What to do with this lumber.

[Rick Levine]

This is what remains from a cottonwood that fell at my work. I took it to a local saw mill and they cut it into boards for me. This was before I new about Anchorseal. The end result was a lot of checking, splitting and warping. The boards range in thickness from just under 4 quarters to about 6 quarters and from about 5 inches wide to 8 inches wide. The overall length of each is about 80 inches but the useable length after cutting out the splits will probably be about 2-3 feet. My question is what can be made, if anything out of the lot? Any suggestions, including firewood, would be welcomed.:confused: :confused: :confused:

[David DeCristoforo]

Cottonwood? What you see in your pics is what you get. I used to live in Nevada and about the only woods that grow there are cottonwood and pinion pine. The local woodworkers know better than to try and make anything out of these woods. And, when you buy firewood and ask what kind of wood the seller has and he says "Cottonwood", you say "Oh...well...nevermind....".

You can probably make some small stuff out of those boards but in my exp. it doesn't matter how small you cut cottonwood....it still warps and twists and cracks. It's a lot like eucalyptus in that respect. We used to turn little pots out of it to sell to the tourists but most of the time, those would crack too. You have to really want to make something out of this wood for it to be worth the trouble.

[Rick Levine]

David,

Just as I suspected. Well, I guess I have a pretty good start on winter kindling.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Depends on the cottonwood. What you have looks like a lot of work to get anything from if you want to fight it. Depending on species, cottonwood can be nice wood. One of the local lumberyards used to sell 1x12 cottonwood (at a pretty decent price) and the main users were cabinetmakers who bought it for face frames. A lot like basswood in that it didn't have a well defined grain and a was a light uniform color that took stain matching well.

Awful smell when you worked it, though. :(

[Jim Heffner]

Might make a good kindling box out of it.