Weeping Cherry

[John Meade]

The weeping cherry in my backyard is dead. It was alive last season and lost its leaves as usual in the Fall but it is a brittle lifeless form, so it is coming down. Its trunk is about 14 to 18" in diameter. Questions:

1. Would this trunk potentially make good bowl blanks?
2. Should I let it dry or try turning it as is?
3. How is weeping cherry to turn? Any particulars that I should know about?
4. What else do i need to know?

Thanks.

[Dale Miner]

It turns and sands very well. It is not as hard as black (wild) cherry, but close. It is more variegated in it's coloring, and is interesting from the varigation. It is very crack prone. Natural edge bowls are attractive, but the bark is tough to cut through without peeling the top layers loose. A bark free natural edge can be pyro'ed and looks good.

A log left whole will crack to the center from many places, making the wood pretty much of no use for turning. I would rough out the bowls that are intended for twice turning as soon as possible. The wood moves a fair amount, probably more than black cherry, but the 10% thickness should be enough. I would turn the bottoms a bit thinner than 10% to help reduce the possibilty of a crack in or near the tenon. A dog dish shape is almost sure to crack.

Definately bag and slow dry the roughouts and once turned items.

The wood makes interesting pepper mills. But be sure to wax the tangential portions of the blanks as well as the ends when laying up to dry. The tangential shrikage appears to be much higher than the radial, or at least much faster. I lost several P-mill blanks from cracking in the tangential grain.

That is a large bit of weeping cherry. You might not run across any of that size again, so my suggestion is to go for it.

[Brad Adams]

Not sure why everyone asks if a certain wood is good to turn. I love turning different kinds of wood, no matter the species. Any dead tree is fair game to me.

[John Meade]

Brad...because I am such an amateur that I ask lots of stupid questions...Now I know. Thanks.

[Bernie Weishapl]

John it is a great turning wood. A friend of mine cut one down last fall. Ditto what Dale said about being slightly soft than wild cherry.

[Doug Herzberg]

A lot of trees sold these days as "weeping" or pendula varieties are actually 5 or 6 foot root stocks with the weeping variety grafted on at the top, so it's possible the trunk is a different wood entirely from the branches. It will be fun to find out. I hope you post the results.

[Bill Hensley]

Any cherry is good wood, some just better than others.

One suggestion, if this is like the cherry I have keep an eye out for rusting on the lathe, band saw or table saw surface. It happens quickly.

[Jon Nuckles]

John, Nothing wrong with asking, some woods are not worth the work to cut up and anchorseal. And if you are lucky enough to have more wood than you have time to turn, you might as well spend your time on the best stuff. Be sure to post your finished pieces so we can all see what weeping cherry looks like!

[Thomas Canfield]

I tend to take most any wood and try it. It does sound like you need to really cut the pith out of the sections to avoid the redial splits. On a 14 to 18" D, I would cut out a 2 1/ to 3" pith section and then remove the center 2 to 3" of pith from those slabs. The "quater sawn" material makes good smaller bowls, saucers, or cut for spindle work. You can also cut a thicker pith slab to end up with some 3 or 4" square end grain material for hollow forms or lidded boxes after it has dried. I hope you have a good supply of Anchor Seal, good chainsaw, and elbow grease.

[John Meade]

OK...talk slowly...I've never cut my own blanks before. The tree is down. I saved three 24" long sections of trunk ranging in size from 16" in diameter to 14" in diameter. The cut sections (ends) of each of the three logs appear flawless...no noticeable voids, cracks, decay, etc. The light yellow coloring is very uniform across the diameter of each cut. Two of the logs are pretty much round. The third log is more elliptical in shape. They are lying in my yard near the stump.

Now what? Do I cut them with the grain perpendicular to the cut ends of each log? Do I cut them in half or thirds? Then do I seal each piece? With what?

Sorry to be so ignorant on this...Thanks for your help...

[Roger Chandler]

to cut blanks for bowls, you take and cut the 24" blanks into two 12" lengths.........then cut down the middle of the grain and take out the pith........before you go all the way through, stop and take off a flat of each side....parallel to the pith....this will give you a mounting place for a faceplate, then go back and finish cutting down the grain on the pith all the way through.........

