Box Elder - How to Harvest for Turning

[Chuck Jones]

We recently acquired adjacent property as an investment and there are three Box Elder trees like the one in the picture that are dying and need to be removed.

I started woodturning only very recently and have never sawed or turned Box Elder. It never occurred to me that it had any use. Some of the work that I've seen that others of you have turned from it is beautiful.

I want to do the best I can to preserve the wood from these trees. I have a portable sawmill and plenty of equipment to handle the logs. But I don’t have much of a clue as to the best way to saw and store them. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

From numerous posts here I've learned to keep the pieces as long as possible and to seal the ends. That's no problem, I use anchor seal on logs I'm flat sawing. But I guess my main questions are how thick should I make the cants (slabs); should I save the outer slabs with bark and if so how thick; what about the 6"-8" limbs. In other words, where in the tree do you guys find that pretty wood with the red streaks and color variations?

Thanks.

[Dennis Peacock]

Howy Chuck....

The red color is most commonly found in dying BE's and I believe it a result from a fungus. Not sure though. Any wood that is free is great practice wood to learn on and keep the larger pieces for making larger sized bowls and platters. If you have a 12" swing lathe, then I'd leave the log sections in 24" long cants, seal the ends and hold them until you are ready to turn some of it. Just chainsaw it right down the middle of the pith, mount it to your lathe and have fun. :)

Just remember.....wet wood doesn't keep as long as dry/seasoned wood and is the reason why I roughed out a lot of bowl blanks, dried them, and set them on a shelf until "I" was ready to make a finished bowl out of them. ;)

[George Guadiane]

You mention that you have a portable saw mill and "plenty of equipment." With that as a consideration, and your location, I would suggest slabbing the logs, DEPENDING on 1) what you think you will turn 2) the size of your lathe...
Since it looks like you will have LOTS of it, don't worry about turning a bad piece, I have often said that if you don't blow up a piece now and then, you aren't really trying (to advance).
If you are going to make mostly bowl blanks, and if you have a big lathe, seal the ends and get a flat on one side of the log, cut down to about 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches above the pith , then 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 inches below the pith, then flip the remains and get a flat bottom on that side too. Left thus, you can cut off blanks as you need them and seal the fresh end Stack the outside slabs/beams/cants off the ground, with stickers so that they can get air (this will help prevent spalting if you don't want it) and under cover.
If the remaining outside slabs would be too thin for your purposes, make the center slab thinner, but be sure to get all of the pith line out, it ALWAYS causes checking.
The remaining center section will be or nearly be quarter sawn. You will want to cut the pith completely out of the center, and perhaps cut one of the halves into square beams for turning vases later. The other half could be turned into smaller bowl blanks. If the center slab is too thin for good vase blanks, use them for small platter blanks or maybe even for segmenting pieces.
The branches will also be good practice for vases and smaller bark edge bowls. Vases from a branch reveal the character and growth rings in a unique and beautiful way.
That is how I cut logs up. Because I sell turning blanks, I then cut the slabs into round blanks for storage inside. I use paraffin wax in an old electric frying pan to seal the edges and ends of blanks I have cut. I then store them in cardboard banana boxes which can be stacked for storage. This can result in spalting (which I like).
If you didn't have the mill, I would have you go at the logs in a different way.

[Mike Vickery]

Bill Grumbine's site has an excellent section about how to saw a log into a bowl blank
http://www.wonderfulwood.com/
go to the section for turners, and then down to Sawing a log for bowl blanks.
Get some Anchor Seal https://www.uccoatings.com/
or
Bailey's makes a good products that is similiar http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=60455+01&catID=
so that you can seal the blanks right after cutting.

Good luck

[Ron Ainge]

Box elder is one wood I love to get my hands on becasue it is verey nice to turn and because there is not a lot of difference between the growth ring and the soft wood between then it is good for the wood burner deisgns also.

[Dick Strauss]

Chuck,
You'll find the color surrounding the center of the log if it is there at all. Usually the color starts at the trunk and goes upward. Now that I think about it...I think it can start in crotches as well when one of the two branches has rotted.

Split everything down the middle as Dennis suggests unless you want to make some boxes or HFs.

[Chuck Jones]

You guys were really helpful with your suggestions on how to save box elder, and I appreciate it very much, but not one of you told me how badly it stinks.:)

[George Guadiane]

You guys were really helpful with your suggestions on how to save box elder, and I appreciate it very much, but not one of you told me how badly it stinks.:)
You didn't ask...:rolleyes: