Lumber on the ground--what to do?

[Nigel Tracy]

Hi everyone,

I’ve alluded to my situation before: a newbie woodworker really enjoying the hobby so far, and really opening my eyes to the wonders of the hardwood bush that surrounds me where I live…

Today we had our annual visit from the arborists, who clean up dead limbs above our high-traffic areas on the property. This year they also removed about six trees, and all were quite large, so I told them to leave some long lengths in case I decided to mill some. The species were: ash, maple, hickory, beech, and elm. The trees that will give the most wood by far will be a couple of large sugar maples and a large elm.

I’m looking for feedback on the properties and suitable uses of the mentioned species.

Which would be the most desirable for general woodworking projects (i.e. next on my list are a desk and kitchen table)? (Yes I realise there will be lots of patience involved in the drying process before working with it…)

And what about turning? (I just turned my first set of table legs, 3x3 walnut blanks, and really enjoyed it.) From what I read I can turn the green wood as long as I employ some sort of careful drying technique--is this true? Do most turners use green blanks for turning? Or is that the hard way?

Personal experiences or suggestions of good resources would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Rick Potter]

The ash and maple will surely be good for your needs. I have no experience with the other species. Ash is quite similar to oak. Perhaps you can get a sawyer to cut it quarter sawn, rather than flat.

Rick Potter

[Frank Drew]

Nigel

In general, having the logs converted to lumber sooner rather than later is the best course, but the very first thing you can do is to seal the ends of the logs with a green wood sealer, widely available (either locally to you or certainly by mail order.) If possible, do this immediately. When you do get your logs off to the sawyer, you need to be prepared to stack and sticker them very carefully as soon as you get the boards back. I think having the logs sawn up into a variety of thicknesses gives you the most choices down the line.

Turning green wood is easier than turning dry wood, as far as the actual turning goes -- the wood cuts very nicely when it's wet (wear rain gear); the drying requires some patience but no particular skill or complicated technology. Some use no coating and have good results; I had good results rough turning to maybe an even 1"-1-1/4'' thickness and then coating the enire bowl form with green wood sealer. Five or six, maybe seven, months for the smaller sizes and closer to a year for the bigger ones gave me stable material for finish turning.

I don't think I'd green turn furniture parts like table legs, though; there will probably be enough movement that it could be difficult retrieving material square and straight enough after re-turning for the finish work.

[Jeff Duncan]

I know very little about sawing and drying so all I'll say is that the little I have learned is to have it cut soon. It's not good to leave the trees on the ground for very long, so if you want to use them cut them now and worry about what to use them for later.
good luck,
JeffD

[ray connors]

Quarter sawn beech shows a nice fleck. I'd have that milled as well. Sooner than later on all the logs. Preserving the logs if they are not on dry ground roll them onto bunks. Bunks can be a couple of small diameter branches 4"+. Seal the ends.

[Nigel Tracy]

Thanks very much for the responses,

I'll have it cut soon and seal the ends in the meantime. What exactly is the "sealer" compound? There is a Lee Valley about 1/2 hour drive away and what they sell is $39 per gallon. Does HD sell something that would work?

[Dick Strauss]

Nigel,
All of the woods are good for various uses. Of the woods mentioned, elm will be the hardest to work with because of it cross-linked grain structure. The sugar maple is probably the best to use for furniture IMHO. When you say large, how large are you talking? The size of the trees is very important to determine whether they are worth milling or not.

The sealer you mention is probably a water-based wax emulsion like Anchorseal. You can also use old latex or paint on melted wax to keep the logs from drying out. You should have the trees milled ASAP.

For turning spindles (table legs, etc), the lumber should be dried before turning (hopefully with the pith removed). For bowl and other decorative items, you can turn green wood.

[Frank Drew]

Nigel,

Anchorseal and other brands of green wood sealers should be about $15/gallon; you could well find one of them locally, but I can't guarantee that. Anything is better than nothing, so paint or candle wax or whatever will do some good; I've had better results with specific green wood sealers, however.

[scott spencer]

There are many varieties of elm, but I can say from personal experience that red elm has beautiful grain. It's also very prone to movement but if you let it acclimate well, mill it oversized and let it acclimate another day or two, then mill to final dimensions, the movement can be controlled pretty well.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/hewood/stuff/elm1.jpg

[Bob Feeser]

Listen to Frank. Seal the ends right away, unless you are having it milled immediately. I learned this lesson the hard way. A woman had 4 or 5 huge trunk sections of maple, that were 8 feet in length. I called my sawyer and set up an appointment for him to come out and mill them into lumber. I went to bed that night dreaming of a ton of birds eye maple. (You never know whether a maple tree is going to be birds eye until you mill it) Well my dream turned into a nightmare. The beautiful maple had turned an ugly shade of brown will the ends of the log "wicking" rain water into the center. It was ruined all the way through. I later found out the logs had been sitting for several months. All of that bother, and all I had was paint grade maple. What a waste. I had another experience where I had Hickory logs dropped off and then my miller came out and made lumber for me. I discovered that Hickory is very barky, so it is difficult to get a lot of finish grade wood out of it. (That is why when you go into Home Depot for example and look at Hickory kitchen cabinets, they are built out of 2 inch strips glued together) My take on the whole thing is buy wood already milled from your sawyer, and see what you are getting before hand. If you are buying from one of the smaller sawyers, you can get some deals that are really cheap as in $1 per board foot.