......you should end up with 4 blanks from the 24" long log, or two from a 12" log......[.this is assuming you are using a chainsaw to cut the logs into blanks].....then anchorseal the cut areas to keep from checking............

You can also go ahead and cut the blanks round on a bandsaw and then anchorseal.........wrap in one layer of newspaper when the anchorseal is dry, and that should slow down the drying, but allow enough to keep the blank stable without much cracking or hopefully molding ..........although some spalting may occur which only makes wood prettier for a turning.

Good luck!

[John Meade]

Roger...thank you. Your instructions are very clear. I have a few more questions if you will indulge me please...

Taking out the pith...do I saw it out, use a chisel?

I have read in some places to rough out my bowls while the wood is still green. Is this correct? (Although the tree was dead so I don't know how green it is).

Once anchor sealed and wrapped in newspaper how long until ready for turning? How long can I leave them before turning? If I use a moisture meter, is there an optimal moisture content?

Thanks.

[Roger Chandler]

Roger...thank you. Your instructions are very clear. I have a few more questions if you will indulge me please...

Taking out the pith...do I saw it out, use a chisel?

I have read in some places to rough out my bowls while the wood is still green. Is this correct? (Although the tree was dead so I don't know how green it is).

Once anchor sealed and wrapped in newspaper how long until ready for turning? How long can I leave them before turning? If I use a moisture meter, is there an optimal moisture content?

Thanks.

John,

Just cut the pith out with your chainsaw...........if it is a large log, then cut about maybe 1 inch out of the center........to do this it is best to have the log propped up with smaller pieces of wood to keep it standing while cutting ..........safety first always.........if you cut a log piece with a larger bandsaw, then you need to go on either side of the pith to get it out.......wood normally cracks from the pith outward ...........that is the most vulnerable area as this is where the tree started its growth and before it put on layers of hardwood for strength.

[Scott Conners]

John, Bill Grumbine has an excellent dvd called Turned Bowls Made Easy where he takes you from log to bowl, in very clear steps, with all the tricks explained. It's very worth owning.
Here's my basic procedure:

Cut log into segments slightly longer than the diameter.
Cut segments in half through pith. Cut in from the side of the log, with the grain, instead of cutting into the endgrain with the log standing on end. You should get long peels from the saw, not chips.
Often I cut the pith fully out like roger said on bigger logs, smaller ones the saw kerf and rough turning takes care of the pith.
On bigger logs and ones I won't be doing NE stuff on, I cut a flat parallel to the cut through the pith for a faceplate/drive center.
On larger blanks I'll cut the corners off the half log, as I don't have a bandsaw. If you're going to bandsaw the blank round, it doesn't matter unless it's a large blank and you want to save weight/size.
Mount the blank between centers and turn a tenon, then remount on a chuck and rough turn. Do this as soon as possible after cutting the blanks. If you can't turn them very soon, you can submerge them in water (short term) or wax/anchorseal them (long term). Garbage bags also work short term, but can promote rot (spalting). The idea is to prevent fast moisture loss, which will cause cracking.
Roughed out blanks get wrapped in paper bags and/or anchorsealed on the endgrain, then stored to dry.
I return the tenon between centers once the blank is dry, then finish turn and sand on a chuck.
I remove the tenon and turn the foot using a friction chuck between centers.

[Thomas Canfield]

John,

Cutting the logs to lengths approaching the diameter will make a bowl with max diameter of the log. If you cut the log longer than the diameter, then you can turn a natural edge bowl that is longer than wide. When cutting out the pith, you want to cut with the grain (along axis of tree) and not cross the face. I am a firm believer in really cutting the pith out and recommend 15% of diameter as minimum unless you are turning green right away. As mentioned earlier, the pith slabs are excellent material for smaller pieces or spindle stock after cutting out the pith from the pith slab.

You can also cut the log section into wedges, say 3 pieces, and then remove the pith from the point to give a wider natural edge to a shallower bowl.

I tend to cut the eliptical cross section such that the growth rings are the most symetrical in the cut pieces rather than getting the most width out of the pieces.

You will learn that how you make some of the early cuts with the chain saw will greatly impact you final use of the wood. It definitely is a learning experience, so have fun and find out what works for you.