Anyone turn spruce?

[Paul Williams]

I have taken down two large spruce trees that had grown too close to an electrical transformer. Would turning be just making a sappy mess out of my shop and tool, or can it be turned? I am interested in trying a shallow bowl or platter out of one of the sections where multiple branches intersect the trunk at the same elevation.Also is there anyone in the St Paul / Minneapolis area that would like some of this sruce either for turning or for firewood?

[David E Keller]

I've turned a piece or two of spruce burl, and I enjoyed it. The stuff I had wasn't too sappy, and it sure smelled great!

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[Russell Neyman]

I swear, just about everything will get turned sooner or later, even spruce. I bet somebody has probably turned cow dung and made a nice bowl out of it. Spruce, it seems to me, is going to split and be hard to sand, but Dave's example proves anything is possible.

[Bill Bulloch]

I have never turned spruce, but I put a tenon on a piece and used it for a glue block....It broke off at the tenon while hollowing a Hard Maple bowl. That was yesterday.

[Thomas Canfield]

I don't know how spruce would compare to the yellow pine we have here, but you are likely right about the sap. I turned several pieces of "dead" pine being cut down because of beetle attack, and there was a certain amount of discoloration from the beetle attack. I have also turned some Christmas tree trunks that were spruce type about 3" diameter, and green the sap was not as big an issue as when dry and sap seemed more concentrated and really sticky. I would suggest trying a section as a hollow form while fairly green, and turn to final form and then wet sand with a oil. The sanded piece should then be soaked in a diluted oil/mineral spirit mix to saturate the wood and let dry and final finish with multiple coats of a danish oil or similar. I don't know how translucent the wood will go, but the eyes should still give you some great contrast. Good luck.

[Bernie Weishapl]

My neighbor had a spruce come down 3 or so yrs. ago. I cut it into bowl blanks and let it dry for those 3 yrs. It turned really nicely and was some really pretty wood.

[Baxter Smith]

Last year I turned a half dozen different bowls and hollowforms from a spruce burl that was on a old tree that had snapped off during a winter storm. It was surprisingly sap free. A tree cut during the summer months might be a different story. The part where the roots flared off the trunk had some pretty nice curl. I cut up another tree this summer that had gone over in that same storm. Have not turned any of it yet, though it is on my list of fall projects.

[Paul Williams]

Thanks for the input. I have plenty, so I quess the best thing will be to try some now while green and seal some up to try after it dries. The trees grew side by side yet appear to have different amounts of sap on the surface of the cut off branches. The trunk cuts are a bit sticky but don't have sap running out like some of the branches. I was planning to wait for winter so there would be less sap in the trunk, but the power compny and my wife had different ideas about the urgency of getting them down.

[Rich Aldrich]

I turned this black spruce burl last year. It sat on my cousins work bench for two years before. I borrowed it from him and gave it back to him as the pictures show. If I didnt have a face shield on, I would have had spruce stuck to my teeth from grinning. This wood is so beautiful. The pitch is not set. I have several other burls that I am letting dry. This fall when I have my outdoor wood boiler going, I am going to try to set the pitch using the boiler. There is a compartment where the water feed and return lines connect that is quite large and should get hot enough to set the pitch.