A visit from the wood fairy

[Paul Heely]

A landscaper relative of mine called yesterday to ask if I wanted some black birch, so of course I said yes! Looks a lot more like black cherry to me, but that's OK too. Tree came down in during the storm earlier this week and was cut in the last couple of days. It amazes me how quickly cherry cracks. You can see in the picture every piece has already started to crack at the pith. I see lots of smaller bowls, hollow forms, boxes and ornaments in my future. Trying to get it all processed and rough turned before it cracks any worse.

Paul
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[Greg Just]

nice find. I would get that wood sealed up as soon as possible, even if you are going to process it soon.

[Nate Davey]

With it being Cherry, I'd seal the ends and don't make any disparaging remarks about it while doing it. It cracks on a whim. Congrats

[David E Keller]

...seal the ends and don't make any disparaging remarks about it while doing it. It cracks on a whim...

LOL! Funny but true!

[charlie knighton]

congratulations on the "black birch", it amazes me how many times someone cuts a tree down that has been in their yard for 30 years and has a questionable label

[James Combs]

Great hall and if it were me I think when I stored the blanks away I would also tag them as "Black Cherry" based on what I can see of the bark. Black Birch has a much smoother bark.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Congrats on all the beautiful wood! Hope you get it sealed, rough turned or otherwise stored so that you don't lose any of it to checking! Looking forward to seeing what you turn out of it!

[Dennis Ford]

Congrats on the wood score. Often the owners don't know what kind of tree they have. A couple of years ago some friends and I went to cut up large "Walnut" that had blown over (it turned out to be Hickory). Just recently I was offered some "Persimmon" with red heartwood (it was Cherry), the owner was sure it had produced "wild persimmons" in his yard.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats on a nice haul. As others have said you need to get the ends sealed or rough turned quick. Looks like cherry to me also. Bark is to rough for black birch from what I can see.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Turn a piece quickly and get a sense of how good your shop is going to smell every time you turn Black Birch. It turns very well, also.
faust

[Paul Heely]

I've turned a few pieces and it looks, smells and turns like all the other cherry I've turned.

I'm not too worried about it cracking. There's nothing in this pile thats all that special and in my area cherry is fairly easy to come by. Actually, having a nice pile makes it easier to scrap a piece when it's not coming out right.

Back to turning.

Paul

[Steve Kubien]

How long are those pieces? It may be worth letting them split a little further and then rive them for peppermill and rolling pin blanks. Lots of options no matter what you choose to do.

[Jon Nuckles]

If it is cherry, anchorseal the heck out of it. I was turning some cherry yesterday that had been in my shop for months, in half log form and anchorsealed. I was roughing out 6 small bowls and I did the outsides of each on a woodworm screw before removing the screw and mounting them each in the chuck to rough out the interiors. In the half hour between roughing the outside of the two cherry bowls and remounting them, each had 5 or 6 cracks opening up! The walnut and boxelder pieces, which were much wetter to start, were fine. Don't know if it matters, but I think mine may have been fruit cherry rather than black cherry. The bark is black and smooth and the wood smells like amaretto when you turn it. The wood looks like black cherry, though.

[Paul Heely]

The logs are 16 - 18" long. I prepped a couple of more tonight. What I'm finding is that even cutting back 4-6" there is cracking on the pith. A bunch of it will get prepped into blanks for boxes or small end grain hollow forms. I've never turned a rolling pin, so that's something I may need to try.

Paul

[Billy Tallant]

Nice wood haul!