Help with Harvesting Turning Blanks

[Bob Coleman]

I'm having a couple of walnut trees taken down (1000 cankers, boo) and I wanted to gather a few pieces for bowl blanks. Anything I keep I have to debark, so I'm not looking to save too much.

I don't turn much, and haven't ever harvested my own stock, so bear with the questions:

What are the best sections of the tree to save?

Do branches (reaction wood) turn well?

Can I leave chunks of log lying around or do I need to rough out the blank and seal it immediately?

Any other tips?

If anyone in the Denver area is interested in free wood let me know (you'll have to debark here or the city gets annoyed).

Thanks in advance!
Bob

[Scott Hackler]

Seal the end grain with Anchorseal 1, multiple coats of latex paint or paraffin wax. In log form, leave them as long as you can and store them in the shade, under a tarp. For blanks, but the logs in half, lengthwise with the pith (center) completely removed. The pith is where the cracks will start. Seal the end grain on these blanks as well. Walnut takes longer to dry out for me so you have a longer working time to cut it up and seal things. A lot of people cut the blanks into round billets, but I don't mess with it and just cut half log blanks or squares.

[Steve Mawson]

What Scott said, also I like the crotch's for some of the prettiest wood. Seal the ends for sure and soon after it is cut seems to work better for me.

[John Keeton]

To the limb issue, using reaction wood is not as critical in turning as turned work is much smaller than flat work. The tendency for twist and bowing is not as great, or perhaps one should say - as noticeable. Branch wood can be nice for end grain turned pieces, with the pith in the wood, but you will need to deal with the pith issue when you turn, such as applying CA glue to minimize cracking in that area. For that, you might want to cut some longer log sections and seal them whole so you can waste off 3-4" on either end when you get ready to turn them.

[Brian Ashton]

If you have a chest freezer you can preserve choice chunks of wood for decades by throwing them in it.

[allen thunem]

bob pm sent

[Thomas Canfield]

I agree with Scott above, but would add that you can cut the pith slab thick to get some nice straight grain (quarter sawn material) for doing spindles or if cut thick enough, you can get some end grain for boxes, etc. Today, I cut up some 16" D Elm with pith slabs 2", 3", and 3-1/2" thick. I ran out of Anchor Seal, and tomorrow will finish prepping the slabs by cutting out the pith and sealing with some plastic film and rubber bands on ends to allow to dry for end grain stock. The bowl stock at 16" and 4 to 6" thick will still make some nice bowls and that was sealed with Anchor Seal, some for standard form, and some natural edge long oval.

[John Thorson]

For the limb wood or other reaction wood pay attention to 'which side is up'. The top of a branch grows under tension while the lower side of the branch grows under compression. You will have much greater success, fewer losses due to cracking as it dries, if you keep the stress of the wood in the piece all "similar". There are times when you can see this in the log, the pith will be off-center to the 'up side' and the growth rings being closer together in the tension wood than in the compression wood. Other times you can't see it in the grain but the stress is still built-in to the log.