Bill Grumbine
07-28-2007, 8:08 PM
Greetings all
It was a sultry, 90 deg day today - perfect weather for some seriously heavy duty lifting! So, I called for reinforcements, my good friend Dominic Greco. But to begin at the beginning...
Several weeks ago while visiting my in-laws, my father-in-law took me out to the back yard and showed me a large stump of cherry in the next door neighbor's yard. "Do you think you could find a use for that?", he asked. Oh could I! I told him I was not sure how soon I could get it, but I would get it as soon as possible. Yesterday SWMBO informed me that we were going to their house, and I would be taking my chainsaw. So I called Dom and asked him if he wanted in on the action. He was glad to oblige, even though I did not tell him exactly what we were getting into.
When he arrived, he started to giggle, and told me that I should be glad I was not "a chick", because if I was, he would kiss me right there on the spot. But we were both excited about the prospect of what might be inside this log.
http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/cherryburltrunk.jpg
Here we are ready to cut. The cutting actually went pretty smooth, although I raised a few eyebrows with the way it dropped close to the truck. It was so hot even the million or so ants that spilled out of the log were sweating! I had ants running around on the chainsaw, running around on me, and spreading out all over the yard. We used chemical warfare on them to try and control the mess.
We sawed the logs up into several sections to get it onto the truck lift and into my truck. We sliced off one of the lumps to see if it was indeed burl and not just lumpy wood. This is what we found.
http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/closeup.jpg
Even with the rough edge of the chainsaw cut, it was easy to see the rays and ripple of burled, or at least very curly wood. At a rough estimate, I would say this log weighed in at something like 1000-1200 lbs, and it is fairly stuffed with these lumps. I had trouble finding places to cut to avoid them all. But overall it went quickly, even with the ants, and I don't know about Dom, but I will be dreaming of cherry burls tonight. Oh yeah, the smell was wonderful too.
Bill
It was a sultry, 90 deg day today - perfect weather for some seriously heavy duty lifting! So, I called for reinforcements, my good friend Dominic Greco. But to begin at the beginning...
Several weeks ago while visiting my in-laws, my father-in-law took me out to the back yard and showed me a large stump of cherry in the next door neighbor's yard. "Do you think you could find a use for that?", he asked. Oh could I! I told him I was not sure how soon I could get it, but I would get it as soon as possible. Yesterday SWMBO informed me that we were going to their house, and I would be taking my chainsaw. So I called Dom and asked him if he wanted in on the action. He was glad to oblige, even though I did not tell him exactly what we were getting into.
When he arrived, he started to giggle, and told me that I should be glad I was not "a chick", because if I was, he would kiss me right there on the spot. But we were both excited about the prospect of what might be inside this log.
http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/cherryburltrunk.jpg
Here we are ready to cut. The cutting actually went pretty smooth, although I raised a few eyebrows with the way it dropped close to the truck. It was so hot even the million or so ants that spilled out of the log were sweating! I had ants running around on the chainsaw, running around on me, and spreading out all over the yard. We used chemical warfare on them to try and control the mess.
We sawed the logs up into several sections to get it onto the truck lift and into my truck. We sliced off one of the lumps to see if it was indeed burl and not just lumpy wood. This is what we found.
http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/closeup.jpg
Even with the rough edge of the chainsaw cut, it was easy to see the rays and ripple of burled, or at least very curly wood. At a rough estimate, I would say this log weighed in at something like 1000-1200 lbs, and it is fairly stuffed with these lumps. I had trouble finding places to cut to avoid them all. But overall it went quickly, even with the ants, and I don't know about Dom, but I will be dreaming of cherry burls tonight. Oh yeah, the smell was wonderful too.
Bill