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View Full Version : How to deal with Bradford Pear



David Epperson
11-29-2006, 1:36 PM
I'm posting this here because I don;t see how it fits with any of the other forums. As you can see, I'm new here, and this wood is the cause of it.
We felled the tree last October (05), bandsaw milled it a few months later. Now I have between 200 and 225 board ft of 4/4 lumber from it (depending upon how much of the flitch/sapwood works out.) and one slab of 7/4. Most are around 7' long by around 8" wide, some are as much as 11" wide - from the canted out trunk. The flitch slabs are about the same length but up to 20" wide.
So far air drying I'm not losing much to warping and from what little I've read this stuff is supposed to be bad to twist.

This would has a wonderfull color to it almost a raw pork chop white/pink with figure, but it's not stable (the color), it darkens rapidly if not finished quickly. Some of it actually looked better a few weeks after the test planing going a bit more orange.

I guess what I would really like to know is if there is anyone on these forums that has dealt with this species of hardwood and what I can learn from them about it.

I read here about accelerating the drying process with alcohol, will this work with larger lumber as well and not induce warpage?

The stump is still in the ground, but with all the burl turnings on this site, I might just be encouraged to go dig that massive chunk up. The trunk itself was close to 32" accross just above ground since the tree lived to be 35 years old (rare for these trees) an was till fairly healty when we decided that it had simply gotten too large to be THAT close to the house.

Thanks for any replies.

Bill Lewis
11-29-2006, 5:07 PM
The trunk itself was close to 32" accross just above ground since the tree lived to be 35 years old (rare for these trees)
I'll say that is rare. So much so that I'd take a stab and guess that it wasn't a Bradford pear. We have many pear tree varieties on our property, most of what I call "wild pears". They have a much stronger trunk structure than a Bradford. These trees typically produce a fruit Which is usually a small 1/4" to 1" "berry" with a skin similar to an edible variety. The fruit is essentially inedible except for the dogs and the birds. The larger ones can get kinda gross as they can rot on the tree.
The trees are pear shaped and flower up nicely in the spring just like a Bradford. At my last house, I had a Bradford sapling become damaged (rabbits) and it grew a wild pear from the root stock.

Anyway, I know this deviates from your question, of which I can't help you. All the ones I cut down became firewood. Good score on the lumber though, it's got to be useful for something. Maybe for a secondary wood used in drawer box construction if the figure and grain turns out to be somewhat less than desireable.

John Hart
11-29-2006, 6:00 PM
I cut my pear tree down a couple years ago and slabbed some of it up then turned the rest of it into turning blanks. I did use alcohol on the slabs and they dried very nicely. I had some cracking problems on the turning blanks...but to tell you the truth...it was my fault because I didn't know what I was doing. If I were to do it all over again, I would have boiled the turning blanks to stablize them. I had some pretty dazzling colors m'self...but they faded or got washed out by the BLO that I used on some pieces. Clear lacquer preserved the color pretty well.

That's all I can think of. Sorry if I twarnt too much help.

Gary Herrmann
11-29-2006, 10:38 PM
I've got a few pear boards. I believe the wood tends to be pretty unstable. I haven't seen pear in board form all that often. Probably due to the fact that the trees don't get that large and the inherent instability.

That said, congrats. Its pretty wood and it'll fetch a good price should you choose to sell it. If you keep it, you'll have more pear than just about anyone you'll run into. Especially the 20" wide boards. :eek:

I would think drying it with alcohol could get pretty expensive given the number of board feet you're talking about.

Ian Abraham
11-30-2006, 12:54 AM
Hi David

If you sawed that up a year ago it should be pretty close to dry by now, under 15% anyway. I'd suggest that because of the size of the log, and it was probably pretty straight grained, it has dried straighter than might be expected. Smaller hardwood logs tend to have more tension and the growth rings change angle more in the boards = unstable. Your pear was probably about the best pear log possible :)

As the wood should be air dried by now, it shouldn't need any special treatment. Just a bit more drying inside to get the moisture level down to ~8% which seems the norm for interior US.

Cheers

Ian

Jeffrey Makiel
11-30-2006, 6:59 AM
A 32" trunk is the largest I've ever heard for a Bradford Pear by a long shot. Normally, I see them mature at around 12" which is about a 35 to 40 foot tall tree.

My community has been planting Bradford and Aristocrat Pear trees in the past 15 years instead of the usual sycamores, oaks and maples. The Pear trees are fast growing, shaped like a lolipop, and the roots don't tend to lift the sidewalks. They don't make fruit and they bloom earlier than most species in my area and hold their leaves almost 4 weeks longer in the fall.

