"Burn it" or "Turn it" or ..........

[Donny Lawson]

Today is a day like the rest and I came upon this pile of Hackberry by the roadside ready to head to the mulch pile and I thought it looked "Lonely" so I decided to give it a home. Now I need to decide what to do with it. I know some will be used for firewood and maybe a bowl or two if I get around to it. I have a bad habit of bringing home wood that I do not need. I thought about giving some away. By the way I have more of this at work to bring home tomorrow. Thoughts, Ideas??????????????? Hi, my name is Donny and I'm a wood addict...........

[John Beaver]

It looks really straight at clean. I say turn it or send it to me. I like wood with not too much figure, contrasts nicely with my designs.

[Chris Burgess]

Well in my shop I typically turn it to a funnel then I burn it. So you can have your cake and eat it to.

Also, I have seen some great spalted Hackberry but I hear it will rot real quick...also hear say.

[Donny Lawson]

John Beaver;1785090]It looks really straight at clean. I say turn it or send it to me. I like wood with not too much figure, contrasts nicely with my designs.[/QUOTE]

Would you like that on a pallet?????????? LOL:D

[Jack Mincey]

I've never turned any but have seen some beautiful turkey calls turned from it. Hackberry spalts very nice and turns the plain looking wood into very pretty wood.
Jack
Here is a link to the first turkey call I found turned from spalted hackberry.
http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,10991.0.html

[allen thunem]

if nothing else it is good practice what do you have to loose?

[David E Keller]

It's great looking stuff when spalted. Here's a form turned from a piece of spalted hackberry that Steve Walker dropped off recently.
209162209163

[Greg Just]

A couple of years ago I turned some spalted hackberry and it was rather nice stuff. Like clamps, you can never have too much wood!

[Jamie Donaldson]

It doesn't make very good firewood, but I've had good success spalting it, especially if it is cut fresh. Mix 1/2 Miracle Gro solution and beer in a puddle in the bottom of a plastic bag, place the hackberry end down and close the bag. Rotate ends about every 2 wks. for a month or 2, and I usually split the log lengthwise to eliminate the pith, allowing observation of the spalting progression. Don't leave it too long, as it will turn into a mushroom farm and rot faster than most harder woods.

[Richard Jones]

Hackberry is great wood to turn green. Wonderful big shavings, water flying everywhere, what could be more fun? Oh, yeah, it makes nice bowls as well........

Cut it. You can always burn the bowls if you don't like them........

Rich

[Bernie Weishapl]

Hackberry is a good wood to turn and it does make some really nice bowls. Spalted or not it dyes nicely.

[Donny Lawson]

Well, I did turn 2 bowls tonight form the Hackberry I brought home today. The first bowl is roughed out and put in DNA until tomorrow.The second bowl is an experiment for me.It's finished and I added 2 coats of mineral oil.The bowl is very wet as it was cut down 2 days ago. This Hackberry turns very well. The finished bowl is 8x2". It's just under 1/4" thick. There is no pith so lets see what happens.

[Thomas Canfield]

I rough turned a bunch of Palo Blanco (Hackberry) recently and spalted as follows. I stacked the rough turned bowls along with wood shavings inside a plastic grocery bag and then sealed the bag. Every 2 or 3 days, I would dump out the bowls and shavings, turn the bags inside out, and then start the process again. After about 2 or 3 weeks the spalting was really going and I decided to stop. I then changed to a paper grocery bag to let the bowl blanks dry for re-turning,j and bags were weighed to check for end of moisture loss. There was enough bacteria in the bark and shavings and plenty of moisture without adding anything. The 2 or 3 days were not critical timing and there was a 4 or 5 day period in there. Bags were stored on the floor in shop during the process.

[Jeff Fagen]

I just turned a bunch of spalted Hackberry and it was fun and beautiful.