four 65' wild cherry trees along the back of thier fence line. They are all going to come down and stump grounded.

First question, "Can I has a few pieces??" She said no her son had already spoken for all of it.

I asked if he was a woodworker or wood turning. She no, he has a fire place and likes the smell of cherry burning. It is all going to be burned.


Oh me........what can you do.

Rob

[Baxter Smith]

Too bad you had to pay so much for it. Smaller bowls perhaps or lots of spindles. Do you like spool beds?

[Jonathan Harvey]

Too bad you had to pay so much for it. Smaller bowls perhaps or lots of spindles. Do you like spool beds?

Spool beds ???

[Bernie Weishapl]

Have you talked with the neighbor about the wood? I would definitely tell him that the wood is no good for turning. $300 is some expensive firewood.

[Jonathan Harvey]

Yeah he knows I showed him. I plan on buying many more trees from him so I want to keep our relationship good so that he will continue to sell me more trees from his bush.

I think this tree will be cut up into pepper mills and cutting boards, utensils, pen blanks and maybe a few bowls in there two. I'll recoup my loss and then some but not as much as if it was all bowl blanks. Buying a full standing tree is a real crap shoot as you never know whats in the tree until you get it down and start cutting it up. Unfortunatly if you don't like what you see you can't put the tree back up. I guess it's part of the business if your going to buy trees.

[Baxter Smith]

Spool beds ???
Different styles but this will give you the general idea. Sometimes referred to as Jenny Lind. Popular in the late 19th century.
145981

[David E Keller]

I've heard of being in the doghouse, Baxter, but a bed in the driveway? OUCH!

[Reed Gray]

Johnathon,
It looks to me like there is a lot of good bowl wood in those logs. You may not get a 20 inch bowl, but no problem. Most logs will have some splitting off of the pith. If it breaks into thirds, turn the bowls in more of a natural edge orientation. You can trim off the top so the bowls are flat on top. This will be easiest with the biggest log. The grain does not have to center perfectly in the bowl. Even though it is more artistically correct, they still look fine and work great.

Rob,
Did you ask like this, "Can I have a few pieces of your tree if I make you some bowls out of it?" That does the trick for me every time.

robo hippy

[Barbara Gill]

The one picture shows what looks like ring shake to me. It is very common in Cherry, especially large ones, around here. There are many reasons for the shake including isolated events: fire, drought, etc. In these cased the shake is usually limited to the growth rings formed during that event.
In your case it sounds extensive. You can Google ring shake to find out more.

I hope you checked the going price for logs before agreeing on the be.ft. price.
I would never buy cherry unless it has been down long enough for the shake to show up in the un-Anchorsealed ends.
I advise any of my customers to do the same before bringing the logs in to be sawn.
I would advise not buying any more Cherry from him.

[Jeff Nicol]

With the size of the logs and the amount you have, I would start cutting them into lengths that you want to try and get a bowl blank out of. You will find that some of the cracks will not be there as you work your way through the logs. Then cut the chunks length wise and follow the cracks like already reccomended. If it is the shakes the cracks will be radial and follow the grain, if it is checking it will follow the length of the log. Like always the fruit trees are prone to checking and checking deep and fast. You will get so many pieces to turn out of those logs you won't know what to do with yourself! But the key is to get it all processed as soon as you can, I can say this from much experience with cherry over the last 30 years.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Baxter Smith]

Different styles but this will give you the general idea. Sometimes referred to as Jenny Lind. Popular in the late 19th century.
145981


I've heard of being in the doghouse, Baxter, but a bed in the driveway? OUCH!
Not mine, if thats what you were thinking. I haven't bought that many tools , yet...

[Prashun Patel]

Sad..Sad,

I asked if he was a woodworker or wood turning. She no, he has a fire place and likes the smell of cherry burning. It is all going to be burned.


Oh me........what can you do.

Rob

Rob-
Talk to yr neighbor's son. I bet he'd be happy to part with a few choice pieces - especially if you offer to make him something...

[Nathan Hawkes]

The one picture shows what looks like ring shake to me. It is very common in Cherry, especially large ones, around here. There are many reasons for the shake including isolated events: fire, drought, etc........I hope you checked the going price for logs before agreeing on the be.ft. price.


Same thing with cherry in central VA. All the cherry I've been able to get my hands on has had at least one big shake crack through the middle. Its even more common in other trees; oak, mulberry, walnut, locust especially. There's great wood there, and if you cut it into thirds, you should be able to get it centered relatively well. That log would be absolutely perfect for natural edge pieces. Its in almost perfect thirds. Just make a small flat spot to get rid of the pith, and knock the corners off. As far as the log scale/price is concerned, that's wise advice!! Common cherry isn't very expensive in log form, and in the southeast, most people do burn cherry, as horrific as that might be to people in parts of the country where it is expensive. I myself have burned a fair bit of cherry that wasn't high enough quality for making much out of. A lot of it is beautiful. You just have to be careful what you pay for. Good luck with this one. I can appreciate how frustrating it must be to want to keep up a good relationship when you're very unhappy with what you've paid for. Best wishes.

Nate

[David Hostetler]

That really doesn't look all that bad. I've had some red oak do the same thing recently... Just spin up some smaller bowls... Or take it to a resawing sled and cut / dry planks for non turning projects.

And remember, when life gives you limes, lick the salt off your wounds and shoot down some tequila!

[Barbara Gill]

If you decide that some of the wood apperars to be sound enough to turn, be very careful. Shake that has not advanced to the mold infestation stage can appear sound only to fly apart while spinning.

[Jonathan Harvey]

If you decide that some of the wood apperars to be sound enough to turn, be very careful. Shake that has not advanced to the mold infestation stage can appear sound only to fly apart while spinning.


Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. face shield at the ready :-)

I started cutting it up today and I will be able to get bowls out of it. Most of the bowls I turn I want to be salad bowls and other food safe items so when I come across wood with cracks in it it's usually no good to me but like everyone has said it will be able to make some nice bowls the just weren't exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks for brightening my day folks. :-)