I think the fast growing feature of any tree species may make the wood less stable as lumber...at least this is the case with newer generations of pine with wide growth rings. I, for one, would not use clear pine for trim carpentry projects when oak is comparable in price unless I had to match the existing architecture.

cheers, Jeff :)

David Epperson
11-30-2006, 9:59 AM
Thanks for all the replies.
Pretty sure that it was a BP tree, leaves, bark flowers and fruit were all exactly like the BPs at the nursery. But the weak crotch growth limbs were pruned off before the weather could cause them to split the trunk. We did have one serious limb failure when the second growth from a pruned limb overloaded that limbs capacity - which was what prompted the felling. But this species is well known for self destrucring around age 15-20 and this tree was 35 tears old in good soil and good light. In fact I now have a resprout from this stump this year which is already 12' tall (and 5/8" to 3/4" at the base and most of the sprout). Rings on the wood look like it gained about an inch in diameter each year, not quite, but close.

Not sure how tall the tree would have been if we had not pruned it back, but when we felled it I spent a full day pruning limbs off that were 3" dia and less but close to 30' long (I was 20-30 foot up in a 45' lift bucket and cut each limb twice or more- for well over 100 limbs - should have saved more of those for walking stick and camp flagpole projects but didn't have the room to store them).

My cheapie Harbor Freight wood moisture meter shows the wood to be in the 8-12% moisture range right now, but the only other wood workers I've spoken to about working it have been makers of gun stocks, and they prefer their walnut to be in the 5-6% range and state that their rule of thumb is one year per inch of thickness plus a year for air drying. So I figured I had a ways to go yet. The DNA trick holds some promise if it turns out to not promote warpage - so far this wood has not been too prone to checking, except on the ends of unsealed boards. I'm thinking I might be able to enclose just the project wood in a container or bag to conserve on the required amount of alcohol. I read the bowl turning article that told of soaking for 24 hours, but I'm thinking that the longer grain length of a peice of board cut lumber might require a longer soak time? Would this be a safe guess?

John I'd like to hear some more about boiling to stabilise and also about what colors you were able to get and how.

Thanks again.

Jim Becker
11-30-2006, 10:57 AM
I was admiring a Bradford Pear slab yesterday at Hearne...beautiful stuff!

John Hart
11-30-2006, 12:34 PM
John I'd like to hear some more about boiling to stabilise and also about what colors you were able to get and how.

Well Dave...Really all you have to do is boil some water and stick the wood in there. Let it boil for 45 - 90 minutes depending on the size and then pull it out of the water and let it dry. The heat will cause it to dry quickly...but the main thing you're trying to do is cook the sugar in the wood. The sugar is what makes fruit trees so crackable. I've had good success with this.

As far as colors....I hunted around and found these pictures from a couple years ago. The Bell was not subjected to BLO but the wormy platter and the bowl were. Kinda lousy pictures but if you look close you can see all the color variations.
51297
51298
51299
I wonder where all these are? Lost in the move I reckon.:confused:

Ian Abraham
11-30-2006, 7:25 PM
Hi Dave


My cheapie Harbor Freight wood moisture meter shows the wood to be in the 8-12% moisture range right now

Where is the wood now?
If it's stored in 'outside' conditions then it's probably closer to 12%. If it's inside it's probably closer to 8%. The wood will only dry to whatever your environment dictates. Only way it's going to get down to 6% is if your climate is very dry (low average humidity). The 1" per year is a very cautious rule of thumb, it wont cause you any problems, but wood is often air dry in 1/2 that time. Depends on what species, climate etc.

All you need to do now is let the wood sit in an 'inside' environment for a little while ( a month maybe) and it will be fine. Dont get hung up on the exact MC, as long as it's dry for YOUR environment.

Cheers

Ian

David Epperson
12-01-2006, 9:26 AM
Hi Dave

Where is the wood now?
If it's stored in 'outside' conditions then it's probably closer to 12%. If it's inside it's probably closer to 8%. The wood will only dry to whatever your environment dictates.
All you need to do now is let the wood sit in an 'inside' environment for a little while ( a month maybe) and it will be fine. Dont get hung up on the exact MC, as long as it's dry for YOUR environment.

Cheers

Ian
Well it's stored "inside" as in upstairs in the shop - which is not heated or cooled, but I figure it's drier than just under a roof. The wife has decided that about 85 to 100 board ft of it would look good as stair treads on the stairway in the house. There went 1/2 of MY project material. LOL.

David

Bill Lewis
12-01-2006, 2:43 PM
Thanks for all the replies.
Pretty sure that it was a BP tree, leaves, bark flowers and fruit were all exactly like the BPs at the nursery. But the weak crotch growth limbs were pruned off before the weather could cause them to split the trunk.I guess I really was going out on a limb with my assesment. :p
It's remarkable that it was pruned to keep it stronger and definately a plus for you. Well except it did meet its demise.
Most of the ornimental pears I see look like a shrub on a stick just waiting for that fateful wind. With the Bradford's being the worst example. All of the wild pears we have are also very similar to a Bradford. Basically with very similar leaf, bark, flowering habits, and small tight fruit. They just tend to be a stonger tree than a Bradford.
My point is that there are a many varieties (cultivars?) of pears out there, and it's pretty cool to see within them how they were developed (manipulated) over time to be either an ornimental or a fruitimental :)
Same goes with the cherry trees we have.